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Laurence Gronlund's Works.

THE CO-OPERATIVE COMMONWEALTH.
An Exposition of Socialism. Clotti,
$1.0a Paper $.50

OUR DESTINY.

The Influence of Socialism on Morals
and Religion. Cloth, $1.00. Paper . $.50

C A IRA I

Danton in the French Revolution.
Cloth, $1.00. Paper $.50

Lee AND Shepard - Publishers
Boston.

gA IRA!

DANTON IN THE FRENCH REVOLUTION

LAURENCE GRONLUND, A.M.

AUTHOR OF "the CO-OPERATIVE COMMONWEALTH."

" The Revohdion — call it good or bad
As you yearn towards the Future or the Past."

Victor Hugo.

BOSTON
LEE AND SHEPARD, PUBLISHERS

DEDICATED

Co the Earnest Jflinority

WHO ARE WAITING AND WORKING FOR

QEfje 'Htia Social ©rber.

CONTENTS.

INTRODUCTION.

PAGR

A Key to the French Revolution i

CHAPTER I.

The Rising Generation 7

Liberty and Law. — The Drama of History. — The "Sa-
cred Torch" passes from England to France. — The
Revolution made by Books. — Danton's Youth. — June
17. — "Ca iraI"

CHAPTER II.

The Middle-class Regime 37

The Counter-Revolution. — August 4. — The Constitu-
tion OF '91. — Danton the First Republican. — The
Doings of the French Bourgeoisie.

CHAPTER IIL

The Counter-Revolution Crushed 70

Conspiracy. — August 10. — Invasion. — September Mas-
sacres.— War of Propaganda. — Louis'. Head "a Gage
OF Battle."

CHAPTER IV.

Energy of the Year i loi

Revolutionary Tribunal. — Committee of Public Wel-
fare. — May 31. — Danton as Statesman. — Absolute
Government. — Levy en Masse. — Danton's Resignation.
— La Carmagnole.

vi CONTENTS.

CHAPTER V.

PAGE

Fraternity of the Jacobins 140

Constitution of '93. — The Maximum. — A Poor-Law. —
Down with Speculators! — Education. — The Civil
Code. — A Great Wrong. — " Private Enterprise" in-
dispensable.

CHAPTER VI.
Terror • 176

HfeBERTisM.— Pity. — April 5. — Danton disinterested.
— Dans le Neant, " Nothingness" (?) — The Incorrupti-
ble.—" MonsieurI"

CHAPTER Vn.

The Present Transition State 213

Plutocrats again in Power. — i8th Brumaire. — "Thou
hast been Weighed and found Wanting." — Present
Tendencies of Societies. — In Proportion as the Men-
tal Preparation is Complete, will the Coming Revo-
lution BE Easy. — "God wills it."

INTRODUCTION.

A KEY TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.

" Tlie Revohttioti — call it good or bad
As you yearn toward the Future or the Past."

— Victor Hugo.

ALL thoughtful people look forward to great changes in
the near future, and many think that some catastrophe
like that of the French Revolution is impending in all
civilized countries. I feel confident that the young, who
stand on the threshold of these events, can forestall the
threatened catastrophe by assisting in the birth of a new
social order. It is, therefore, you, young men and women !
whom I especially hope to influence in these pages ; whom
I desire, not by cleverness, not by briUiancy, but by intense
earnestness, to inspire with a new sense of duty, with the
conviction of a call to interfere actively in the moulding of
events. Such is the intent of this volume.

This work, perhaps, will be found, also, to be novel in
this : that it presents to you the great French Revolution
from a point of view from which it never before has been
surveyed in print ; not so much that it may serve as an
example or a warning (though that also), but that it may be
seen to have been a preparation for the work which should
be performed by you.

All historians, m the English language at least, have
presented the Revolution as a panorama of kaleidoscopic

INTRODUCTION.

pictures, and thereby made it simply a perplexing and puz-
zling subject. Such pictures are altogether unprofitable to us in
our generation, since they necessarily leave the crisis an in-
comprehensible, an unexplained phenomenon. Even
in that form it may confidently be said that no portion of
history has had such a fascination for all classes of readers
as the short period of French annals from 1 789 to 1 794 ;
but how much greater would the interest be, especially
when its centennial comes round, and the centennial of that
wonderful year 1793, if we could once understand \\. !

However, mere history or simple story-telling cannot pos-
sibly explain it : historic philosophy is indispensable to that.

Great Britain possesses an historic philosopher of the first
rank in John Morley, who also has written most profoundly
and lucidly about the French Revolution, and impartially as
well. But even he has not at all explained it ; he has in no
sense given us a key to it. At the beginning of his

interesting work, Rousseau, we meet with these words con-
cerning the French Revolution : " That revolutionary drama,
whose fifth act is still dark to us ; " and nowhere does he
pretend to lift the veil. If, then, the " fifth act " is hidden
from him in darkness, if he has no idea at all as to the out-
come, how could he explain it ? How could he judge of
the forces at work during the crisis? Some hypothesis or
other in regard to the future must be the key we are
looking for.

It, however, is a great thing in Morley, that he sees
something is yet coming. Other writers, even great ones,
have not had an inkling that there was such a thing as a
" fifth act " at all. There is, for instance, Edgar Quinet,
beyond question a most considerable French philosopher,
whose masterpiece is a work entitled La Revolution, in
which he considers the Revolution as an episode in French
history of ten years' duration ; as a kind of comet that sud-

THE POSITIVIST HYPOTHESIS.

denly entered the path of history in i 789, and as suddenly
left it in 1 799, and which might have procured incidentally
for the French such blessings as the American Revolution
procured for us.

But there is a sect of philosophers who have gone to
work in the right way, who have framed an hypothesis of
the future, and attempted to explain the French Revolution
by such hypothesis : the Positivists, the disciples of Auguste
Comte. The French representatives of that school — M.
Lafitte, Dr. Robinet, and Antonin Dubost in his Danton and
Contemporary Politics — are aware of a "fifth act." They
insist that the conflict of forces during the Revolution and in
modern society will result in a civilization where the whole
political and industrial power of the community will be lodged
in the hands of great chiefs of industry, great capitalists,
who, by an organized public opinion, — that is, by a spiritual
authority working by public opinion, — will be compelled
to apply their power and wealth to social uses, and thus
finally do away with misery and pauperism.

This method is undoubtedly, as said, the only right one,
and a profoundly philosophical one, and their hypothesis is
a definite enough conception and a working hypothesis. But
is it correct ? that is to say, is it at all likely that they have
guessed right as to the future social order? There is cer-
tainly not the least evidence that our great capitalists are
becoming more and more inclined to use their increasing
power for the social good, and, moreover, no evidence at
all, that such a spiritual authority is going to assert itself; in
other words, that any new edition of the Catholic hierarchy
of the Middle Ages is being evolved or will be accepted.

Nevertheless, this Positivist hypothesis has been very
fruitful. Here, as elsewhere, an incorrect hypothesis has
been instrumental in disclosing many new facts and rela-
tions.

INTRODUCTION.

There have been and arc, however, other thoughtful men,
who, speculating upon the consequences of the French
Revolution, and listening to the footfalls of coming events,
have formed another equally well working hypothesis as to
their nature, and as to the new social order which they
will inaugurate. I have in another volume ' assumed to
sketch, in its broad outlines, this future social order to which,
I, with them, look forward, and which I have styled " The
Co-operative Commonwealth." It is this hypothesis I here
purpose for the first time to use, so to speak, as spectacles
through which to look at the French Revolution ; in other
words, I assume the co-operative commonwealth to be, if
not the final, at least the next, stage in the evolution of
human societies, and shall try to explain the French Revo-
lution by considering it as a most important step toward
that stage.

I believe I shall convince many of my readers of the cor-
rectness of my hypothesis, from its ability to account for all
phenomena. And if it is the true one, then the French
Revolution will necessarily become invested with a new
interest, with a persojial interest, for us, for it will thereby
become a part of our history. Its relation to us will then
be reversed. As hitherto it has been looked upon as a
curiosity to be explained, so now it will be used to explain
our own situation. It will not only become an example or
a warning to us, but a guide that will teach us, not to pre-
vent revolutions, for that would be to prevent progress, but
how to prepare for our Coming Revolution, and how to carry
it through in an orderly manner.

And Danton? It is evident from the above that mj
object has not been to write his biography ; that my object

• The Co-operative Commaniuealth, published by Swan Sonnenschein, London,
Eiig., and Lcc and Shepard, Boston, Mass.

TYPICAL FRENCH REVOLUTIONIST. 5

has been a much wider one. Yet to describe and discuss
the events of the French Revolution is necessarily to dis-
cuss the work of Danton, since it fills a greater part of the
French annals during the five fire-breathing years than the
work of all his contemporaries combined. It ought, how-
ever, to be distinctly understood what he did and what he
did not do. He did not make the Revolution. No one
did. It made itself in the minds of the twenty-five million
Frenchmen then existing, Danton's included. But even
here he may be taken as the very embodiment of the Revo-
lution, and better than any one else as the typical French
revolutionist of those days. Perhaps he also contributed
more than any one else, not excepting Mirabeau, to remove
the stumbling-blocks in the way of the Revolution.

But while he did not make the Revolution, he more than
once saved it. He was, indeed, as Carlyle called him, the
Atlas who in the most critical period carried the Revolution
on his shoulders. Moreover, being a more constructive
genius than any ot his contemporaries, he laid the right
foundation for the future ; and his policy should have the
credit for nearly all the good his successors accomplished,
as it would have saved France from all the subsequent penal-
ties she has had to pay, had it been constantly pursued.

Next, Danton the monster, Danton as nearly all our
historians paint him, is purely a creation of the imagination.
It is the French Positivists above mentioned who at last
have rehabilitated him, and presented him in his true pro-
portions. That Danton, as a niaa and citizen, was pure,
was an heroic character, is now abundantly proved by the
great mass of new material which these Positivist philoso-
phers, as well as Alfred Bougeart, have collected during the
last twenty-five years, but which no one, I believe, has trans-
lated into English as yet. Indeed, his principal defect, one
that cost France dearly, was his perfect lack of ambition.

INTRODUCTION.

Tlie principal lessons whicli this volume will draw from
the French Revolution, in the way of example and warning,
are, that I )anton was a true instrument in the hands of the
Power behind Evolution, and just the kind of leader we in
our generation should encourage ; that, on the other hand,
good intentions alone avail nothing in popular leaders, and
that therefore we should, 7cnih all our mighf, repress our
Robespierres, Heberts, and Marafs.

The words ^a ira are of American origin. Benjamin
Franklin, while ambassador to the court of France during
the American Revolution, was constantly questioned about
the war with England. His usual answer was, " Ah, qa
ira!^^ (" Oh, it goes ! ") This gave rise to the first revo-
lutionary song, jubilantly chanted by all patriots on the
anniversary of the taking of the Bastille, and commencing, —

"/i//, fa ira! fa ira! (a ira!"

In describing the doings of the French bourgeoisie, from
the moment they acquired influence, I have made consid-
erable use of that most interesting work, Lundis Revolu-
tionnaires, by M. Avenel.

CA IRA;

DANTON IN THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.

CHAPTER I.

THE RISING GENERATION.
1748-1789.

" The interest of historic study lies in tracing the devious course of the sacred
torch, as it shifts from bearer to bearer. It is not the bearers -who are most
interesting, but the torch." — John Morlev.

Liberty and Law. — The Drama of History. — The "Sacred
Torch" passes from England to France. —The Revolution
MADE BY Books. — Danton's Youth. — June 17. — "Ca ira!"

WAS the French Revolution a failure ?
Our most eminent historians affirm it. First, there
is Sir Archibald Alison, who, in his celebrated History of
Europe, declares that the French Revolution, "the most
impassioned effort ever made for the attainment of public
freedom,'' has failed, and failed not only for a time, but
forever. Then there is the not less eminent William Smyth,
late professor of history at Cambridge, who, in his published
and widely read Lectures, lays repeated stress on the "fact"
that the French Revolution did not succeed, and on " the
great calamity that the cause of liberty was thus, on the
whole, lost.'' These two authorities, not to si:)eak of lesser

8 THE RISING GENERATION. [1748-

lights, ha\e furnished vast numbers of lazy-thinking people
with whatever oi)inions they have of the French Revolution.

1 contend that this view is a huge blunder ; if it is, it
vitiates all their other conclusions, of course. I insist that
the French Revolution was and is a grand success, a most
signai success : the dominant class in France to-day would
hardly be so proud of " the principles of the Revolution,"
and be preparing to celebrate its centennial with imposing
pageants, were it not ; nor, to be sure, would it pulsate in
the heart of all Frenchmen of to-day, whether they curse or
bless it.

How account for the blunder?

In the case of the above " authorities " that is easy enough.
They are simply historians, — story-tellers ; and, moreover,
story-tellers who have looked only at the surface of things.
Note how they talk of "liberty" and "public freedom."
That, to be sure, was what the actors in the French Revolu-
tion talked about ; the word " liberty," meaning " absence
of restraints," w^as constantly in their mouths, and, I grant,
in the mouth of no one more than my hero, Danton. Our
superficial historians, then, have contented themselves with
taking the revolutionists on their word, and have concluded
that Liberty was, in truth, the end and aim of tlie French
Revolution ; and, since Liberty was finally crippled, there-
fore the Revolution failed.

It is, however, not historians alone who fall into this error ;
even philosophers, — ay, the great French philosopher Edgar
Quinet has fallen into it. He dwells on the motto of the
revolutionists : ^tre libre, ou mourir (" To be free, or die "),
and regrets that they who knew so well how to die, did not
know how to conquer freedom.

Well, Frenchmen of a century ago had very good reasons
for being preoccupied widi Liberty. They were dominated
by these two sentiments, — a violent discontent with their

i78g.] LIBERTY AND LAW. 9

actual condition, and ardent hopefulness as to the future.
Liberty, then, was for the time being their most pressing
need, for it was the indispensable means to get out of their
condition. This need was, with them, instinctive. These
revolutionists, even the greatest among them, were really
Wind actors, guided by instinct. No wonder they mistook
Liberty for an end, and virtually made an idol of it. Yet
Liberty, after all, did in their hands prove a most excellent
instrument, and by the help of it they accomplished what
they had to accomplish.

But it is inexcusable that any thoughtful person in our
generation should, with the experience and teachers we have
had, still be making an idol of Liberty, and not yet know
that absence of restraints is valuable only as a tneans, never
as an end. Never ! When Liberty is made an end, it always
and necessarily defeats itself; that is to say, when citizens
are unrestrained, completely " at liberty," they always will,
if able, encroach upon their fellows, and monopolize all
power. However virtuous, in the long run they will always
do it : it is human nature. In truth, this is the lesson which
Carlyle and Emerson have so unceasingly been trying to
inculcate, — that Liberty in that sense is a very poor thing
indeed. And that noble man, Mazzini, likewise insisted
continually upon this : that Liberty, though " holy as a
protest against oppression," and powerful to destroy, is yet
impotent to found any thing.

No, liberty was not the true object aimed at by the French
Revolution, nor was it its sanction. Something else was, —
something very different ; something not pertaining to the
individual at all, but above all individuals. To bring out
this fact, is precisely the main purpose of this book, and
will throughout give it its tone.

First of all, we must reduce the French Revolution to its
true proportions. Here, also, the revolutionary actors de-

lO THE RISIXG G EXE RATI OX. [1748-

ccived themselves. They foncied lliat their nation had
suddenly jumped for ahead of its contemporaries, and, from
its own all-conquering initiative, was about to inaugurate a
brand-new state of society, something of which the outside
barbarians could never so much as dream. That patriotic
Frenchmen even now are possessed with the same idea,
may be excused ; but when our historians, and especially
philosophers, still look on the Revolution as an event si/i
geneiis, as an isolated fact in history, that again is a mark
of superficiality.

Here the profoundness of an historic philosopher like
John Morley manifests itself. On the first page of liis
Rousseau he places side by side the series of remarkable
changes of the first centuries of our era, and the similar
series of the last two centuries ; to the former he gives the
generic name of " Christianity," and to the latter, /'// tvhicli
he includes the French ci'isis, that of " the Revolution."

By the way, Gladstone once maintained that the English
way of saying " the English Revolution," " the American
Revolution," or " the French Revolution," is the correct
one, and contrasted it with " the loose Continental usage "
of speaking, as Morley does, of " the Revolution." The
European usage, though certainly liable to misapprehension,
is, it seems to me, really a profound form of speech.

For I insist, with Morley, that the French Revolution, far
frcmi being a unique phenomenon, as thought by the revolu-
tionary actors, is, in truth, an integral part of that set of
social changes which was first successfully started by. Luther
in Germany, — changes that have involved the whole of
^Vestern Europe, and in whose vortex we still find ourselves
at this day. The French Revolution was simply a pai-tial
and local manifestation of these changes ; in other words,
// was the application of this series of changes to France,
primarily, and to this is precisely due its success.

1789.] LIBERTY AND LAW. II

That is what the rcvoUitionary actors did. They effected
tliis ehair^e in France ; they did it in a most effective, in a
startHngly effective, manner. That was their merit, and
thereby they placed France for a time in advance of our
race ; but they did it unconsciously, instinctively. They did
not know the import of their own doings, because they
ignored, even despised, their whole previous history.

Yet, in order to understand these changes, it is necessary
to understand history ; not the history of kings, their mis-
tresses and their intrigues, or of any individual or individuals
soever, but the history of the collective life of humanity, in
which each of us has his proper life. History concerns
itself properly with the race, which has as rigid a unity as
any of its individual members ; with society, which is the
guardian of our destiny as a race, and which is not an
empirical necessity, but a living, organizing force. History
is the instinctive effort of the common, associated, mind of
the race to come to self-consciousness, to put on form, to
realize its own majestic unity. And so the main purpose of
history is, to bring man to a proper acquaintance 7vith himself.

^\'hen man thus comes to a proper acquaintance with
himself, to real self-consciousness, he cannot help becoming
aware of a something animating humanity, and directing the
march of the race. Human events cannot possibly be
" the fortuitous vagaries of an eyeless destiny." The idea
that they were the inscrutable decrees of an ///human Provi-
dence, of a lordly, capricious, law/ess despot, which was cur-
rent for centuries, is not tenable any longer. The tendency
seems to be, to consider them the ceaseless efflux of a helpful
Presence in Humanity working by law, — the " sacred torch "
of Morley, the God of Christians, the Power behind Evolu-
tion I like to call it ; and history then becomes a true
dramn, plotted by that Power, This, after all, is the only
sane foundation for any hope in our social future. It

12 THE RISING GENERATION. [1748-

was in this connection, as already remarked by Henry
James, sen., that Carlyle sliowcd himself weak. He main-
tained that there is a Supreme Spirit in human affairs, but
never dreamt of that truth having any human virtue, being
of any living efficacy to help us ; hence he called it " the
Eternal Silences," and rather pitied those who believed in
its effective power to guide us.

The drama of history, then, means that human affairs are
directed by something superior to ourselves, superior to soci-
ety itself; that7£^^ at-e ahvays liviiigtimkr law, under author-
ity, under a moral government, recognized or unrecognized.
The French revolutionists, also, were, unknown to themselves,
obeying this authority ; authority was the sanction of the
French Revolution, which in the last resort was successful,
because the expression of this Supreme Will.

And, as it so happens that just now we have become en-
abled, as we shall see, to interpret history correctly, we now
can conform to this moral government of the world, and co-
operate with it. Louis Blanc thought that human progress is
from authority in the past, through individualism in the pres-
ent, to fraternity in the future. But authority and fraternity
are not antagonistic ; therefore it is more correct to say, from
absolutism in the past (a human authority, now seen to have
been a sham authority), through present individualism, to a
real, riglitftil aiitliority, whatever it be, based on the verities
of things. Liberty, based on the " rights " of the individ-
ual, is undoui^tedly at times a sacred thing, but, after all,
Ijut a temporary necessity. Mazzini undoubtedly is riglit :
" What the world is at present thirsting for is authority.''
\Ve all of us, without any exception whatever, want to be

guided.

* « *

In what did this set of changes consist?

We are now able to answer this (juestion, — in other words,

1789.1 THE DRAMA OF HISTORY. 13

able to unravel tlic plot of the drama of history, — because
we lately have been furnished with the right key.

Men have at all times had a suspicion that there is an
intelligible law of things, which it is our urgent business to
ascertain, and then conform to. We at length have ascer-
tained the law (which is the greatest intellectual revolutionary
achievement since the times of Copernicus) : it is that of
evolution. To apply the theory of evolution to history, is
applying the key to it.

We now know that societies, nations, move ; next, that they
move, not by leaps, but by growths. But Herbert Spencer,
who has done so much to popularize the theory of evolution,
seems to imply, in all his writings, that this motion is by
uniform, gradual, regular, and always slow steps. This is
certainly not so.

Nearly the whole historic period of man is filled up with
two long, ai/nost stationary periods, — organic periods, we
can, with Saint-Simon, properly call them ; periods in which
mankind secretes a kind of hard, thick shell around itself.
The first of these "organic " periods begins with the dawn
of history, and ends with the Roman republic ; the second
takes us through another thousand years, from the ascend-
ency of Christianity to the Reformation. The former consti-
tutes the Ancient World, with its golden age of Greece and
Rome ; the latter, the Middle Age, which also has its golden
age : that period in which Dante lived, which Carlyle is
perfectly right in calling, " with its Feudal body and Catho-
lic soul, the highest ideal yet realized by man."

The stationary condition, then, is the rule, is the normal
condition of the race : and mark, it is in that condition that
mankind enjoys the fruits of its struggles and martyrdoms ;
it is then that the arts and literature flourish ; it is then we
find high ideals, corporate responsibility, and public spirit ;
it is then men sacrifice their lives for the common weal as a

14 THE RISIXG GENERATION. (1748-

matter of course. That condition, finally, is marked by
unity, by system, — precisely what makes these periods so
durable, lasting, organic.

Thus, of historic times there remain two shorter periods,
— that from the Roman republic to the establishment of
Christianity ; and another, not yet closed, from Luther to
our days. John Morley has observed that these two short
periods, each lasting about four hundred years, somehow
correspond to each other ; and both are periods of changes,
transition states, critical periods, again to call them after
Saint-Simon. The bond tliat hitherto united men — the
collective conception of the world — has, both then and
now, been broken, and every one is left to seek truth in
his own way : that is to say, while hitherto there has been
systematic unity, now every thing is planless, orderless ;
everywhere perfect anarchy reigns, — in beliefs, in morals,
in politics, in social relations, and, worst of all, in industrial
relations. While before things were nearly stationary, now
things are evidently in motion. But this motion is far from
being regular. First it is slow, very slow ; then it becomes
(juicker and quicker ; then it moves with railroad speed —
look at our century ! Lastly, the final change to the new
organic order — the revolution, in fact — may be accom-
plished so swiftly that the living generation can hardly re-
cover its breath.

But there is constant progress, — progress along a certain
line, not a straight nor a curved, but a spiral line, like
unto a winding staircase. Each of these periods, critical as
well as organic, is really on a higher plane than any of its
predecessors.

There is a constant gro7oth in co-operation. Our whole
civilization may be called a lesson in co-operation ; and note,
that it is around the working-classes that the battle of prog-
ress has constantly been waged.

1789.1 THE DRA}TA OF HISTORY. 1 5

In the fust organic period, in ancient Greece and Rome, we
find coiiipidsoyy co-operation in its harshest form, — slavery.

In the second organic period, tlie Middle Ages, we find
a milder, ranch more humane form, also of compiilso7y
co-operation, — serfdom.

In the transition period in which we are living we have
attained to 7'c7///;^Az;j co-operation for those who have means,
for the well-off middle classes, and a still milder form of
covtpiilsory co-operation for those who have no property, —
wagedom. Compulsory? Yes, they are compelled

by their daily wants.

What the French Revolution was to do was, to introduce
into France, primarily, this transition period, this critical
period, with its propertied middle classes and its wage sys-
tem. And that was to be done, first, by putting an end to
the feudal. Catholic system of the Middle Ages ; and next, by
placing the middle classes into supreme power. What im-
portant function they were charged with, and how they have
performed it in France, we shall afterwards see.
* * *

This very change, however, which now was to be worked
out in France, had already been accomplished in England in
all essential respects. Instead of having to do something
ittiique, as the French revolutionists fancied, they needed
simply to copy the model they had in England ; and that is
what, after all, they virtually did. We know that both king
and patriots anxiously studied the histories of Charles the
First and James the Second ; and their instincts did not mis-
lead them, for the " Commonwealth " of 1649 and the revo-
lution of 168S form together, in truth, England's "French
Revolution." These did for Great Britain what the French
Revolution did for France, — overthrew the divine right of
kings, absolutism, and invested the plutocracy with political
power.

1 6 THE RISIXG GEXERATIOX. [1748-

As this part of British history was nothing less than a
precedent for France, we ought to dwell on it a little.

The English plutocrats had obtained dominion in the
towns as early as the fourteenth century. That dominion
had gone on increasing to such an extent, that two centuries
later a statute had to he passed to protect small masters
against rich ones. This statute (2d and 3d, Phil, and Mary)
recited that " rich clothiers do oppress the weavers by pay-
ing less wages than formerly ; by engrossing the looms, and
letting them out at unreasonable rents ; by employing unskil-
ful journeymen, etc." During the reign of Charles a series
of technical discoveries throw manufactures altogether into
the hands of large capitalists. They carry the trade to places
free from the control of the craft-guilds, like Birmingham and
Manchester, until the guilds gradually die out before this
rising great industry.

And now events run on precisely as we find they do one
hundred and fifty years later in France. The King needs
money, and calls on the rich middle classes for it. The
Long Parliament corresponds to the French National Assem-
bly, even to the extent that it, too, clears landed property of
many inconvenient and oppressive feudal burdens, for the
benefit of capitalists. Jolni Pym, like Sieyes later, initiates
the political revolution in England by insisting that " the
House of Commons is the essential part of Parliament," and
by telling the lords that " the Commons are ready to save
the kingdom alone." When at length the physical struggle
commences, London and the middle classes side with Sir
Harry Vane and the Commonwealth men, as Paris later on
does with Danton and the Mountain. Finally, on Jan. 4,
1649, the Rump Parliament declares that " the Commons
of England, being chosen by and representing the people,
half e the supreme power in this nation; " and this declaration
foreshadows the action of the French Convention.

i78g.] THE SACRED TORCH E¥ ERA NCE. 17

Ucsidcs these essential correspondences, there are many
curious coincidences. Naseby of 1645 coincides with
"Aug. 10;" Pride's Purge, applauded by Sir Harry, with
what I shall call the suspension of the Girondins, con-
tributed to by Danton. In both revolutions the reigning
kings were executed, — and, by the way, it is almost comi-
cal, when we think of the fate of their own royal family, to
recall the reproaches and contumely which P'renchmen of
the age of Louis XIV. heaped on the English for their " bru-
tality " and '• disloyalty " in their treatment of Charles and
James. Both crises ended in the supremacy of successful,
selfish soldiers ; in both countries this supremacy was fol-
lowed by a restoration ; in one, as in the other, the restored
monarch was followed by his brother ; and lastly, in one as
in the other, this brother was exiled, and gave way to a con-
stitutional, middle-class king. But there was this essential
and never-to-be-forgotten difference, because it augurs well
for the Coming Revolution in Great Britain : that the foreign
potentates did not attempt to save their crowned English
brother, while they did interfere in the French Revolution,
and thereby raised ujd — the Terror.

// is, however, in tJic region of ideas that the connecting
link between the two revolutions is to be found.

Our acts are always under the empire of our ideas, con-
sciously or unconsciously. More particularly is this so with
social revolutions ; i.e., changes from one social order to
another, even if only to a transitional order. These always
start in the region of ideas, and first of all in those ideas
that have the most powerful dominion over men, — their
rehgious conceptions, their views of the universe and their
own place in it. Naturally this change first shows itself in
the form of scej^ticism, religious anarchy ; then the anarchy
filters down to tliose ideas that relate to our fellow-men, to
society, to our moral and political notions ; finally the anar-

i8 THE RISING GENERATION. [1748-

chy roaclics economics, the basis of society. There the real
revolution, the real change, takes place ; and there, on the
new basis, our new political, moral, and religious ideas are
reconstructed.

Accordingly the English Revolution commenced with the
loosening of religious authority by Wickliffe, the father of
the Reformation. We know for certain that this movement
in religion caused the movement in political ideas, because
Ilobbes tells us that "the enemies of King Charley were
Presbyterians, Independents, Anabaptists, Fifth-Monarchy
men," and that their opposition "arose from the private
interpretation of Scriptures in the mother-tongue." Now,
it was one of the striking peculiarities of Protestantism, that
it set people to study admiringly the history of the Hebrew
nation, " the most rebellious people on the face of the earth,"
and thus made the Hebrew example an incentive to them
to change the form of their own government, and the Old
Testament a basis for their political si^eculations. But note
this peculiarity in the English Revolution : that the political
philosophy which justifies it was not elaborated he/ore the
political innovation, but only years afterwards, for the good
and sufficient reason that printing was as yet but little
developed. "^

It was from and after the year 1700 that the two eminent
English philosophers Hobbes and Locke, to ease their con-
sciences, made known their new revolutionary political
speculations. Hobbes' celebrated theory was, that a cove-
nant between man and man created " that great leviathan
called the Commonwealth." In other words, he taught the
nation, first, that the basis of society is contract, or that
the origin of all power is in the people ; next, that the end of
government is the weal of the Commonwealth, or the peo-
ple's good : and he very soon made these ideas generally
accepted, which forever put an end to the old patriarchal

1789.1 THE REVOLUTION MADE BY BOOKS. 19

theory of society. lA)cke then appeared, ami added the
lesson of the right of resistance to bad rulers.

Now the " sacred torch " passes over from England to
France ; that is to say, these English revolutionary princi-
ples are transplanted into French soil, are adopted and
elaborated by French writers. It is from the date of the
first French book embodying them that we ought truly to
date the French Revolution. It is from the date 1 748 that
France commences her glorious career, which for many
years places her in advance of other nations ; and that glory
is thus due to the fact, that, unlike their successors, her
writers were then willing to learn from other nations.
* * *

These writers were Montesquieu, Diderot, Rousseau.
These three men made the French Revolution, as far as any
individuals can be said to have made it.

A "revolution," in its narrower sense, is the sweeping, the
decisive change, which all progress passes through at some
point in its career. It only takes a minute to bring into the
world the infant whose preparation has required nine months
in the mother's womb. Birth is a revolution.

So it took only a few minutes, on a certain June day in
the year ^ 7S9, for the French Revolution to be born ; but its
preparation, its making, lasted forty years. It was made by
the above writers in the brains of Danton and his fellows
of the generation born after 1748.

And // was made by books, because printing had now so
far advanced, that they who were to be emancipated could
all read. And, by the way, the Coming Revolution,

in like manner, will, first and foremost, be a mental revolu-
tion, and be made by books ; for now all can read.

The book of Alontesquieu, The Spirit of Laws, appeared
1748, eleven years before Danton's birth. Nobody reads
the book now for information's sake. It is extremely shallow,

20 THE RISING GENERATION. [1748-

l)Olh in knowledge and thoughts. But when it appeared, it
took the whole public, especially the middle classes, by
storm. It colored the whole literature of France for the
rest of the century : and no wonder, as it introduced just
the ideas that were then needed ; it gave working answers
to the burning political questions.

Montesquieu passes in review all the laws and political
institutions of the various countries, and compares their
excellences and defects. At length he reaches Great Britain,
before whose institutions he remains standing in unbounded
admiration, almost adoration ; and he inoculates the whole
French nation with the same feeling. Anglomania becomes,
from that moment, the dominant passion of Frenchmen.
Of course, what Montesquieu found so excellent was the lib-
erty and consideration enjoyed in England by the common
citizens of properly, but he did not analyze either his feel-
ings or their object. As a matter of fact, neither he nor
his contemporaries had any idea of the true nature of human
societies. His own leading doctrine was, " It is government
and institutions which make men what they are." He found
that the principal among British institutions was the British
Constitution, and as a principal feature in that constitution
a division of powers, one checking the other. This, then,
he thinks, must be the secret spring that causes British well-
being. Go to work, then, France, and copy faithfully this
constitution, and particularly this division of powers !

This, in fact, gives rise to the two leading principles of his
book, to wit :

" In order that there may not be an abuse of power, things
should be so arranged that one poiver checks another ; " and

" The problem is, not to destroy authority, but to render
it impotent."

These are splendid " principles " for a transit/on state,
such a one as was about to be introduced into France.

1789.1 THE REVOLUTION MADE BY BOOKS. 21

No wonder he awoke the pohtical passions of the middle
classes. They saw in him their true legislator, since he so
charmingly disarmed the authority under which they were
fretting, and gave so many guaranties to the individualism,
the license, for which they were sighing. No wonder, that,
as soon as the Revolution was an accomplished fact, he be-
came the inspirer of the political labors of the middle classes,
of the Constituent Assembly, and then of the Girondin
party !

Next, Diderot, the inspirer of the Dantonists, in particu-
lar; this giant, whose importance to the Revolution the
French at last have recognized by erecting a statue to him
in Paris on the spot where his house formerly stood. He
shall be here considered only as the chief of that band of
writers who created the Encyclopccdia, " that monumental
ruin of thirty stout volumes," which now are still less read
than The Spirit of Laws. Yet what influence they once
had!

The EncyclopcEdia is the gospel of labor, a glorification
of productive industry, for which it inspired its readers with
an earnest enthusiasm as the true basis of the new era.
" To turn over volume after volume is like watching a splen-
did panorama of the busy life of the time," says Morley.
Its significance precisely consists in this, — that it laid down,
with a fearlessness that was risky at the time, the necessary
economic conditions for the coming middle-class rule, and
demanded unlimited freedom in all relations of industrial
life. It was no small merit that it anticipated all the essen-
tial propositions laid down by Adam Smith in his Wealth of
Nations, which appeared several years later. Indeed, it was
the Encyclopaedists who first made the name " political
economy," as well as the thing itself, popular. We have the
testimony of Voltaire for the latter fact : " The nation, tired
of verses, tragedies, comedies, operas, romances, moral

22 THE RISIXG GENERATIOX. [1748-

rfllections, and theological disputes, finally commenced
talking about corn. They forgot all about wine, in order to
talk of wheat. They wrote useful things about agriculture,
which every one read except agriculturists."

The Encyclopaedists first claimed the abolition of guilds.
"These," they said, "are supposed to be established to
guarantee capacity and integrity in artisans and manufac-
turers : they at present do nothing of the kind ; they have
become monopolies, hurtful to the national interests. The
rich and the great have laid hands not only on the land, the
fields, and the buildings, but through tliese guilds they have
interdicted the industrious and skilful the use of their labors.
They must be uprooted, and perfect liberty be established in
all the trades and professions."

France was at that time divided into provinces, each witli
its custom-houses. The Encyclopaedists demanded their
abolition, as " they paralyze commerce."

In many respects they write just as an orthodox economist
of to-day. They find interest perfectly legitimate ; they want
it not only legalized, but the rate of interest left to the lender
and borrower to settle. Capital is, according to them, legiti-
mately entitled to its profits. " Just as corn, when sowed in
the earth, reproduces with advantage, so the capitalist sows
in commerce his and his ancestors' industry." They wish
to bring on competition, " which will lower prices." It should
be steadily borne in mind that such ideas were at the time
absolutely new.

Another quotation, from the pen of Diderot himself, will
show how suited to the middle classes their other ideas
were : " It is property which makes the citizen. Every man
who has possessions in the .State is interested in the State ;
it is by means of his possessions that he acquires a right of
having himself represented." In their eyes, then, tlie first
of " the rights of man " was midiUc-class right to property.

1,89.] THE REVOLUTION MADE BY BOOKS. 23

But understand that they were eminently noble men, with
noble hearts. They had an undivided love for all their fel-
low-men, a steadfast faith in human nature, and firm aspira-
tions after justice and progress. They really fancied that
the liberty and equality — i.e., equality before the law —
after which they strove would make this world into a para-
dise. Liberty was to them a young, beautiful, promising
maiden ; they had no idea that she could ever, by remaining
unniated, become an old hag.

V.\<i\\ their atheism was a fruit of their nobiUty of heart.
Tlie God they repudiated was the omnipotent, lordly, ca-
pricious one of dogmatic religion, revelling in his own unem-
jjloyed strength, while complacently looking down on the
infinite miseries of his creatures here below, and therefore
clearly on the side of the rich and mighty.

Rousseau, the inspirer of most of the Mountain party, was,
in almost all his ideas, a very antipode to both Montesquieu
and the Encyclopaedists, and yet his teachings pulled men
the same way as theirs, and even with greater force. The
latter, as we have seen, were enthusiastically for improve-
nieiit and progress, for which Rousseau had only contempt.
Could there be a greater divergence? But they agreed in
hating the society in which they were living, and in adoring
antitjuity, — that was their point of union.

Why this love of theirs for antiquity? It is a most
interesting question, and this is probably the right answer :
They wanted to make their fellows disgusted with their pres-
ent situation ; they could not do this by contrasting it with
a future of which they knew nothing, not even the elements.
Thus compelled to contrast it with the past, with antiquity,
they presented in glowing colors the advantages which an-
tiquity possessed over the Middle Ages, omitting all the
glaring disadvantages, because themselves blind to them.

Rousseau in jjarticular had g. tenacious liking for Sparta

24 THE RISING GENERATION. [1748-

and Lycurgus, and employed all his remarkable passion and
wonderful persuasiveness and sonorousness to make his con-
temporaries share that liking. He succeeded triumphantly
with two sinister disciples, — Robespierre and the young
fanatic Saint-Just.

His Social Contract became an armory from which the
most terrible weapons were drawn wherewith to batter down
the old society. This little book, also, is but rarely read
now, — and I really should consider it a sign of a weak mind
in our times to study it for the sake of instruction, — Ijut how
many editions of it were published during its first twenty
years of existence ! It first appeared in 1761.

The reason of its success must be sought in the fact, that
men, worked upon by the spirit of the age, felt an irresistible
inclination to alter their social condition, and were exceed-
ingly desirous to find arguments wherewith to satisfy their
consciences, and theories that would clothe their aspirations
with righteousness. The Social Contract furnished such
arguments — specious arguments — in abundance. Men
grasped all the phrases convenient to them, and rejected the
rest.

All the leading doctrines of the little book are those of
Hobbes and Locke, already spoken of, which Rousseau modi-
fied just enough to suit his purpose. Its central doctrine,
which made it a veritable " gospel of Jean Jacques," is the
dogma of the sovereignty of the people ; in other words, of
popular absolutism. Society is founded on a convention, a
pa(-t which human will has made, and which, therefore, hu-
man will can unmake or change at pleasure. When a gov-
ernment usurps this sovereignty, the pact is broken, and the
citizens are restored to their natural liberty ; they may then
be forced to obey, but are not morally obliged to. Now,
since the book commences with the words, " Man, tliough
born free, is yet everywhere in chains," it follows that the

1789. 1 THE REVOLUTION MADE BY BOOKS. 25

pact is broken everywhere. This was the way he inspired
the people with the rii:;]it to l)reak the social bond at the
same time as he inflamed them with sutlicient passion to feel
themselves able to do it. And thus this book became the
mightiest revolutionary instrument for doing what was to be
done, and Jean Jacques deserves our gratitude for it.

It has been remarked about all three writers, that their
books are not read, and deserve not to be read, in our days.
However well they served their purpose a century ago, they
contain nothing that can satisfy our needs to-day. What
the French Revolution had to do was, essentially, to destroy a
social order, and then to build up a merely temporary transi-
tion state. But the Coming Revolution is essentially construc-
tive, and is to build up a virtually permanent social order ;
hence the books that are to prepare for it must be grounded
on social science, as much as medical books on biology. But
the writers we have now discussed knew nothing of social
science, had not the remotest ideas of the nature of human
societies ; that the first two had grasped the idea oi progress,
was already a great advance.

The mental revolution was now complete. Every one
noticed it, even princes of the blood. In December, 1 788,
they said, in a memorandum to the king, " A revolution is
taking place in the principles of governments, brought on by
a ferment in the minds of the people. Institutions held
sacred for so many ages are made subjects of debate, and
even decried as replete with injustice."
* * *

It was in this mental atmosphere that Danton grew up, —
Georges yaeqites Danton, the French Sir Harry Vane, who
was more than once to save France and the Revolution, and
then be butchered.

He was born Oct. 26, 1759; at Arcis-sur-Aube, a lilUe
country town about a hundred miles from Paris, situate in

26 THE RISING GEXERATIOX. [1748-

,^^

what was then the province of Champagne, which has given
birth to so many celebrated Frenchmen. He belonged
by birth to the middle dasses. His father died soon after his
birth, and his mother a few years afterwards married one
Ricordain, a small manufacturer, who proved himself an
excellent stepfather.

Danton got a fair classical education in various schools at
Troyes, the chief city of Champagne. There are only two
incidents worth noting fronj. his sclmol-days. One is the
crowning of the young king *Louis-''XVI. at Rheims, a city
distant twenty-eight miles from Troyes, in the year 1774.
The young lad, then fifteen years old, "svho was destined one
day to unmake that very king, determined to go and see how
he was made. He goes on foot, sees every thing, returns,
and gets some slight punishment for absenting himself widi-
out leave. What seems to have impressed him most, besides
the King's taking the oath, was the numerous birds which
they had let loose inside the church. " Nice liberty ! " he
used to say to his schoolfellows, " to fly within four walls,
with nothing to eat." Quite a suggestive remark.

The other incident was when a schoolmate, a big lad
named Pare, who afteiwards occupied high positions, was to
be corporally punished for some slight offence. Danton
boldly stepped forward, and protested against the bodily
l)unishment of so large a boy as a shame, and against the
tlignity of the whole class ; and he succeeded in ha\-ing the
l)unishment altered.

This last incident already shows Danton's principa:l char-
acteristics, which clung to him during life, — affectionateness
and boldness. He loved dearly his mother, his stepfather,
and afterwards his first and second wife. He made perfect
confidants of his mother, and later of his wives. As a boy,
he was belovetl l)y his teachers and fellow-scholars, in spite
of his face being undeniably a very ugly one. His natural

1789. 1 DANTOX'S YOUTH. 27

ugliness liad l)ocn much increased by his very boldness.
When a boy, he had fights with almost all kinds of pug-
nacious animals, and they generally left their marks on him.
Once his upper lip was cut, then his nose was broken, and
lastly he took a fever from bathing, which ended in. small-
pox, that marked him for life. But he was of a frank, com-
municative disposition ; that ugly face of his, nevertheless,
was radiant with intelligence and good humor; and his
turbulent character was calmed by the least caress of his
mother.

Later on he frequently alluded to his looks in his addresses :
" My Medusa-head, which causes all aristocrats to tremble."
At the Jacobin Club he once boasted of having " those features
which characterize the face of a freeman." In his hour of
trial, turning to the jurors of the revolutionary tribunal, he
proudly asks, "Have I the face of a hypocrite? " And in
his supreme moment on the scaffold, he says to the execu-
tioners, '• Show my head to the people : it is good to look
at."

In 17S0 he comes to Paris to enter the office of a notary,
as pupil. Being asked to give a sample of his handwriting, he
frankly answers, " I have not come here to be a copyist," and
the notary rather seems to like this self-esteem in his pupil.
A story is told of him, dating from this period : Once, when
bathing in the Seine, and seeing tlie towers of the Bastille
looming up a little way off, he cried out in angry tones,
"When will these walls come down? Oh, how I should
like to contribute a good stroke with a pickaxe ! "

In 1787, when twenty-five years of age, he becomes an
advocate. Three years thereafter he marries Mademoiselle
Charpentier, the daughter of a controller of revenue-col-
lectors, received with her a dowry of forty thousand francs,
with which sum, and about a similar amount in addition which
he had inherited from his deceased father, he buys the post

28 THE RISING GENERATION. [1748-

of a king's counsellor, for previous to the Revolution all places
of advocature and magistracy were bought and sold.

This is the position we find him in, and his age thirty,
when the Revolution breaks out. He lives in rigid economy,
but decently, in small apartments near his father-in-law, in
the Cour de Commerce, a narrow street on the south side
of the Seine, in that district of the Cordehers which is to be
so well known later on in the Revolution. He has but a
few, but very intimate friends, among members of the bar
and literary men, who visit each other very much. He is a
most excellent family-man, and loves his wife dearly, who in
return loves him, finds him not at all ugly, and has a firm
belief in his powers and future when no one else has.

He is described at that time as a Hercules in build, needing
a well-turned-down collar in which to move his bull-neck ;
his bodily figure stately as well as massive, and himself more
careful in his dress than has been generally thought. His
voice is powerful, and his gestures are bold. He is hot-
tempered, easily moved to anger, terrible to an adversary,
but easy also to conciliate.

It is shameful, that, on the word of a woman like Madame
Roland, the notion should have got currency that Danton
was illiterate ! he whom we have seen as a king's coun-
sellor ; he whom we now know to have been counsel to a
secretary of justice, M. Barentin, who thought so well of
him that he twice offered him the position of secretary
of seals, which offer he twice refused, and who repeatedly
consulted him on most important public measures, aiid once
re(]uested of him and obtained from him a memorandum as
to the most urgent reforms to be laid before the king !

And we have further evidence. On the death of Danton's
first wife, in February, 1793, an inventory was, according
to i'Vench law, taken of his possessions. This inventory
shows, that, while he then had a lot of silvcr-i)late valued at

1789.1 DANTO.Y'S YOUTH. 29

twelve hundretl and two francs, he possessed, on the otlier
hand, a library composed of more than one hundred works,
many composed of several volumes, valued at sixteen hun-
dred francs more than the silver-plate. Among the books
we find the works of Plutarch in English, of Montesquieu,
of Montaigne, of Voltaire, of Rabelais, of Buffon, of Dr.
Johnson in Englisli, of Rousseau, Robertson's History of
America in English, the whole Encyclopccdia, Adam Smith's
WcaltJi of Nations in English, etc.

From this we can see that Danton read English, and,
indeed, preferred English translations of the classics. We
know he read Italian works in the original ; we know that
when, a second time, he had caught a fever from bathing,
he, wliile convalescing, read all the volumes of the Ency-
clopccdia through ; we know he studied Montesquieu par-
ticularly, from whose " Spirit of Laws " he often quoted ;
he read all the works of Rousseau, of course, as everybody
did ; Beccaria's Crimes and Punishments, which appeared
just before the Revolution, and which was soon to reform
the criminal legislation of the civilized world, he studied
with care.

At the age of thirty, Danton then really stood at the sum-
mit of the knowledge of his age. He had drunk deeply
tlie lessons from the revolutionary books of his age. The
Revolution had matured in his brain, as in the brains of the
reading portion of his contemporaries, and it was now ready
to be born. That Danton was aware of this, seems evident
from the answer he gave to M. Barentin, when offering him
office for the second time : " I thank you, but the state of
])olitics has changed entirely. We are no longer in the
period of modest reforms ; they who refused these, refused
their own salvation. Notv we are at the daivn of a revolu-
tion r

But that he was going to be such an important actor was

30 THE RISING GENERATION. [1748-

hiddcii from everybody's eyes, and so it was, indeed, with
all the other revolutionary actors. Sieyes, Mirabeau, Ver-
gniaud, Guadet, Roland, Robespierre, Carnot, Danton, were
hidden in a night of obscurity, and that, perhaps, saved
them for their days of action.

* * *

Do not let us forget, however, that the middle classes
were ready too, — the rich middle classes that are to be
the bearers of the new ideas and rulers of the new, ^ era,
because they are the only part of the masses as yet suf-
ficiently developed. They had become rich, proud, and
powerful, compared to the " lower classes," from the time
Colbert had, under Louis XIV., worked for them sixteen
hours a day during twenty-two years, with his tariffs, his
custom-house regulations, and his commercial negotiations.
But just as powerful as they were in regard to the masses,
just as impotent were they in regard to nobles and clergy,
who openly and on every occasion insulted them.

An attempt had already been made to effect the Revolu-
tion from above. Turgot became minister shorUy after
Louis' accession. It was the philosophers, the economists,
come to power, convinced that now their ideas were to
receive a brilliant application. Turgot, with the assistance
of Malesherbes, immediately attempted to give the middle
classes freer movement by a decisive blow : the principle
of free competition was to govern in industry and commerce.
The Paris " Parliament " — the magistracy was so called in
France — was compelled to register a decree for the free
circulation of grain, and also an edict abolishing all cor-
porations and guilds. That was on the 12th of March,
1776, the year of publication of the Wealth of Nations.
On that day, Louis Blanc tells us, the workmen of Paris left
their masters in crowds, and celebrated their emancipation
by processions through the streets, and bancjucts in the

1789.] JUNE SEVENTEENTH. 3 1

evening. Ah, the time came when they were undeceived, and
learned that " free competition " did not at all mean freedom
for them ! But their masters were not yet to be emanci-
pated either, for there immediately was a re-action. Turgot
fell from power, and the guilds and all other restrictions
were left as before. Now we can see how short-sighted
the ruling powers were ; how much better it would have
been for them and France if the Revolution could have been
carried out from above. But then, how much more

short-sighted are not our ruling classes, who scorn even to
listen to suggestions made in our days for inaugurating the
Coming Revolution from above !

So the middle classes of France were still waiting, but
ready.

The American war gave a mighty push to events. Curi-
ously enough, it is the " Parliaments " that first demand tlie
assembling of the States- General ; then everybody demands
them. Only " Anglomania " can explain this universal cry
for them ; for though the " States-General " had met several
times before in French history, and at crises too, the last
time they assembled had been a hundred and seventy-five
years before, and they never had possessed a trace of
political significance. Saint-Simon — not the reformer, but
tlie historian of Louis XIV. — contemptuously says, " The
States-General are never seriously effective ; verba, voces !
(words, voices !), nothing more. But they are an expedient
for canonizing bankruptcy, at once innocent, agreeable, and
easy."

There is, by the way, a letter from Mirabeau, written to
a friend at Strasbourg about this time, which has not been
long known, in which he says, " Let us not undertake too
much. Let us insist on our consent to all taxes and loans,
civil liberty, and periodical assemblies, as the three capital
points. The rest will come in its own good time. And

32 THE RISING GENERATION. [Mays,

now I shall give my private thoughts to you in confulcnce :
War to all privileges and privileged parties, — that is my
motto. That is why I am personally in favor of monarchy.
That would be a nice republic we should have, composed
of all the powerful and rich who now are on top of us !
Why, it would be the most acute tyranny ! The members
should be numerous. Eight hundred members are easier
to lead than three hundred, and there laill always be some
dexterous persons to lead the herd, however large it is.".

At last the King calls the States-General together. Rep-
resentatives of the three orders. Nobility, Clergy, and Com-
mons, are to meet at Versailles in May, 1789. By an
additional decree it is ordered that the Third Estate, the
Commons, are to have twice as many representatives as
the other orders ; they are to be elected by what is virtually
universal suffrage. This additional decree is published
New Year's Day, 1 789, and the Parisians illuminate their
houses in consequence, as after a victory. It was the first
time in history that a large nation, with twenty-five million
people, had tried such an experiment. No wonder that
the next months witnessed a great deal of excitement in
France.

But is it not remarkable to observe how, in spite of all
excitement, the assemblies of the Third Estate seem every-
where to be of one mind and one heart? Everywhere the
same proceedings : cahiers, or " ))latforms " as we call them
in America, are drawn up, and these eahiers are all of
the same tenor ; all re-eeho the demands of the revolutionary
7uriters mentioned above : —

"The sovereignty resides in the peoj)le, and sliould be
exercised only by the nation's representatives, in accord
with the King.

" We demand a constitution and laws, to be made and
adojjted by the States-General, who also should have the

.789.1 JUNE SEVENTEENTH. 33

exclusive liijlil to vole tlie taxes anil control the national
expenditures.

" The agents of the executive power must be made
responsible.

" The privileges of nobility and clergy should be abolished.

" Serfdom should be abolished.

" All citizens to be eligible to all public employments.

" 'I'he procedure of courts of justice should be reformed,
the purchase and sale of all law-offices abolished, and justice
to be gratuitous ; also exceptional jurisdictions abolished.

" The press should be free, and each left to practise what-
ever religion he pleases.

*^ Industry and commerce should be entirely free .'^

These were the propositions that the revolutionary writers
had made the middle classes believe, and believe in like a
veritable gospel ; they had made them the convictions of the
middle classes, for which these were ready to sacrifice every
thing and everybody, themselves included, if need be.

The States-General met the 5th of May, 1789. All his-
torians start the French Revolution from that date. There
is not the slightest reason for this. That meeting was merely
an incident in the course of events, like so many other inci-
dents. The Revolution came about, was born, in a moment
— which is soon approaching ; but if we are to say when
its preparation commenced, then the year 1748 is the date.

The three orders go each to its different hall of assembling,
but tlie Third Estate, the Commons, refuse to do any business
at all ; they even refuse to open letters addressed to " the
Third Estate." They merely say, " We are waiting to have
the two other orders come to us, in order that we may form
one assembly ; " and they repeatedly notify Nobility and
Clergy to that effect. But these will not come. The Com-
mons remain doggedly obstinate. The Paris electors have
been very dilatory in electing their repfesentatives ; at last it

34 THE RISING GENERATION. [June 17,

is (lone, anil on tlie 251]: of May tlie twenty Parisian deputies,
headed by Bailly and Sieyes, enter the hall of the Commons.
The Commons still wait; but finally, on June 10, their pa-
tience is at an end. Then, among an immense concourse
of spectators, and in the midst of a profound silence, rises
Abbd Sieyes, of the Parisian delegation, to become the
accoucheur of tlie Revolution. He makes the motion that
final summons be addressed to the other orders to the effect
that the calling of the bailiwicks will commence in ap hour.
Adopted. After the lapse of the hour the Commons com-
mence the verification of their powers \ and in this business
they are engaged the following days, during which several
of the lower clergy enter to take their place among them.
Finally, on June ly, Sieyes, again, proposes fhat they constitute
themselves the national assembly, and that decisive step is
adopted by 491 against 90. They then elect Bailly president,
and immediately thereafter proceed to an act of sovereignty,
by decreeing that no taxes be valid in the future without
their consent.

Now THE Revolution is born.

It has been the fashion of historians to call Mirabeau the
" father," the " maker," of the French Revolution. In truth
no individual was its father ; but if anybody, it was cer-
tainly not iVIirabeau, but Sieyes. Mirabeau opposed himself
to the title of " National Assembly," precisely because the
two other orders were not present ; he wanted the Commons
to call themselves, instead, the " Representatives of the
French People." It would be interesting to know if he was
among the ninety who voted " no," but I have not been
able to ascertain this. But this we know, — that on his death-
bed Mirabeau said to the Genevese Dumont : "O my friend !
how right we were when we endeavored, from the first, to
prevent the Commons from declaring themselves the Na-

1789.] "CA IRA.r' 35

tioiial Assembly ! It is lliis that }ias been /he source of all
our evils. From the moment they carried that victory, tliey
liave never ceased to show themselves unworthy of it."

The court tries all manner of means to frighten the
National Assembly back from the stand they have taken, —
excludes them from their own hall, and compels them to
take refuge first in a tennis-court (where they take their
celebrated oath to stick together), then in the Church of St.
Louis ; and finally the King, in royal session, on June 23,
commands them to recede. But all in vain.

It is at this royal session that an incident occurs that has
thrown a good deal of false glamour around Mirabeau. The
King has left ; so have the nobles and most of the clergy ; the
Commons, " the National Assembly," remain, — when enters
the King's usher, who reminds them of the King's command.
Then Mirabeau haughtily replies, " We are here by the peo-
ple's will, and nothing but bayonets shall make us leave."
The fact is, no one thought of leaving ; and Bailly, the presi-
dent, was just on the point of saying so.

Two days after the clergy give in ; and on June 2 7 the
nobility, by command of the King, likewise join the As-
sembly.

* * *

Now the middle classes of France, being in a clear ma-
jority of the National Assembly, are in supreme power, and
they know its value. They know — and they have left it to
us as an important lesson — that a revolutionary body vnist
^i^el hold of political poiuer as an instrument, or else they
will get into collision with it as an obstacle.

The people cried, " The Revolution is finished ; it is the
work of the philoso])hers, and it has not cost a drop of
blootl." Our historians have pitied these people

their near-sightedness. Yet it is the historians that are near-
sighted. Tlie people were right.

36 THE RISING GENERATION. [1789.

The Revolution w.as accojnpUshcii, and not a blow had
been struck, not a particle of violence committed, so faz".
The middle classes were in political power, and tliey knew
that the rest would follow as a matter of course.

It did follow very soon after, as a matter of course.

And the people shouted for joy. They even called out
the Queen, whom they hated ; she appeared on the balcony,
and showed them the dauphin.

The middle classes can now commence singing ///</> revo-
lutionary song : —

" Ah, 9a ira, 9a ira, 9a ira I
La liberty s'etablira
Malgre les tyrans; tout reussira."

(" It goes ! It gets on splendidly !
Liberty will be established
In spite of tyrants ; all will succeed.")

CHAPTER II.

THE MIDDLE-CLASS REGIME.

June 37, 1789, to Sept. 30, 1791.

" Von, flutocrats ! ivcre apfiointed to guard against gluts, appointed to preside
over the distrihuiion and apportionment of wages /or work done, that our
human laws be emblems of God's laws." — Carlyle.

The Counter-Revolution. — Aug. 4. — The Constitution OF'91.—
Danton the First Republican. — The Doings of the French
Bourgeoisie.

BUT what about the violence, the massacres, the Terror?
Ah ! they do not belong to the Revolution ; they,
indeed, are diametrically opposed to the Revolution, how-
ever much historians persist in including them, and in even
making the French Revolution principally consist in them.
As a matter of fact, these horrors were the natural outcome
of the frantic efforts of the old powers to overthrow the new
regime, and bring back the old regime, — of the coiiiiter-
Revolution to undo the Revolution. Historians are right in
insisting upon that something failed, but it was the counter-
Revolution that miserably failed at every step it took.

Just here comes in a notable difference between England
and France. Charles, undoubtedly, fought personally till
the very last ditch, and paid the penalty for his stubborn-
ness ; but the nobility gave way as soon as the danger-jmint
was reached, and ever since have done so. This, indeed,
has become such a characteristic of the British aristocracy,
that it is constantly relied upon by the people ; and woe if
this reliance shall ever prove false !

38 THE MIDDLE-CLASS REGIME. [June 27.

Ill the I'higlish Revolution the nobility gave way, and allied
themselves with the new-comers in a joint empire. The
aristocracy said, in effect, to the rich manufacturers and
merchants, " We will divide our power with you ; " and so
they became, jointly, pretty severe taskmasters to the toiling
masses. This prudent conduct on the part of the British
nobility is the reason why to-day we find tlie anomaly in
(ireat Britain of the lands in the hands of the few, and of
the survival of so many other feudal features.

Such was the beginning of the political power of the rich
middle classes of England. They have gone on consolidat-
ing all the groups of well-to-do people of former periods, —
of people of property, such as country squires, big farmers,
capitalists, shopkeepers, and professional men, — and made
them all so conscious of their interdependence, that they
very naturally have come to look upon those with whom
they have no social intercourse as " the lower classes," who
seem to be there only to be used as instruments for their
own well-being.

These same classes have, on the other hand, now acquired
such complete dominion, that (since large bodies always
attract and absorb smaller ones) they have absolutely swal-
lowed up the upper classes, and matle them mere adjuncts
to themselves.

The nobility in England is now a part of the middle classes ;
is, like them, engaged in " business," one way or another,
and would be of no importance without such business. This
transition has been effected so much the more easily, as the
English aristocracy never formed a class apart, as in France ;
that is to say, the heads alone of the noble families have
political privileges, while all their other members are simple
" commoners."

I have no doubt that this slow, i)caccful way of i)assing
from feudal times over into our motlern era, this slow way of

lySo-l THE COUNTER-REVOLUTION. 39

making what is, in truth, the Ihitish Constitution, has, on
the whole, been a great blessing to the British people.

But in France it was quite otherwise. Its Revolution was
so dramatic, precisely because its ruling powers had not sense
or inclination to abdicate or divide their power when the
time came for it. It had to be wrenched from them.

Yet I am not sure that they ought to be very much blamed
for it. This disposition of theirs was certainly a very unfor-
tunate one for themselves and for France ; but it should be
borne in mind that they merely obeyed an hereditary instinct
in trying to save the Catholic feudal system, which, though at
the time anti-social, was in their eyes the only anchor of
safety for their cherished principles, interests, and institu-
tions. They were simply in\'eterate bigots ; for bigotry is in
essence an incapacity to understand the law of development,
ami a disposition to kick against it.

But this furnishes a ready answer to those who think that
the Revolution was wicked and sinful. AVhy, if any thing was
7vickcd and " sinful," it was certainly the counter- Revolution,
and not the Revolution. The latter may have possessed some
ignoljle features. They who led it and tliey who prepared it
may, many of them, have been very unlovely characters, —
tluit I do not deny. The plutocrats certainly contributed to
the violence by their rapacity and selfishness, the masses did
liy their suspicion and cruelty. But I insist on this : that the
Revolution did the will of the Intelligence that directs hu-
man events. The counter-Revolution opposed tliat will : that
made it " sinful " in a truly religious sense ; and the further
fact that this opposition was essentially egoistic, made it
wicked.

This resistance by the re-actionary forces of France was so
terrific, violating without scruple one of the most sacred of
the sentiments of that day, — patriotism, — that it required
immense, herculean efforts on the part of the patriots to over-

40 THE MIDDLE-CLASS REG/ME. [July 14,

come it. Hence the delirium, the hysterics of the Parisians.
Hence the massacres. Henck the Terror.

Note this other imj)ortant point, — that precisely this
terrific resistance of the counter- Revolution, together with its
complete failure, did immensely set in relief the success of
the Revolution. The resistance had very much the same
effect that enclosure has on powder : it made the Revolution
march so much the quicker, and its victories so much the
more decisive. This, precisely, enabled France to reach in
a few years the stage which it had taken Great Britain a
century and a half to attain, and even to go beyond it.

By joining the two ideas, — of the Revolution as the de-
cree of evolution, and of the counter- Revolution as opposing
this decree, — we get a key to the totality of those events
known as " the French Revolution." To overlook the coun-
ter-Revolution entirely is like a sculptor who should make,
instead of two fighting gladiators, only one : that one, instead
of being a gladiator, straining every nerve for a purpose,
would apjjcar simply a lunatic ; and that is, indeed, what
historians have made the French people out to be.

We meet with the counter- Revolution at the very threshold.
The exuberant tone of joy, confidence, and hopefulness, yes,
the modesty of the people, on all occasions at the beginning
of the Revolution, are responded to by the court by the very
opposite feelings.

The first chapter clsoed with the people cheering the
Queen, and the Queen smiling on the people ; but at that
very moment she did another thing which the people did
not see, — she sent for troops.

It closed with the Nobility joining the National Assembly
at the express command of the court. The very next morn-
ing the court repented, aiul appealed to force. They sur-
rounded first llie National Assembly, and then Paris, with
foreign troojjs, — Swiss, Germans, and Tyrolese. This natu-

1789.] THE COUNTER-REVOLUTION. 41

rally excited in everybody a suspicion tliat the court intended
to dissolve the Assembly, overawe Paris, and with one blow
restore the old order of things, as now we know were, in
fact, its intentions.

The response to this threat was the storming of the Bas-
tille by the people of Paris on the 14th of July, the day which
the third French Republic has proclaimed a national holi-
day, and now for a good many years has celebrated as such.

Oh, well may the French well-to-do middle classes, whose
republic this third French Republic is, celebrate the day,
for it set the seal on their previous victory. They have
reaped all the substantial benefits of the day, and yet their
personal share in the taking of the Bastille was very small.
They had come to the conclusion that the " lower classes,"
with beating, suffering, hoping hearts in their bosoms, were
excellent " masses " wherewith to blow down Bastilles, and
so they egged them on. But one thing they forgot,

— that precisely in that way did they teach these masses
their strength and the use of brute force.

Well, the Bastille was overthrown in broad daylight, just as
a rock is buried by the rolling waves of the ocean.

But the spirit of the plutocrats was odiously displayed right
thereafter, when the committee of citizens appointed to pre-
serve order, and who had appointed Bailly mayor of Paris,
forbade /he poo?' to zvear ihe patriotic cockade under pain of
arrest. It was tlie wedge entering for the first time between
middle classes and the working-classes.

Three days thereafter, Louis, who fifteen years before had
been crowned king by the grace of God, now suffered him-
self, in a hypocritic flishion, to be re-crowned king by the
grace of the middle classes. After hearing mass — to pre-
pare himself for the worst — he arrived from Versailles at the
l)arrier of Paris at three in the afternoon, drove between two
lines of silent, determined men to the Hotel de Ville (the

42 THE MIDDLE-CLASS REGIME. [July ,7,

town-liall), ascended its staircase under a canopy of steel
made (after tlie manner of Free-Masons, but unfamiliar to
him) by swords placed crosswise, received from the hands
of Bailly, the mayor, the new tricolor national cockade, which
he placed in. his hat, and showed himself from the balcony
to the crowd below, — a middle-class king.

Now the plutocrats, the French bourgeoisie, can certainly
sing from one end of France to the other, ^^ Ali, ga iraf" —
"it goes merrily ! "

But the Queen, on going to meet the King on his return to
Versailles, and seeing the national cockade still in his hat,
contemptuously exclaims, " I did not know I had married a
plebeian." And princes of the blood flee the country :

this is the beginning of what will be known as the Emigra-
tion, the most sinister form of the counter- Revolution.
Instead of bravely staying at their posts, at court, in the
Assembly, in the administrative ofifices, and, since they will
not compromise with the Revolution, at least honestly fight-
ing it out amongst themselves, they give up all at home,
like cowards, to call on the hated foreigners for assistance.
* * *

Since the foundation of the new regime is already laid,
the crash can lunu come : the feudal system can now be
torn down with safety, and with ease as well.

To accomplish this, the bouigeoisie wrought, further, in
the raw material at hand, the masses, all over the country.
The jieasants were set in motion, fagots in hand, with wliich
they set fire to the castles of the nobility ; not so much, how-
ever, with the intention of destroying the buildings as — on
the admission of the nobles themselves — to do away with
the title-deeds, which were the evidence of the feudal bur-
dens resting so heavily on them and on agriculture.

This violence brought on the unexampled night o{ Aug. 4.
It is noteworthy that Miral)eau, the alleged " maker " of the

1789.] AUGUST FOURTH. 43

Revolution, did not contribute any thing to this the second
step in the great change, either. He was absent ; those
present turned tlieir eyes in the direction of his seat, and,
seeing it vacant, wondered. But afterwards he who had
declared his motto to be " War to all privileges and privi-
leged," called that sitting a " delirium of suicide."

Yes, it was a delirium, but one of which, to some extent,
humanity has reason to be proud. For, even after making
every allowance for the fright caused by the agitation of the
peasants, there were certainly some noble minds who that
night were moved by the great, generous ideas of the century,
and gave practical proofs of it by great sacrifices — principal
among these the first speaker, the Duke d'Aiguillon.

I sometimes delight in fancying another picture, — one
representing, at the time Garrison's anti-slavery agitation was
at its height, some of the slave-barons of the Southern States
of America, in a similar fit of patriotic enthusiasm, rising
in their seats in Congress, and freely relinquishing slavery !
What sufferings might such act have spared to themselves,
their class, and the nation !

For here in that most memorable of sittings of which the
history of assemblies has preserved a remembrance, which
lasted from eight in the evening till two in the morning, the
representatives of the privileged classes arose, one after the
other, and in a fever of generosity renounced one privilege,
one riglit, after another: one the pension of lohich he was in
receipt, another the fees to which he was en ti tied as a magis-
trate ; some absolutely beggaring themselves, but most of them,
undoubtedly, doing, from what was real compulsion, that
which was much easier, — donating to the nation other peo-
])le's property. The fanatical resistance, then, which

has been spoken of above, concerned not so much their
personal privileges, for that night there was no discussion,
and no need for any ; the prevailing enthusiasm was born

44 THE MIDDLE-CLASS I^EGLIfE. [Aug. 4,

of a profound conviction that tlie moment had come to
put an end to these : it was the aboHtion of the privileges
of their monarchy and their church, it was the supremacy of
the middle classes, that aroused their unreasoning opposition.

And so, when the session closed, they had abolished all
the feudal burdens that rested on the peasants and on agri-
culture, as the tillies, the duty of the latter to grind their
corn at their landlords' mill, the duty, to work on tlie high-
ways, the right of the chase, etc. ; furthermore, the guilds
and all burdens on industry, including the provincial custom-
houses ; then inequalities in taxation, the purchase and sale
of judicial offices, and many other ancient abuses.

My readers, aware that in our Legislatures a bill must be
read a first, second, and third time before it can become a
law, may ask in wonder how all these changes could possibly
be accomplished in one short session. They must then
know that in these first French assemblies all artificial bar-
riers on legislation were unknown. A member had only,
as in this session of the 4th of August, to make a motion
embodying a principle, and have it, as here, adopted by
acclamation. To be sure, the details had then to be worked
out afterwards, but that was more particularly the work of
committees ; while the submission of the finished bill to the
Assembly, and adoption by it, were often but mere forms,
though it, of course, took time, and therefore it lasted many
months before the measures of that celebrated night were
finally realized. It is important to bear the above in mintl,
in ortler to understand how, later on, Danton was able, by a
simjjle motion, to have adopted the stern and far-reaching
revolutionary measures of which he became the author.

When the French people awoke the next morning, they
really found themselves in a perfectly new society. Individ-
7/(1 /ism 7oas >ifl7ci frimiipliaiit. But let me again insist on
this, — for it contains a most important lesson for us, — that

1789.1 AUGUST FOURTH. 45

the old system fell when it was fully ripe, and when, so to
say, it had to fall of itself, and not before the foundation
of the new system had been laid. The philosopher

Quinet, by the way, has curious ideas on this subject. He
says, "If Frenchmen had simply wished for material im-
provement and civil equality, the Revolution would have
ended here. But what I most admire is the small impres-
sion these sacrifices made on people's minds. I deem it
to the eternal honor of the men of '89 that they were not
satisfied with these things, if liberty were not addedP

Why, what more " liberty " did they want, or could they
have ? Here the people's representatives were making the
most radical changes, according to their own sweet will, and
taking the king's consent for granted, or — immaterial !

As to the " small impression on the people's mind," let us
see. Whom did these changes benefit?

First, the peasants were undoubtedly benefited. The
shackles were struck from French agriculture by its being
relieved from the terribly oppressive feudal burdens, and, as
a consequence, it attained, at a bound as it were, a most
remarkable development, justifying all the Encyclopajdists
liad claimed and foretold. Further, the equalization of taxa-
tion was an immense boon to the peasants, who hitherto had
paid the by far largest portion of the taxes. These were great
benefits, but these were all the benefits the peasants derived
from the Revolution, and, mark, those peasants only who
possessed some land.

Next, industry was greatly benefited. For the night of
.'\ug. 4 realized all the economic demands made by the
writers of the Encyclopczdia ; to wit, freedom of action, free-
dom of competition, and unrestricted private enterprise :
and the consequence was, that industry, likewise, attained a
steadily growing development.

But this benefited only the middle classes ; that is to say,

46 THE MIDDLE-CLASS REGIME. [Aug. 4.

only those who owned raw materials and means of produc-
tion. But the masses, the poor, the workers who possessed
nothing but their labor? They, whether in town or country,
were not benefited at all.

True, they now became free as to their persons and their
actions ; as far as the bom-gcoisic had secured that much of
liberty for them, it represented the whole people, and had
raised the masses with itself. But was this done from sym-
pathy with the masses? Not at all. The plutocrats had
done it because it was absolutely essential to themselves as
a class ; because the new mode of industry and agriculture
required that workmen and laborers should be able to migrate
from places where their labor was not wanted, to places where
it was. How far the interests of the masses were

from the minds of the boiirgeokie, is shown by the fact, that
when, during the same sitting of Aug. 4, Malouet, moved by
an inspiration that should honor his memory, entreated his
colleagues to consider the lot of the laboring classes, and
establish workshops for those who were out of work, a general
murmur arose, and — they passed on to other matters.

On the one hand, how much their own interests were
present to their minds, is shown in a striking manner by
the subject of the tithes. There was hardly any thing that
pressed so heavily on agriculture as these tithes, and there-
fore one of the most important achievements of Aug. 4
had been their abolition, in principle, but against a ransojn.
A few days after, a bill with the details worked out is pre-
sented to the Assembly for its sanction, which bill al)olished
the tithes, without any compensation whatsoever. Then
Abb6 Sieyes stood up and did just the right thing. He ob-
jected to it as different in principle from what was resolved
the other night. He pointed out that these tithes had been
levied to afford a living to the lower clergy, and, to a very
large extent, to support the i)Oor ; that, indeed, the tithes

1789.1 AUGUST FOURTH. 47

7t'(7v tlic only poor-Jitnds in France. He insisted, with much
energy, tliat to abolish the tithes, without compensation,
would be robbing the poor, and making a gift outright to
proprietors, who had not the least equitable title to be with
one stroke relieved from paying them. No matter !

Let the poor be robbed, said the Assembly, virtually, in
ordering that a splendid gift of a yearly revenue of twenty-
five million dollars, and more than twice that amount in our
money, should be made io property-lioldcrs.

I shall here remark that Dan ton, who, I contend, was
generally in the right, made a most unjust attack on Sieyes
for his action in this matter, and claimed that he, the
" priest," had defended the tithes, and in doing so had con-
sidered nothing but the interests of his order. But Sieyes had
done no such thing : he defended the interests of the poor.
He did not oppose himself to the abohtion of the tithes, but
to the non-compensation clause.

If, therefore, the sacrifices of Aug. 4 had made little im-
pression on the minds of the masses, it would have been
no wonder. It was the middle classes for whom things
had succeeded splendidly, and who could sing " (^a ira ! "
with more unction than ever.

But soon a great event occurs that shows that the Parisian
masses had nevertheless been sufficiently impressed never to
allow the Revolution to be undone. For, when some

weeks had passed, the counter-Revolution raises its head
again. They want to carry Louis off to Metz, and from
there commence a civil war in whose abyss the Revolu-
tion shall disappear. The arrival of a loyal regiment from
Inlanders at Versailles gives officer-conspirators opportunity
to meet at bancjuets, which the King and Queen attend, and
where the national cockade is trodden under foot, and re-
venge is sworn. News of this spreads among the Parisians.
This is the occasion when Danton for the first time enters

48 THE MIDDLE-CLASS REGLME. [Feb.,

actively into the Revolution. He causes his club to issue
a rousing call on the people to march on Versailles. The
Parisians do march, first the women of the market-halls, and
then the men, and, by gentle but very effective persuasions,
succeed in taking back with them to Paris the royal family,
whom they lodge in the palace of the Tuileries. From this
time Paris — then a city of eight hundred thousand inhabit-
ants — becomes the central theatre of action.

These strange proceedings take place on the 6th of Oc-
tober, 1789, and have far-reaching effects, for they robbed
royalty of all its nimbus in the eyes of Frenchmen — forever.
More than that. We have hitherto found the Parisian popu-
lation very, very modest; even the bourgeoisie was so at
first. But now that modesty, also, vanishes ; that is to say,
in tlie working-class as a body, in corpore. All through the
Revolution they remain self-distrustful as individuals.

Already, after the " delirium of suicide," a great many
nobles had followed the example of the princes of the blood ;
now, after the 6th of October, there is a perfect exodus of
nobles and priests.

Another circumstance that shows that the masses were
really "impressed " by the course of the Revolution so far,
is the joyful, confident, and enthusiastic mood of the people
on all occasions now and for some time yet to come, and
which contrasts so wonderfully with the spirit that shall take
possession of them three years hence.

The King, some time during the following February, takes
it into his head to pay a visit to his National Assembly, which
has followed the royal family to Paris, and holds its sittings
in a riding-school near the palace. He comes informally,
and this simple circumstance so affects all its members, that
they fall into each other's arms and swear fidelity to the father-
land. Paris, when she hears of it, is affected in the same
manner, and takes up the cry, " We swear ! " and the whole

1790.] AUGUST FOURTH. 49

country follows suit, so that for three whole weeks all France
resounds with the cry, " \Ve all swear ! "

But it is when the first anniversary of the taking of the
Bastille comes round that this enthusiasm reaches its height.

National guards from the departments swarmed into Paris.
Platforms for the patriots were being constructed in the
Champ de Mars, a huge open space almost in the centre
of Old Paris. Then it was rumored that fifteen thousand
workmen were not sufficient to finish the work in time. A
simultaneous impulse moved the entire population of Paris
at the report, and soon there was an ant-hill of a hundred and
fifty thousand workmen, trundling wheelbarrows and digging
the ground in a workshop forty thousand yards in width, and
whose length went clean beyond sight.

Every district, every corporation, every family, was repre-
sented there. Drums were beating, bands were playing ;
women and children come on, three abreast, with spades on
their shoulders, singing the new song, "(7c? /rcz/" Old men
and women aided in erecting the " altar of the country," —
the altar on which to take the civil oath, the oath of liberty and
equality. Collegians, schoolboys, students of the Academy of
Painting and of the Veterinary School, market-porters, "■ who
are as good as the strong men of Israel," printers, — those
of Prudhomme decorated with his paper, Les Revolutions
de Paris — charcoal-burners who had quitted their living
sepulchres, and were asking in bewilderment, " What is this
for a psalm, ' (7a ira ' .? " Women laughed and danced around
bewildered monks. Swiss guards, French guards, market-
women, and court ladies were all there. The King came, and
they applauded him. Lafayette came, and he was applauded
even more than the King. All was confidence and fraternity
during these blissful hours. Not a theft took place. Mar-
quises removed their gloves to shake hand with coal-porters.

The following night was passed by great numbers on the

50 THE MIDDLE-CLASS REGIME. [July 14,

Champ (le Mars. Multitudes were up with sunrise. Furious
rain-storms arose ; but in the teeth of the wind, and under
the lash of the rain, the folks from Auvergne danced their
dourree, and the Provencals their farandoles. Immense
rings of dancers were formed. " Look at these Frenchmen,
dancing while the rain is falling in torrents," said astonished
foreigners.'

After the taking of the civic oath l)y the King and the
high functionaries, followed beating of drums, firing of guns,
waving of swords, shouts of triumph, tossing of hats into
the air. All were drunk with enthusiasm. One unanimous
cry issued from the lips of six hundred thousand Frenchmen :
" France is free ! we swear it ! " Fathers held up the hands
of their little children.

And the site of the Bastille was turned into an artificial
wood, in which large trees were lighted up, and adorned
with pikes and Phrygian caps, and with the famous inscrip-
tion, " Dancing here."

No wonder that Frenchmen of to-day are seriously debat-
ing whether, in the monument of the Revolution soon to be
erected, they should not immortalize this great " Festival of
the Federation," as it was called, rather than the taking
of the Bastille.

And is it not evident from this, that all the horrors that
followed might very well have been avoided ? that, indeed,
they would never have occurred if the court party had but
])hilosophically accepted the handwriting on the wall, like
their English brethren, and even if the nobles had not been
such dastards as to lead a foreign foe against their fatherland ?
* * *■

So far we have seen the National Assembly only destructive,
clearing the way for the dominion of the i)lutocracy. Now

• Tliis description is taken from Camillc's newspaper, Revolutions 0/ France
and lirabaitt.

1790.1 CONSTITUTION OF NINETY-ONE. 5 1

we shall see the same Assembly organizing, upbuilding, that
dominion, it goes without saying. In that character it is
known in history as the Constituent Assembly, constituting
the political constitution of France, a work that took it fully
two years.

In that capacity it had very much to do, indeed. Part of
this it did very well ; some of its work was of doubtful
value.

Let us bear in mind that all the old institutions were vir-
tually razed to the ground ; all was tabula rasa. They had
to rebuild even the whole administrative and governmental
machinery. In this work they could do about as they
pleased : there was no power strong enough to hinder them,
and no doubt they wanted to do the best they knew.

But the mischief was, that they did not know, and could
not know, what really was best to do. Their views were
naturally very narrow, because their horizon was limited.
As a matter of fact, they had destroyed one social order, and
were to prepare for a new social order, separated from them
by several generations ; but how could they know that ?
How could they know that the actual institutions which they
themselves were going to erect were, in the nature of things,
merely to be temporary, transitional ; so to speak, but a scaf-
folding for the coming social order?

All the ideas they had were those which the thinkers of
the preceding generation, and more particularly Montesquieu,
Diderot, and Rousseau had inoculated them with, — the same
ideas that filled the heads of the whole of their own gener-
ation ; the ideas that were embodied in the cahiers, or plat-
forms, on which they had been elected. Further, they had,
besides these ideas, an example, a model, before their eyes,
— that of England. And lastly, and really most important in
iletermining the character of the work they had to do, this
fact, that they all belonged to the well-tj-do middle classes.

52 THE MIDDLE-CLASS REGIME. [April i6.

The Assembly was a middle-class assembly ; its armed force
was the National Guard, all middle-class men ; their mayor,
Bailly, who controlled the popular forces of Paris, was a
middle-class man. In the nature of things, therefore, they
did not and would not labor for the multitude, but for men
of property ; that is to say, men unth superfluities. The
"liberty" they had in mind was the liberty of men with
superfluities; the "equality" they meant, the equality of
men with superfluities.

Upon the whole, they were placed about in the same posi-
tion as the Constitutional Convention of the United States,
which had met a couple of years before, with Washington
for presiding officer : but their field of action was much
broader, and they had much freer hands ; and I should say
they did their work about equally well. It must be acknowl-
edged that in this sphere on which we now are entering
Mirabeau was the acknowledged leader, and his influence
and activity were pre-eminent.

First, then, they divided France into communes, districts,
and departments ; they made all magistrates elective ; they
instituted justices of the peace and juries ; they reformed,
much for the better, the civil and criminal laws, abolished
torture, and equalized punishments ; they suppressed all
religious orders, and abolished all titles of. nobility ; they
established unity of money, weights, and measures all over
France ; they reformed the army, making it truly national,
and every one of its functions open to all ; and most im-
portant, as absolutely essential to a capitalist er'a, they
established the legality of leuding money out on interest, —
a measure by which the operations of the money market
received their first legal sanction !

Well, now the Revolution is really complete.

For now the three great niidtlle-class principles are fully
established in the laws ; these, to wit, Free Competition,

I790.] CONSTITUTION OF NINETY-ONE. 53

Equalitv before the Law, and The Unity of the State.
These are three great principles, while " Liberty, Equality,
and Fraternity " are really but phrases. Moreover, these are
the great revolutionary principles which Frenchmen mean,
and are so proud of, when they talk of their "Revolution ;"
and these three principles have never been called in question,
from the Constituent Assembly to our days.

Certainly there cannot, then, be a doubt about this, — that
the French Revolution must be pronounced a success.

But they had other important things to do. They had
to save France from bankruptcy, to bring order into the
finances. They succeeded admirably in domg this, and
almost instantly. A sole measure did it, — the confiscation
of the landed property of the Church.

We already have seen the tithes confiscated for the benefit
of property-holders ; now the rest of the clergy's property,
representing an annual revenue of more than fifteen million
dollars, is — not " confiscated," for Mirabeau manages to sub-
stitute this phrase, '■'■placed at the disposition of the nation^
By the means of paper money, as signals, first issued April 16,
I 790, based on this ecclesiastical property, the new regime
was put on an excellent financial footing. As " compensa-
tion," the State took upon itself to pay, for the future, the
functionaries of the Church yearly salaries, and thereby
th(juglit to have accomphshed a second grand stroke of
policy, — that of having placed the Church under the civil
authority.

But, in truth, looked upon from the stand-point of their
own interests, this whole business was really a very poor
expedient.

Because they thereby saved themselves the necessity of
going into their own pockets for the means of paying the pub-
lic debt, — and that was their leading motive for confiscating
the Cliurch property, — these " delcnders of property " had

54 THFi MIDDLE-CLASS REGIME. [1790-

not the least scruple of laying violent hands on the property
of a corporation that Voltaire and Diderot had taught them
to hate, — did so, indeed, with enthusiasm. They certainly
might have seen that they were attacking " property " in its
very origin. They taught others the lesson, that, as it is
society that sanctions property, society may, by its constituted
authorities, renwoe that sanction. Could they not see, that,
by the stroke they wielded, they fashioned a most powerful
precedent against themselves?

Lastly, they had to frame a new form of government.

Here they had an acknowledged master to teach them
what to do. Montesquieu had distinctly placed before them
the British Constitution as the one they had to copy. They
all agreed about that, and both he and they were undoubt-
edly right there. England had, many years before, travelled
the same road they were travelling, and had now successfully
accomplished her journey and her task. But what portions
of that constitution were they to copy ? That was the great,
bewildering question. Montesquieu, the great empiricist, had
particularly told them, it may be remembered, to copy the
division 0/ poxaers. Finally, they seem to have come to the
conclusion, led by Mirabeau and Lafayette, that they would
try to copy, like their American brethren, the whole thing,
from top to bottom, in every detail, as far as they could.

They tell a story of the Chinese to the effect that once
some wooden huts burned down, containing several hogs. A
Chinaman happened to taste these hogs, and his experience
introduced roast pork to the Chinese. They liked it ; but
for a long time after, they were under the impression, that
the only way of procuring the delicacy was to build wooden
huts, ])ut hogs into them, and then set fire to them.

That is really the way that the middle classes of Europe
and America have gone to work to secure the blessings of
the British Constitution to themselves.

1791-1 CONSTITUTION OF NINETY-ONE. 55

Why was the British Constitution a good model for Amer-
ica and France ? Because it secured to the middle classes
unquestioned dominion. But what was it in the Constitution
that secured this end? The parliamentary system, and that
solely ; that part, then, it was they had to copy. But they go
on, and want, further, two chambers, a constitutional king,
— or something that looked as mucli as possible like a
king, — and, of course, the division of powers among three
departments, legislative, executive, and judicial ; though
these features in the British Constitution are merely the
outcome of the compromise which we saw was made between
the aristocracy and plutocracy.

Well, the United States went the whole length. We
adopted the two-chamber system, and have, in imitation of
tlie Chinese in the fable, carried it to the ridiculous length
that our subordinate " States " at the present day must also
each have its " lower " house and " upper " house, though
both are named by the same electors. We adopted the sys-
tem of three co-ordinate powers, so that daily laws are so
beautifully made in one spirit, executed in a second, and
interpreted in a third spirit ; but that gives " business " to
lawyers. Lastly, since we have no person of royal blood out
of whom to make a real king, we had to be satisfied with a
" dress-coat " imitation.

France, for the time being, was saved from the two-
chamber system and the worst effects of the division of
powers, mainly by the i)ressure exercised by the Parisians,
who, again, were mainly influenced by Danton, but only after
a hard struggle.

But the Assembly committed the great blunder of retain-
ing the monarchy, — or, at least, the blunder of retaining the
Bourbons on the throne, — though they at one time had a
splendid opportunity of ridding France of it. They evidently
wanted a king as a shield to protect them against the masses,

56 THE MIDDLE -CLASS REGIME. [Feb..

whom they coniiuenced lo fear. This feature, however, will
be left to the following pages, for it constitutes the principal
part of Danton's activity as agitator.

Yet the Constituent Assembly did the one essential thing :
they established one legislative body, with sovereign authority.
They took good care to secure to the middle classes exclu-
sive authority in and over that body, by deliberately dividing
the people into bourgeoisie and proletariat, into those with
and those without property, giving the right of voting and
sitting in the Legislature to the former class exclusively.
But they committed a folly in the names they gave to these
classes, in a country where words play such a great 7-dlc ; call-
ing the former " active " citizens, and the latter " passive "
citizens. Yet, remarkable enough, the poor citizens did not
at first seem to take offence. It required some efforts by
the journalists (all of them bourgeois, by the way), who sym-
pathized witli the masses, to teach them how odious it was
to be a " passive " citizen.

In fine, the National Assembly did pretty effectually what
it was sent to do : it freed from all shackles the man who
suffices himself, the man who is instructed and well off, —
the plutoerat.

And now it is time to return to Danton. I do not claim
for him any share whatever in the making of the Revolution,
and yet it is difficult to resist the conviction that the National
Assembly would hardly have gained and maintained its as-
cendency as easily as it did if it had not been for the sup-
port of Paris ; and Paris would hardly have been so revolu-
tionary-minded, if there had not arisen, at the right moment,
in the centre of old Paris, in the so-called district of the
Cordeliers (for a time called the district of the Th<^atre
I'ranrais) an energetic group of young patriots of whom
Danton was the soul from tlie very first, — "the President of

1791-1 DANTON THE FIRST REPUBLICAN. 57

the Republic of the Cordehers," as the royalists of 1791
called him.

This party of young men got their name from the meeting-
place, — the Club of the Cordeliers, a part of the present
lioulevard St. Germain, on the south side of the Seine. They
all lived in the neighborhood of the club, liked to mingle
with the people, spoke always with open doors, and often
pitched their studies in the open streets. The principal
members, besides Danton, were Camille Desmoulins, journal-
ist ; Fabre d'Eglantine, a successful author of plays, getting
his name from having been crowned for one of them ;
Freron ; Chaumette ; Legendre ; Robert, a faithful Dan-
tonist, and later member of the Convention from Paris :
further, Momoro, the revolutionary printer ; Cloots, the
rich German baron, who wanted a " republic of the
world;" Guzman, a jr^z/u-^/z^/zt' ' Spanish grandee; Marat,
tlien forty-five years old, and the sole elderly man among
them ; and Hebert. With the latter ones Danton was not
on the footing of personal intimacy. They possessed the
three great revolutionary requisites : a thundering eloquence
ni Danton, who never wrote; a slashing pen in Camille;
and hot, furious enthusiasm in all. They might from the
start have been compared to a regmient always under arms,
as, in fact, they soon became ; for they formed themselves
into a company of the National Guard, with Danton as com-
manding officer. They, in June, 1791, mvented the device,
" Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity."

Danton was a born tribune of the people. He had the
necessary physical qualifications, — hair like a horse's mane,
a gigantic stature, and a roaring voice. Over the masses he
had at that time a wonderful influence, due, partly, to his
warm sympathy with them, which he kept to his dying day,

' Troll serUss: first a name of contempt applied to the volunteers, because of
thcii ragged clothes; later on adopted by the Jacobins as synonymous \ii\.\\ patriot.

58 THE MIDDLE-CLASS REGIME. [April i8,

but greatly, also, to the fact that at that time his passions
were those of the multitude. Under these circumstances,
it certainly would be very strange if he was not at that time
something of a demagogue. He was principally an agitator,
and an agitator has necessarily some of the unlovely features
of the demagogue. But even at this time he was wiser than
all — even than Mirabeau — as to the form of government
that then was required in France ; and he surpassed all his
contemporaries in energy of character.

We have already seen Danton encouraging the Parisians
to march on Versailles, and how he misrepresented Sieyes in
the matter of the tithes. During the " Festival of the Fed-
eration," the representatives of the eighty-three departments
sent to Paris could not well help remarking Danton, who,
moreover, was present and si)oke at a banquet given in their
honor. In February, 1791, he was elected one of the ad-
ministrators of the Department of Paris, — a sort of over-
seers of the municipality. It is about this time that he
commenced to frequent the Club of the Jacobins.

This was the other of the celebrated Parisian clubs, was
situated on the north of the Seine, and was soon going to
become of overshadowing influence all over France. It had
been formed by the more radical members of the Assembly,
and was, in opposition to the Cordeliers, a grave parliamentary
debating society. There was at that time an absolute neces-
sity, in order to make the Revolution succeed, for such clubs,
as well as for agitators. The books had only influenced the
comparatively few educated persons ; the agitators and pop-
ular societies had to move the hearts of the great numbers :
that is the reason we soon find in every town, ay, in every
village, a branch of the Jacobin Society, and each with its
lesser Danton or Robespierre, according to the times, each a
perfect image of the mother society. The latter sent out its
cries, its resolutions, which spread themselves all over France

1791-1 DANTON THE FIRST REPUBLICAN. 59

like lightning, and in a few days were returned to Paris from
these branches as an irrevocable plebiscite, — an expression
of the will of the whole people. When Danton commenced
to frequent and speak at the Jacobins, his personal friends
from the Cordeliers naturally followed him. He seemed to
like the society, which ended by his and his friends' becom-
ing members of it. This proved afterwards a real mis-
fortune to him and to France ; for as a result the Club
of the Cordeliers, and with it the Commune of Paris, fell
into the hands of Hebert and followers, who were left be-
hind, — that is to say, of very rough elements.

Since the day the royal family had been taken from Ver-
sailles to Paris, while the Assembly was quietly pursuing its
labors, as we have seen, the King had lived quite unnoticed
in his palace, except that he had taken a perfunctory part in
the " Festival of the Federation."

P)Ut in April, 1791, Mirabeau dies. This death proves a
flir harder blow to the King than the people at that time
supposed, for he had been for some time his secret adviser
— for a consideration. Mirabeau gone, the King resolves
upon fleeing with his family, at the first opportunity. So, a
few days after, in the same month of April, the Parisians learn
that the King will go to St. Cloud, for the Easter holidays.
The patriots become alarmed, and suspect that this is an
attempt to get out of the kingdom to put himself at the head
of the emigrated princes and nobles. They, and Danton
among them, attach, rightly or wrongly, great weight to keep-
ing him in Paris. Consequently, when the King and his
family are ready to leave the palace for St. Cloud on April
1 8, Danton appears with his Cordelier battalion, and prevents
their departure by force. That bold step, of course, still
more endeared him to the patriots, and increased the rage
of the royalists still more against him.

At length, in the following June, 1791, the King actually

60 THE MIDDLE-CLASS REGIME. [June.

succeeds in secretly leaving Paris with his family, and they
are very near the frontier before they are recognized and
apprehended. Great consternation, as a consequence, among
all patriots. Danton is the only one among them who ap-
parently keeps a cool head, and demands that the Assembly
shall use this excellent opportunity for ridding France of
royalty forever. This is the crucial point of Danton's career
as agitator. He had already successfully opposed, as we have
seen, the two-chamber system and the illusion of the. division
of powers ; now he attempts to rid France of the illusion of
a king.

A king is certainly of no earthly use in a parliamentary
middle-class government, — the United States and France,
of late, have proved that. Still, on the other hand, a mon-
arch who will consent to remain a mere figure-head, perfectly
passive, like Louis Philippe or Queen Victoria, is not of much
harm. But it is not to be expected that an absolute mon-
arch will consent to be degraded to a figure-head. There
is only one instance in history, that of Frederick VII. of
Denmark ; but while Louis XVI. in many respects resembled
that king, still his conduct at the royal session of June 23,
1 789, had shown that he held considerably on to his dignity.
At all events, he had a queen and brothers who would have
vetoed any such abnegation. The English were alive to this
fact, and therefore in their revolution they changed their
dynasty, and put a prince on the throne to whom constitu-
tional royalty was still an elevation. Either the Duke of
Orleans king, or a republic, was therefore the true statesman-
like expedient for France after the Revolution. Danton has
been persistently charged — without a particle of evidence
being adduced — with secretly favoring the candidature of
the duke ; were that so, he would still, for that reason, have
been more of a patriotic statesman than either Mirabeau or
Lafayette, who clung to Louis XVI,

I79I.] D ANTON THE FIRST REPUBLICAN. 6 1

lUit now, the most aiis[)icious opportunity having come
for getting rid of the Bourbons, he is openly repubhcan,
whenever first he may have become so. First of all, lie is
republican ; for all others, Robespierre included, are still
royalists. He declares that the Assembly shall say that the
flight of Louis is a forfeiture of the crown, and decree France
a republic.

He causes his Club of the Cordeliers to publish an address,
of which the following is an extract : —

" There is no longer any pretended agreement of a people
with its king. Louis has abdicated his kingdom ; henceforth
he will be nothing to us, unless he shall become our enemy.

" Legislators ! think of how impossible it is, after what has
happened, that you can inspire the people with any degree
of confidence in a functionary called king ; therefore we im-
plore you, in the name of the fatherland, either to declare
immediately that France is no longer a monarchy but that it
is a republic, or at least to wait until all the primary assem-
blies have declared their wish on this important question,
before you again fetter this, the finest empire in the world,
with the chains of monarchy."

This address was received with enthusiasm by all the
patriotic societies of Paris, except the Jacobins. This society
was still so royalist that the address there met with a violent
opposition.

Meanwhile it was learned that the royal family had (un-
fortunately for France, I rather think) been stopped, and
rnemljcrs of the Assembly were delegated to accompany
them back to Paris.

Danton then makes a speech, in which he says, —

" The individual called King of the French has fled, after
having sworn to maintain the constitution ; and I hear it
said that he has not forfeited the crown. . . . Certainly he
must be criminal, unless he be an imbecile. It would be a

62 THE MIDDLE-CLASS RKGI}rE. [July 17.

horrible spectacle to present to the universe, if, having the
choice between thinking our King a criminal or an imbecile,
we did not choose the latter alternative.

" But a royal individual cannot be king, when he is
imbecile ; and we do not want a regency, but an executive
council. This council should not be chosen from among the
Assembly. Let the departments assemble, and each choose
an elector, which electors ought to appoint the ten or twelve
persons who should constitute the council."

Danton, certainly, then does all he can to have France
then and there made a republic ; and this is his best work
as agitator.

But the Assembly did not utilize the opportunity to dis-
pense with a king ; they overlooked Louis' flight, and let
him remain a useless figure-head of the constitutional ship
they were constructing. From this time, however, Paris was
divided into two camps: republicans — the masses of the
people — and royalists, with whom now the official middle-
class leaders ranged themselves.

Between these two camps it soon came to a bloody
skirmish. On a Sunday evening, the 17th of July, 1791,
almost the anniversary of the great " Federation Festival,"
while the Champ de Mars was crowded with citizens, who
had come to sign a petition, drawn by the Dantonist Robert,
praying the Assembly for the king's deposition, and which
had been spread on the altar of the country, Lafayette, the
middle-class general, and Bailly, the middle-class mayor,
arrived, at the head of an armed force, and, after reading
the Riot-Act, fired on the people, killing a number of citizens.

That was the first collision between the middle classes
and the masses. It afterwards sent Bailly to the scaffold, and
Lafiiyette into exile. The last collision between the

same parties is known as the Commune of Paris.

Meanwhile tlic principal republican leaders were tlircat-

I79I.1 DOINGS OF THE '' BOURGEOISIE:' 63

encd with arrest. In conse(iucncc, Danton left France, and
went to London, where he staid a couple of months with
his step-brother. This was the time he made his English
trii), and not after taking the Bastille, in 1 789, as most
histories have it.

When he returned, he was elected deputy prosecutor of
the Commune ; but his career as agitator had now closed.
He performed the duties of his office, but took hardly any
part in public life. He was waiting for events to ripen.

The Constituent Assembly at length finished its work,
and made the King, for the last time, go through the farce
of swearing to the constitution they had prepared ; then
they closed their sittings, on Sept. 30, 1791, after passing a
last, silly resolution, on the motion of Robespierre, that none
of its members should be eligible to the incoming Legislative
Body. They had faithfully served their class ; they left their
class in supreme power, with nothing, surely, to fear from
above, and nothing, apparently, to fear from below.
* * *

Since, now, it was the object of the French Revolution to
install the rich middle classes, the plutocracy, in supreme
power, and since they have been exercising that power in
France now for nearly a century, as they have in the
United States for about the same length of time, and in
Great Britain for a much longer period, it may be interesting
to know what account they can give of their stewardship,
as surely one day or other they will have to render one.

We saw that they rightfully acquired supreme power ; for
the force of things, the Power behind Evolution, willed it so.
But why? They surely must have had some function, some
office to perform. " Whatever is, is rational ; " i. e., there is
some reason for its being.

Carlyle says they were appointed to guard against gluts,
to preside over the distribution and apportionment of wages

64 THE MIDDLE-CLASS REGIME. [Sept. 30,

for work done. If that was tlieir only or principal function,
they certainly ha\e performed it miserably, especially in
France, as we shall see by and by ; and I do not wonder
that Carlyle much prefers as rulers the abbots and the strong
mailed hands of the Middle Ages. But then the Power
behind Evolution has committed a mistake. I rather think
that while these were some of their offices, among others,
they were yet merely incidental ; and that their principal
function, their principal use, has been a wholly different one.

Our race was to be raised up on a far higher plane than it
occupied during the Middle Ages. But this could not be
done at once, especially since production was yet in a very
backward state. Men were to be raised up to the highest
form of co-operation, free co-operation, where no one was
to be dependent for his living on any other individual. But
if society then had distributed her wealth equitably, even all
the wealth she by all her efforts could produce, it would have
proven the poverty of all. The great need, then, was to
increase production ; increase it immensely. That could be
done only by the workers. But of these only the middle
classes had sufficient intelligence to be put in command of
society, and so they were placed in supreme power, for the
specific purpose of increasifig production.

Now, it must be admitted they have performed that func-
tion remarkably well. Production has, by universal consent,
increased wonderfully ; and, what is still more important, the
potential power of production is now literally illimitable.
For while it still may be said, that should even the richest
nation at this moment distribute its wealth equitably, many
would, probably, be in want ; yet this is no longer because
society cannot now with her best effort satisfy all, but because
society dares not produce all it can, for reasons presently to
be given. If society were permitted to em])loy all willing
hands and brains, she could, with our present a])pliances, and

179I-] DOLYCS OF THE '' BOURGEOISIEr 65

without a sini;]e new invention, procure for e\'ery one all
desirable comlbrts with four hours' daily labor by each.
That is wholly due to the division of labor, machinery, the
inventions, which the middle classes have utilized ; to their
initiative, private "enterprise," and free competition, in P>ance
as elsewhere. It should also be remembered, to the credit
of the French bourgeoisie, that they tvere the fiist to get up
a public exposition of the skilled products of labor, to wit,
in Paris, and already as early as 1799, and thus started our
Universal Expositions, that have given rise to more new ideas
than the Crusades ever did. The middle classes, then, have
fulfilled their principal function, that for which they were
placed in power, splendidly, in France as well as elsewhere.

There is another good thing they have done, — not exactly
an immediate good, but good for our progress in the future,
— that is, that they have taught the masses innumerable
wants, made necessaries and decencies of life of a great
many things that were luxuries, or entirely unknown, in the
Middle Ages.

But what have they done to enable the masses to satisfy
these wants ?

Ah ! it is the great indictment against them, that they have
cared nothing at all for social wants, but only for their pri-
vate interests. That is why society does not now produce
all it can : because it would be prejudicial to the private
interests, to the profits, of the plutocracy. Of course they
have most miserably i)erformed those social duties which
Carlyle dins into their ears. But, then, the British middle
class, being first in the field, gave the French a very bad
precedent and example to follow.

What if Giffen can prove that the elite of the British
workers are a little better off than they were forty years ago?
The British working-class, as a whole, are not so well off as
their forefathers were al the end of the Middle Ages, when

^6 THE MIDDLE- CLASS REGIME. [1792-

four days' labor sufficed for a week's support. Hear Pro-
fessor Thorold Rogers, a middle-class economist himself:
"From 1563 to 1824, the very period when manufacturers
and traders were ac(iuiring immense fortunes, and the value
of agricultural lands was being trebled, a legal conspiracy
was entered into by both great political parties, and carried
out by those interested, to cheat the English workman of
his wages, to deprive him of hope, and degrade him into the
utmost poverty." And read that splendid little hook, -Dark-
ness aiid Daivn,^ written by a Christian Englishman, and its
brilliantly scathing denunciation of the English middle
classes ("whose hell is : not to make money," according to
Carlyle). Read how they hitched women and babes to the
machinery of production, invaded and broke up the flxmily
circle, introduced perilous and deadly conditions of labor,
deformed the human frame, inoculated the human body
with trade diseases from dust of steel, of flint, of rags, of
coal, from vapors of lead, gas, chlorine, acids, and muti-
lated the bodies of the workers with trade appliances, with
bands, wheels, and unprotected machinery ; read how they
cut wages down to the finest point, stretched the working
hours, " cropped " the dinner hours, and paid the serfs in
" truck."

The I''rcn(h followed this example, did even worse ; for
while the British plutocrats despised llieir working classes,
the French honri::;coisic manifested absolute Jiatrcd for theirs.
The I^nglish at least passed a poor-law, the French iicsccudcd
lo tlic /oii'csf Clinics.

One thuig that proves this charge is the sale of the
national estates. This whole damning record of crimes,
committed right after their coming into ])ower, which now has
been brought to light, explains the surprising i)olitical somer-
saults of the bourgeoisie immediately after the Revolution.

• I'liblihlicil by Ktjjaii I'aul & Co., Patcrnoslcr Square, London.

1792] DOIXCS OF THE '' BOURGEOISFEr 67

Historians have apijlaudcd the expropriation of clergy
and nobles, without inquiring into whose liands their estates
fell.. They tell of discourses, battles, constitutions, and
decrees, of every thing that dazzles ; but have been silent as
to the uninterrupted series of feverish, furious sales, — sales
amounting to milliards of francs, — not of course to those
who had only labor to give in exchange, but to those able
to pay cash, and pay quickly — or, who pretended to be
able. And if occasionally some patriotic voice was raised
in favor of the proletariat, the jobbers and financiers never
failed to evoke the spectre of " agrarian law."

The first lands confiscated were, as we saw, those of the
clergy, valued at that time at four hundred million dollars.
They consisted of rectories, priories, convents, chapels,
seminaries, castles, farmhouses, vineyards, forests, etc. First
they talked of selling eighty million dollars worth, to pay
the public debt, that is to say, to satisfy bankers and
capitalists ; at length they resolved to sell three hundred
and seventy-five million dollars worth : but not a sou was
appropriated to the poor, of whom yet there were a hundred
thousand in charity-houses in the large cities alone. These
lands w^ere bought up in the course of a couple of years, in
large blocks, by companies, or, as we should say now, syndi-
cates, of speculators and capitalists, who of course killed off
competition by people of small means ; and so raging was
the fever, that much land was sold which was not for sale at
all. Now, observe this : it was easy enough for these syndi-
cates to buy, for only twelve per cent was to be paid within
a short time after the sale ; the rest might have several years
to run. Thus it happened that the first terms arrived at
the commencement of 1792. Then considerable sums were
due, naturally, because heavy purchases had been made.
But the flow of money into the nation's coffers was very
slow, and finally slojjped entirely. The speculators, though

68 THE MIDDLE-CLASS REGIME. [Oct. .o,

in possession of the lands, and drawing revenues from them,
gave the course of the Revohition as an excuse, and, that
it might be an effective excuse, did considerable towards
fomenting the troubles and violence of this year. This, then,
was the first swindle. They had four hundred million dol-
lars worth of lantl, for which they as a rule had paid but
twelve per cent of its value ; we shall afterwards see how
audacious they became during the following year.

After Aug. lo, to be told of in the next chapter., two
other immense batches of lands were added to the stock from
which to plunder, — the communal lands, and the estates
of the emigrants. As the working-class greatly helped the
middle class to the successful issue of that day, it was re-
solved immediately after harvest to distribute the communal
lands — comprising about one-tenth of all the soil of France
— amongst all the inhabitants of the respective communes ;
and also, that the estates of the emigrants should be divided
into small lots, and sold to the poor on redeemable ground-
rents. But the middle classes knew how to circumvent
all that. On the loth of October, 1792, the Convention
(which we shall see by and by was dominated at first by the
plutocrats) resolved to defer the distribution of the com-
munal lands, "as it would in\'olve such an innnense amount
of labor ; " and in regard to the ])roperty of the emigrants
it determined to dispose, for tlie time being, but of the per-
sonal property. This latter was auctioned off with vigor, so
that in less than a month thereafter the rich and costly
beds, mirrors, paintings, bureaus, billiards, etc., of the
nobility adorned the mansions of the money-aristocracy.
A knowledge of these doings will very much explain the
political events that are to be related, — explain to a great
extent Marat and Hubert.

Of course these nefarious speculations were not limited
to land. Speculators and stock-jobbers are never restrained

1792

DOINGS OF THE '' BOURGEOISIEr

by the sentiments that move other men. They were, all
these first years of the Revolution, notoriously and defiantly
making " corners " in corn and other articles of food, and
thereby caused those horrible famines that decimated the
Parisians regularly every winter, except one sole winter when
the Jacobins, the Mountain party, were in power.

These are the deeds of the French bourgeoisie, when first
they step upon the scene as masters. Ah, those noble, gen-
erous thinkers Diderot, Rousseau, and others, their teachers,
who had prepared a way for their advent, and prayed for
it, in their way, as the dawn of a new golden age, had
never dreamt that such rascalities would be the immediate
result. And the record becomes more and more damning as
we proceed, even unto our days. The steady pursuit of the
French bourgeoisie is to fill their felonious pockets with gold,
coined out of the sweat and blood of their helpless ill-
starred brethren, — not in truth "brethren" in their eyes,
but a hated "lower class." Is it a wonder, if these hate
them in return ?

CHAPTER III.

THE COUNTER-REVOLUTION CRUSHED.
Oct. 1, 1791, to Jau. 21, 1793.

" Tu vcrras la Rcvolte, aux poings ensanglantes,

Tenir a ton chevet ses flambeaux agitcs!
{" Thou shall sec Revolt, luith bloody fists.

Hold flaring torches at thy bedside! ") — Didekot.

Conspiracy. — Aug. lo. — Invasion. — September Massacres. — War
OF Propaganda. — Louis' Head "a Gage of Battle."

THE Legislative Body, under the new constitution, met
immediately after the Constituent Assembly, on Oct.
I, 1791. It was composed wholly of new men, young men,
juiiidle-class men. It was decidedly more radical than its
predecessor : its right consisted of constitutional royalists,
its left of republicans, — the celebrated Girondins, who were
aspiring lawyers to a great extent, and talkers, some of
them very fine talkers. Its short existence of about a year
was spent almost entirely in defending the new regime
against its enemies.

'I'he emigration had made alarming progress. The King's
two brothers and the Prince of Conde had protested against
his acceptance of the constitution, asserting that he hail no
power to alienate the rights of the ancient monarchy.

The ambassadors of the emigrants were received by
foreign governments, wliile those of the actual iM-cnch (lov-
ernment were either sent back, or contemptuously received,
or in some instances even imprisoned ; and French travellers
and mercliants, suspected of palriulism and oi supporting the

1792.] CONSPIRACY. 71

Revolution, were suljjected to all sorts of indignities all over
Europe. Yet even these annoyances contributed to the
march of the Revolution, for they led the Legislature at
last to confiscate the property of the emigrants, and thus
added considerably to the basis of the assigiiais, — and also
to the fund to plunder from.

Meanwhile, the Emperor of Austria and the King of
Prussia, incited by the King's brothers, concentrated their
forces nearer and nearer the French frontiers. The King
and Queen of France themselves conspired with the for-
eigners.

Louis wrote on the 3d of December, 1791, to the em-
jieror, )\\aX, for recovering his absolute power, he had nothing
else to trust to than an unsuccessful war on the part of
France ; and the Queen in March, 1792, comm1.micated the
Frencli plan of campaign to the prospective enemy. She
wrote to ALircy, her Austrian confidant : " Dumouriez," at
that time the Girondin French minister of war, " having no
longer a doubt that the powers have come to an agreement
as to the march of their troops, has now the intention of
commencing the war by an attack on Savoy, and another on
the country surrounding Liege. It is the army of Lafayette
that is to make the latter attack : so the council has resolved
yesterday, and it is well to know the plans, in order to put
ourselves on guard, and take all necessary measures. Ac-
cording to all appearances, this will have to be done quickly."

And then, on July 25, 1792, appeared that ill-starred,
famous, or infamous, manifesto, dated at Coblentz, and
signed by the Duke of Brunswick, generalissimo of the
allied forces, which said : —

" Those of the French National Guards who fight against
the troops of the allied courts, and who shall be taken with
arms in their hands, will be punished as rebels against their
King.

^2 THE COUNTER-RF.VOLUTION CRUSHED. IJuiy 25,

"The inhabitants of all cities, towns, and villages who
shall dare to oppose the troops of their Imperial and Royal
Majesties, and shall shoot on them, either in the open field,
or from windows, doors, or other openings of their houses,
shall be punished summarily, according to all the rigor of
laws of war, and their houses demolished or burnt.

" The city of Paris and all its inhabitants, without distinc-
tion, are warned to submit immediately to the King, to place
that prince in full and complete liberty, and to secure to
him, and to all the royal personages, the inviolability which
the laws of nature and of nations demand of subjects towards
their sovereign. Their Imperial and Royal Majesties make
all the members of the Legislature, of the department, of
the municipality, and of the National Guard of Paris, as
well as justices of the peace, and every one else concerned,
responsible luitli their lieads for all that may happen, and
will have them tried by courts-martial, without hope of
pardon. Further, their said majesties declare, on their
words as Emperor and King, that if the palace of the Tui-
leries be forced or violated, or if there be offered the least
violence and outrage to the persons of their majesties the
King and Queen, and of the Royal Family, if care be not
taken to insure their security and liberty, they w'ill execute an
exemplary and ever-memorable vengeance, and deliver Paris
over to military execution and total destruction"

Now, in all candor, is it a wonder that Parisians, —
Parisians, remember, the most excitable population on the
face of the earth, — when they read that '' manifesto," be-
came enraged, even hysteric?

And yet the Parisians did not know the worst. They
did not know that this " manifesto " was the work of their
own King, Louis XVI.; that it was draughted from in-
structions confided by him to a Cicnevese journalist, Mallet
du Pan ; and that, in parlicuhir, the menace against Paris

,792] CONSPIRACY. 73

was, in that memorandum, indicated in the most explicit
manner.

It certainly was fatal to the King, his cause, and his party,
that he had to form all hopes of saving himself on the
success of the foreign enemies of France.

On the 30th of July the allied forces enter French terri-
tory. They consist of fifty thousand Prussians, in the finest
condition, and supported by an unusually large train, both
of heavy and field artillery, and with the King in person,
accompanied by his mistress, among them ; furthermore,
forty-five thousand Austrians, the greater part of them
veterans from the Turkish wars ; next, six thousand Hes-
sians ; and lastly, upwards of twelve thousand French emi-
grants, — in all, a hundred and thirteen thousand men.

Now, Danton ! you are called on to enter on the scene,
as an instrument in the hands of the Power behind Evolu-
tion, to crush this counter-Revolution, and to save France

and the Revolution !

* * *

That the insurrection of Aug. lO was a most legitimate
one, there can be no doubt. Here was the new France,
the Revolution, in a life-and-death struggle with the whole
ancient regime, and there were the constitutional defenders
of that new France in league with the invaders. It was an
imperious necessity to overthrow these constituted authorities,
and make them harmless ; patriotism demanded it.

It has been said that the insurrection was one made by
the whole population of Paris " in all its majesty." This is
nonsense. In the first place, a very definite plan was fol-
lowed, and a whole people can lay no plan, nor secure
unity of action ; and, next, the population of Paris was not
very " majestic " at that moment ; they were rather in that
state of hysterics which may be described as hysteric fear.

No, there were leaders then and there ; and the success

74 THE COUNTER-REVOLUTIOX CRTS 1 1 ED. Ijuiy,

was due to the leaders, as, indeed, in all popular move-
ments, the vast majority of the participants are mere imita-
tors. Danton, undoubtedly, was the soul of the movement,
th(nigh it is difficult to prove it, for, first, it was the out-
come of a conspiracy which is secret, and next, as already
said, he never wrote ; so we have, unfortunately, no memoirs
or letters from him, as from so many other lesser characters.
But he was, by all his contemporaries, looked upon as the
chief of that insurrection ; and Madame Robert, who spent
the night of it in Danton's house, anxious about the safety
of her husband, said to Lucille Desmoulins, Camille's wife :
" But this Danton, who is the centre of this thing ! If my
husband perishes, I am that kind of woman that I shall kill
him."

Of course he had co-workers, also, in laying the plans.
First, there were the members of his club, which now was
joined by the Alsatian soldier Westermann, who will lead the
people in the assault farther on ; then there was a com-
mittee which the sections had appointed to demand the
King's deposition of the Legislature, and composed of most
notable men, like Destournelles, director-general of the
registry ; Cournand, professor of literature at the College
of France ; Restout, member of the Academy of Painting ;
Chambon, of the Royal Society of Medicine ; and more
than thirty lawyers, judges, and merchants ; then the Gi-
rondin members of the Legislature faithfully abetted him.
One of these, Barbaroux, deputy from Marseilles, called on
that city to send five hundred men " who know how to die ; "
in response to which call, three times five hundred deter-
mined men left their tools and their forges, and started on
their memorable march llirough the heart of France, singing
that inspiriting song, just composed by a young officer,
Rouget de Lisle, at Strasl)Ourg, and ever since called after
them, The Mdiscillaisc. This song, by the way, is not a

1792.] AUGUST TENTH. 75

revolutionary one at all, nor even a republican song (Rouget
de Lisle broke his sword when he heard of the abolition of
royalty), but an appeal to rise to repel invasion. How their
footfalls through France are listened to by the conspirators,
for the insurrection will be timed by their arrival ! This
fact alone, that these strangers were so very much needed,
does not speak very highly for the revolutionary spirit of the
Parisians of those days. At last they arrive, on July 30, a
Sunday, and Danton puts them into quarters in his district,
near his club. During the week all the arrangements for
the insurrection are then made.

Last of all, Danton prepares himself for the worst. On
the Sunday following he goes to Arcis-sur-Aube, because,
as he said before the Revolutionary Tribunal, " Danton is a
good son. I wanted to say good-by to ray mother, and settle
my affairs." He settles the house in which his mother lived
on her, and on his stepfather if the latter should outlive
her.

At midnight, between the 9th and loth of August, the
decisive moment had arrived. The alarm-bell sounded, and
ceased not the whole night. It was a warm, beautiful, star-
lit night. The streets were crowded with dense masses
of the people. With the first sounds of the bell, delegates
from about half the sections of Paris wended their way to-
ward the Hotel de Ville, where they found the legal muni-
cipal body in session, and sullen. The members of this
body were invited to disperse, and did so with alacrity. The
delegates took their vacant places, and thus the first revo-
lutionary Commune of Paris was formed.

The next important step taken was for the new Commune
to summon before it IMandat, the commandant of the Na-
tional Guards, a man determined to defend the King's palace
and the King to the best of his ability, and who had disposed
the most faithful of his troops to the best advantage. He

•j6 riTE COUNTER-REVOLUTION CRUSHED. lAug.io,

obeyed, ignorant of the change that had taken place. When
he appeared he was put under arrest. These two steps
assured the success of the insurrection.

Danton, who had been present, now went to the Chib of
the Cordehers, where the Marseillais were ready and waiting.
He electrified them with these few words, " You hear the
alarm-bell : it is the voice of the people. You have hastened
from the extremity of the empire to the head of the nation,
which is menaced by the conspiracies of despotism. May
that bell sound the last hour of kings ! To arms, and ^a
ira! " Scarcely had he finished, when " Qa ira " shook the
very vaults of the building, and the Marseillais went about
their business. Danton went home to snatch a few moments'
sleep with his clothes on, on his couch, while his faithfully
sympathetic wife watched and wept beside him. It was
not long before he was again summoned to his club.

It was now daybreak. The insurrectionists were poorly
equipped, mostly with pikes, and, to tell the truth, poor in
spirits. Indeed, it was necessary that Westermann should
take Santerre, the redoubtable commander of the fiercest
faubourg, that of St". Antoine, by the throat, and with drawn
sabre force him to march. The Marsellais were the only
men that presented any military appearance. They were
all now marching on the Tuileries. There was one inter-
ested spectator, — Napoleon Bonaparte. He was of opinion
that with one solid regiment he could have dispersed the
whole crowd, as no doubt he could have done.

The royal family had Swiss mercenaries and some gentle-
men jKMisioners to defend themselves with. When Mandat's
arrest and death — he was later on, in being taken to prison,
killed Ity a pistol-shot from a bystander — were learned,
Louis was advised not to attempt any defence ; so at seven
in the morning he collected his family around him, said
" tnarchons," and all marched to the hall of the Legislature,

1792.] AUGUST TENTH. 77

under whose protection he placed liimself and family. They
were temporarily accoinmodatcd with a small /r'^i,r in the
gallery, where the King soon was engaged in his usual morn-
ing occupation, — eating a roast chicken.

The gentlemen who had gathered around their King for
his defence escaped from the palace by various exits. But
it was a great, great pity that the King did not, before
leaving, order the Swiss not to resist ; for just now, when
the whole object of the insurrection had been gained, the
insurrectionists reached the palace and demanded access.
It was refused. Westermann and the Marseillais tried per-
suasive words, but in vain. Somehow, then, some shots hap-
pened to go off, which rent holes in the roof of the palace ;
and immediately the Swiss answered with a discharge of
musketry, which left a great number of patriots dead or
dying.

And now commenced a terrible battle. Even Mandat's
faithful guards took sides against the Swiss. The Marseillais
fought most gallantly. Each, as he fell, bequeathed his gun
to his comrades, and pointed to the pockets where his last
cartridges were ; and dying lips cried out, " Revenge us ! "
There were twelve hundred Swiss defenders, and but a very
few were taken prisoners.

Thus ended the royalty of Louis XVI., and this was the
answer to Brunswick's " manifesto." And now were

found among the King's papers indubitable proofs of Mira-
heau's treason to the popular cause. His body had been
taken to the Pantheon accompanied by a whole people :
his bones were now soon to be ejected ignominiously from
the national temple. But the ivorsf was, that the people
became savagely suspicious, and turned with ever-growing
confidence, with worship even, to Robespierre, the incorrupt-
ible. It was this suspicion of capable friends, and worshi[)
of imbecility if only " incorruptible," that caused all the

78 THE COUXTER-RFA'OLUTIOX CRUSHED. [Aug. n.

sul)sc(iucnt disasters ; and should be a great warning to us,
for this horrible, unhealthy suspicion is altogether too preva-
lent with us, i.e., in our labor parties. Robespierre was, the
day after, elected a member of the Commune by one of
the sections that had been unrepresented during the night
of Aug. 10 ; and Marat, the suspicious and bloodthirsty
Marat, though not a member, also installed himself in its
place of meeting to watch and direct.

* * * ''

Danton was energetic enough, not alone to make the
insurrection a success, but to gather all the fruits of the vic-
tory, and bear all its burdens. At ten o'clock the next day
he was virtually dictator. The Legislature, by 222 out of
284 votes, appointed him minister of justice.

\Ve can have no better comment on this appointment
than the words of the celebrated Girondin and philosopher,
Condorcet, written while he was wandering about proscribed
and devoted to the guillotine, and Uanton still apparently
in power ; —

"They have reproached me for voting for Danton for
minister of justice. Here are my reasons : It was necessary
to have in the government a man who had the confidence
of those who had just overturned the throne ; a man who,
by his ascendency, could keep in order the many unruly
instruments of a Revolution which undoubtedly was useful,
glorious, and necessary ; a man with such talents and char-
acter that he would be agreeable to his fellow-ministers and
the members of the .Assembly. Danton alone had these
qualities. I chose him, and I do not regret it. Perhaps
he deferred too much to popular ideas, and carried into
public affairs too much the people's notions ; but the only
thing which, in times of revolution, can save the laws, is,
to act with the people by directing it, and all parties who
have separated themselves from the i)eoj)le have ended by

Z792.] INVASION. 79

ruining tlicmselves and the people at the same time. Be-
sides, Danton has that precious quality which ordinary men
never have, of neither hating nor fearing those who are
wise, talented, and virtuous."

This is the estimate of Danton by a just man.

The following day Danton presents himself before the
Legislature to take the oath, and on that occasion utters
these memorable words : " Whenever justice regains its
regular course, popular vengeance should cease. I engage
myself to protect those within your jurisdiction. I shall
march at their head, and be responsible for them." " They
applaud," says the Moniteur of the next day. Ah, Danton,
you have good intentions, but you will find you have taken
too great an engagement, even for you !

There are plenty of other things for him to do. The
court party was defeated, but not vanquished. All the
journals of the day, moreover, agree that great numbers
of provincials were flocking to Paris from all sides. None
could say whether it was the advancing enemy, or a wish
to free the King, that moved them. The suspicious Parisians
generally said to one another, " They come to betray us the
more surely when the enemy is before our gates."

And look at the terrible situation. On the i8th of
August, Lafayette cowardly deserts his camp and his sol-
diers.

On the 2 2d the Vendean peasants rise in insurrection.
Eight hundred of them occupy Chatillon, crying, " Live the
King ! Death to the Parisians ! "

On the 23d the Austrians take Longwy. In the South-
east the French territory had already been violated by the
Sardinians.

France believed itself lost, and was not far from it.

The Girondins were in power, but also in despair. There
was only Danton self-confident, lie took the rudder of

So THE COUXTER-RFA'OLUTION CRUSHED. [Aug. 13.

state ; lie made his colleagues into his clerks ; he imposed
his will on the Girondin ministers, Roland, Servan, Lebrun ;
he took upon himself to direct foreign affairs, the war-ofifice,
the ministry of the interior, besides his own officers.

There is ample evidence for that. Let us take the one
witness to whom are due nearly all the bad opinions the
world has had of Danton, — the hysteric recriminations of
the wife of Minister Roland, of that Madame Roland who,
for some time after Aug. 10, fancied herself queeti of
France : —

" It is a great pity that the Council sliall be spoiled by
that D., who has so bad a reputation. . . . No one could
show a greater zeal, a greater love for liberty, a more lively
desire to agree with his colleagtics, in order to seit'e it. I
looked at his repulsive face, and though I said to myself
that I was sure of nothing against him, that the most honest
man must, in times like these, have two reputations, I yet
could not imagine an honest man with such a face. . . .
He was continually in the 7var huj-eaux.'"

And he himself said afterwards, " I was just as much an
adjunct of the war-ofifice, as concerned with my own de-
partment."

What then did he do? These three great things: He
took the lead in crushing the counter- Revolution in Paris,
in expelling the invading enemy, and in planting the re-
public on a secure foundation.

Observe the scanty means at his disposal. To oppose to
the disciplined troops of the allies, the French had mainly
raw recruits, badly equipped, badly commanded, antl who
were without confidence in their chiefs.

A year afterwards Danton thus described the situation to
the Convention, without being contradicted : " Last year,
in the Ivxecutive Council, I took, on my own responsibility,
the necessary measures to infuse into the i)eople the grand

1792. J INVASION.

impulse to march to the frontiers. . . , Let me remind you
of the terrible Revolution of August. The whole of Paris
was then on fire. The Parisians would not go outside of
their walls. Excellent patriots feared to leave their hearth-
stones, because they suspected enemies and conspirators
within. I have myself (for sometimes it is necessary to
speak of one's self) called, I say, the Executive Council
together, and with them the heads of sections, the members
of the Commune, and a committee of the Legislature. We
agreed upon the measures to be taken, and the people
seconded our efforts."

Danton was very modest here. This is, in fact, all he
has himself told us of what he did. We must gather the
rest from the public documents, from his speeches, and
the splendid results obtained.

First, then, he had Dumouriez appointed commander-in-
chief, considering him rightly the ablest general France
then had.

Paris and the surrounding departments are then called
on immediately to furnish fifty thousand men ; thirty thou-
sand of these to depart for the frontier, and twenty thousand
to form a camp outside the walls of Paris.

But the Parisians murmur, " Depart? Yes, we shall do
so ; but first we want to be assured that our wives and chil-
dren are not left to the mercies of conspirators within."

Then it is, in the evening of Aug. 28, that Danton speaks
these weighty words in the Assembly : —

" The executive power has charged me to tell the Legis-
lature the measures we have taken for the safety of the
country. I shall defend these measures as a revolutionary
minister. Hitherto we have made war in the sham fashion
of Lafayette. Our warfare is to be a more terrible one. All
that can materially serve us in our situation ought to be
done. The executive power Ins appointed commissioners to

82 THE COUNTER-REVOLUTION CRUSHED. [Aug. ag,

go into the departnienls and innuence oiiinion. We think
that you, too, should appoint delegates to accompany ours,
so that the concert of the representatives of the two author-
ities may have its due effect.

" We further propose to you to authorize the municipalities,
to recruit the best men they have, and equip them well.

" We have shut the gates of the capital, and for good rea-
sons. It is important to seize all conspirators, but there are
thirty thousand of them. It is necessary that they be airested
to-morrow, so that to-morrow there may be free communi-
cation between Paris and all the rest of France.

" We ask of you authority to make house-searches. There
ought to be in Paris eighty thousand muskets in good state.
Well, those who have arms should fly to the frontiers. The
nations who have conciuered Liberty have done so by flying
at the enemy. What would France say if Paris should, in
stupor, wait for the arrival of the enemy ?

" Numerous forces will soon be assembled here. Only
give the municipalities authority to take all that is necessary
on engaging themselves to indemnify the owners. All be-
longs to the Fatherland when the Fatherland is in danger."

These are the two ideas that form the insj)iration, the
flame, of Danton's eloquence, — Liberty and Fatherland.
It is by these ideas, which he may be said to clothe in the
form of religious dogmas, that he incites his people to sacri-
fices. There is another thing worthy of notice : the meas-
ures he proposes are always such as should be done now,
immediately. He proposes them in the form of motions,
they become laws the same moment, and he himself causes
them to be instantly executed.

Thus the house-searches take place the very same night.
We can form an idea of them from the following description
by Peltier, a royalist : —

" Let the reader fancy to himself a vast metropolis, the

1792.] INVASION. 83

streets of which, a few days before, were alive with carriages
and citizens constantly passing and re-passing, — let him
fancy to himself, I say, streets so populous and animated
suddenly struck with the dead silence of the grave before
sunset on a fine summer evening. All the shops are shut ;
everybody retires into the interior of his house, trembling
for life and property. All are in fearful expectation of the
events of a night, during which even the efforts of despair
are not likely to afford the least resource to any individual.
The sole object of these ' domiciliary visits,' it is pretended,
is to search for arms. The barriers, however, are shut and
guarded with the strictest vigilance, and boats are stationed
on the river at regular distances, filled with armed men.
Every one supposes that he is informed against ; everywhere
persons and property are being hidden and stowed away ;
everywhere are heard tlie interrupted sounds of the muffled
hammer, as some one, with cautious knock, is completing a
hiding-place. Roofs, garrets, sinks, chimneys, — all are just
the same to fear, incapable of calculating any risk. Here a
man squeezed up behind the wainscot, which has been nailed
back on him, seems to form a part of the wall ; there another
is suffocated, between fear and heat, between mattresses ; a
third, rolled up in a cask, loses all sense of existence by the
tension of his sinews. Fear is everywhere stronger than
l)ain. Men tremble, but they do not shed tears ; the heart
shivers, the eye is dull, and the breast contracted. Women
display prodigies of tenderness and intrepidity. It was by
them that most of the men were concealed. It was

one o'clock in the morning when the domiciliary visits
began. Patrols, consisting each of sixty pikemen, were in
every street. The nocturnal tumult of so many armed
men, the incessant knocks to make jieople open their doors,
the crash of those that were burst off tlieir hinges, and the
uproar that reigned the whole night lonj in the public

84 THE COUNTER-REVOLUTION CRUSHED. [Sept. 2,

houses, formed together a picture that never will be effaced
from my memory."

The result was, the prisons and houses of detention were
filled with some three thousand prisoners. Of course it was
impossible to arrest the whole batch of thirty thousand con-
spirators of whom Danton talked, but his object was gained :
all who were not arrested were thoroughly intimidated, and
by that blow he had virtually already crushed the countcr-
Revolution inside Paris.

On the morning of the following Sunday, Sept. 2, the
people read the following proclamation by the Commune,
posted up on all the walls of Paris : —

" Citizens, the enemy is at our gates. Verdun, which just
now detains him, can hold out only some eight days. The
citizens who defend it have sworn to die rather than surren-
der ; that means that they are going to make a wall around
us with their bodies. It is your duty to fly to their assist-
ance. Citizens, march immediately under your flags ! Come,
let us meet to-day on the Champ de Mars, and form, the
very same moment, an army of sixty thousand men. Let us
go to expire under the blows of the enemy, or to exterminate
him under ours."

And in the forenoon of the same day a committee from
the Commune appears at the bar of the Legislature, and
makes the communication that the alarm-cannon will sound
in an instant, to invite all patriotic citizens of Paris and neigh-
boring departments to be on the Champ de Mars, and march
against the enemy.

The Legislature then, on the proposition of Danton, de-
crees the punishment of death against everybody who, pos-
sessing arms, shall refuse either to march in person or give
up the arms.

And Danton makes a last effort to direct the popular
feeling against the invading enemy : —

1792.] INVASION. 85

" Gentlemen, it is a satisfaction to the ministers of a free
people to be able to announce to you tliat our fatlierland
will be saved. Everybody is ready, and burns to strike the
blow. You know that Verdun is not yet in tlie power of
the enemy, and you have learnt that the garrison has prom-
ised to immolate the first one who proposes to surrender.

" A part of our people will go to the frontier, another part
will go outside the walls of our city, and a third part keep
order inside. The Commune has just proclaimed, in a sol-
emn manner, its invitation to citizens to arm and march to
the defence of our country. This is the proper time for you,
gentlemen, to declare that the capital has merited well of
the whole of France.

"This also is the time for the Legislature to constitute
itself into a committee of the whole for war. Assist us in
directing the sublime enthusiasm of the people, and appoint
delegates who will second us in our grand measures, and
send out couriers to all departments to make known the
decrees you will render.

" The cannon you will hear is not so much an alarm-sig-
nal. It is a sign to charge on the enemies of the country.
All that we need is audacity, again audacity, and forever
audacity, and our country is saved."

Alas ! at the very moment when Danton spoke these words,
by which he simply wanted to infuse into his hearers his own
self-confidence and courage, as he so often did, — those ter-
rible murders, of which Parisians to all eternity should be
ashamed, were being committed in all the prisons. We shall
immediately see that Danton had no part in them at all.
He was the reverse of cruel and bloodthirsty.

These September massacres made all his colleagues,
Roland in particular, lose their heads. They demanded the
translation of the government to Tours or Blois, behind the
Loire.

S6 THE COUNTER-RF. VOLUTION CRUSHED. \%<t^u

Danton, at this proposition, shakes his Hon head : —

" France is in Paris. To abandon Paris is to deliver
France and the Revolution to our enemies. If we give
way, we are undone. We must maintain our ground by
all possible means, and save ourselves by audacity."

Then Danton hurries to the Champ de Mars, where
thousands upon thousands of soldiers enroll themselves in
the armies. What language he spoke there, tradition does
not tell us ; but we know it was his words that vibrated
throughout France from Dunkirk to Marseilles, and that in
France words have an influence and a power to move that
they have in no other country. How he could move his
people, is well shown by an incident that must have occurred
about this time : — '

A crowd of women, mothers and wives of the men who
had gone to the frontiers, met Danton in the street, and
upbraided him for causing their sons and husbands to ex-
pose themselves to death and slaughter. Danton answered,
and spoke of the fatherland, to whom the children belong
rather than to father and mother. He spoke with such a
violent tenderness about France, while the tears commenced
to run down that rugged face of his, like unto a dead vol-
cano, that the women entirely broke down, and shed tears
themselves for France rather than for their dear ones.

Danton from tliat period, and ever after, stands as the
embodiment of patriotism, the personificatiun of France in
danger and P'rance saved.

While, however, Danton was unceasingly pushing men to
the frontiers, the allies were constantly ap])roaching Paris.
Put Dumouriez had so manrcuvred tliat he had got tlie Prus-
sians between his own army and the ca]")ital. In tliat way
the chances of the two ])arties had become about equal. The
fate of the Prussian army on the one hand, and of France
uu the other, seemed lo tlcpeml on the outcome of a battle

179*.] IXVASION. S,y

which was imminent every day. But the Prussian troops
were veterans, while the French were raw recruits. Danton,
therefore, was wilhng to avail himself of any means to avert
the danger. He resolved to negotiate ; and it is a question
whether his negotiations or recruiting did most to save
France. He ordered Dumouriez to enter into correspond-
ence with the Duke of Brunswick and the King of Prussia.
It must be remembered that the latter power was not the
national enemy of France that it has now become. Austria,
however, was the hereditary foe. It must also be borne in
mind, that this was just the year when Poland was being
partitioned between Prussia, Austria, and Russia. Danton,
in fact, made such a good use of the rivalry of the allies in
the East, in his negotiations, that their alliance immediately
commenced to loosen.

Meanwhile the cannonade at Valmy (so called because
it was no battle, or scarcely a skirmish) occurred. It was
an effort to dislodge the French from one of their positions,
and was vnisuccessful. On the same day the King of
Prussia learned that the Convention had proclaimed France
a republic ; and a third element enters into play, that must
not be omitted.

An anon}'mous publication, the Memoirs of a Statesman,
long supposed to be by the Prince of Hardenberg, but
which, at all events, is by a German statesman, and which
made a good deal of noise in its day, contains this item :
" The Countess of Lichtenau, the King's mistress, yielding
to a large bribe from the French government, employed her
too powerful influence to cause the King to retreat." We
know that Danton liad a large sum of secret-service funds
at his command, for which he afterwards accounted to the
council of ministers, but the use of which he always obsti-
nately refused publicly to disclose, even before the Revolu-
tionary Tribunal ; and we also know that Danton was not

88 THE COUNTER-REVOLUTIOX CRUSHED. [Sept.,

above corrupting others for patriotic purposes, of which
more anon.

This we know, that whatever the motive, and in spite of
the entreaty of the French princes to march on Paris, the
King of Prussia, on the 29lh of September, revoked the
orders given for a battle, and ordered a retreat. The Prus-
sian army folds its tents and marches away, — a most sorry
ending to their bombastic " manifesto," — the French army
quietly looking on, without pursuing or harassing it in any
way, to the great scandal of Marat, who wanted the Prus-
sians " annihilated."

The French Republic, however, owes its salvation to this
retreat of the Prussians. As soon as they are out of the
country, Dumouriez commences to drive back the Austrians,
and succeeds so well that a week after there is not an enemy
on French soil ; so that Danton, on Oct. 4, can move a
declaration in the Convention that " the fatherland is no
more in danger."

And we know, lastly, that Danton performed herculean
labors in the way of securing the republic on firm founda-
tions. There were two means to employ for that purpose.
One was to replace all the royal functionaries with as sound
republicans as could be had, which was done ; the other was
to influence the opinion of the country, to republicani/.e it.
We have already heard Danton announce that the Hxecutive
Council had resolved to send commissioners to all the depart-
ments for that purpose, and ask the Legislature to do like-
wise. This was of the highest importance, for it had already
been resolved that a convention should immediately be
elected to finally settle the government of France, and it was
naturally desired that this conveiition should be republican.

One of the last acts of the Legislature — a generous act,
without ])recedent — was to confer French citizenshi]) on
the fcjllowing foreigners: Priestley, I'aine, IJcnlham, W'ilber-

1792.1 SErTEMBER MASSACRES. 89

force, Clarkson, Mackintosh, David Williams, Gordon, Ikuon
de Cloots, Campe, Corneille, Pan, Pestalozzi, Washington,
Hamilton, Madison, Klopstock, Kosciusko, and Schiller.
They were thus qualified to be elected to the Convention.

In the month of October, Dumouriez pays a visit to Paris,
and Danton does the honors of the young republic to him
at the Convention and at the Jacobin Club. Everywhere
the two are applauded by the people as the saviors of

France.

* * *

Danton is entirely innocent of the September massacres.
The historians who, repeating one after the other, have
charged him even with being an instigator of them, have
been cruelly unjust.

There is not a document, not an order, not a memoran-
dum, not a letter or scrap of a letter, or any thing that
proves this charge, or in any way connects Danton with the
crime ; further, if any authority was connected with it, it
was die Commune, but Danton had resigned his prosecutor-
ship when he became minister, and did not visit the Com-
mune at all during or before those terrible days, having his
hands full at the Executive Council ; and lastly, what is
absolutely conclusive, when in 1 796 certain " Septcinbri-
sciirs,'" as they were called, were tried and condemned,
Dantoii's name was not once mentioned, either by accusers,
accused, or witnesses.

\Vhat happened all through 2d, ^(.X, 4th, and 5th of Sep-
tember was diis : —

We have seen the Parisians thrown into perfect hysterics
by Brunswick's manifesto, and the entry of the allies on
French territory. At first, the dread of a conspiracy within
Paris was added, and the result was hysteric terror. When,
by Danton's efforts, that dread was removed, it changed
into hysteric rage ; and that rage increased as volunteers

90 THE COUXTER-RF. VOLUTION CRUSHED. [Sept..

from the departments flocked into Paris, and the enemy
came to within a hundred miles of the capital. Then it
was that these volunteers and a part of the population of
Paris put to death, after a sort of judgment, nearly all of the
counter-revolutionists collected in the prisons and houses
of detention, after the " domiciliary visits," and that without
either the rest of the population, or the National Guards,
or the army, or the authorities doing any thing to pre-
vent it.

Of late a great many Frenchmen have been at consider-
able trouble to prove that these massacres were " anony-
mous ; " that is to say, that they were not the work of any
individual or individuals in particular, but that they were the
work of the whole population, who took part in them directly
or indirectly, and that no human authority would have been
able to prevent them.

I believe that is a true explanation, but I cannot see at all
how that makes the matter better, either for Parisians or
Frenchmen ; it makes it, in my eyes, rather worse. The
fact really seems to be this : that while Frenchmen, in
ordinary times, are, besides being a proverbially polite, also
an exceedingly generous nation, they, when excited, fall into
two groups, one exceedingly cowardly and the other fiend-
ishly cruel. Cruel, I mean, not brutal, like British roughs,
who, I am sure, would never take into their heads to scoop
out the eyes of a fallen enemy with a i)air of scissors, as
Frenchwomen did during the Revolution. Now, this cruel
j)orlion needed but a small part of the instigation that daily
was contained in Marat's paper, to commit the murders ; and
the rest were in such cowardly fear, that, not to speak of
trying to prevent tliem, ihey dared not show consternation,
disapjjrobation, but even ap])lauded — from terror.

And under these circumstances, without any evidence, to
have buried 1 )anton for nearly a century under IJie load

1792- ] SEPTEMBER MASSACRES. 91

of infamy of having instigated these outrages, — it is reall}-
atrocious !

But why did he not prevent them ? Was he not minister
of justice?

Well, and as such it was not at all, in spite of the big words
he spoke on taking the oath of office, specially within his
jurisdiction to prevent them. He had, as such, simply to
attend to the administration of justice, but had nothing to
do tvith the maintenance of oi-der, or security of the prisons.
That came partly within the jurisdiction of the Commune of
Paris, partly of the minister of the interior, Roland. Why
did not Roland do sojnething ? He used none of the means
placed at his disposal.

As to the Legislative Body, " it wanted to prevent the
slaughter, and it could not,'' says Mignet ; and I suppose
that is the fact.

But Danton could, nevertheless, have interposed his great
influence with the people, and tried to bring them to reason.
Yes, of course, he, knowing the perfect uselessness of his
efforts, could have gone and deliberately sacrificed himself,
or at least sacrificed all his influence, and made himself
impossible as the savior of France, the republic, and the
Revolution. That might have been the conduct of a saint,
but not of a wise patriot ; and I never claim for Danton that
he was a saint, but simply a whole, honest man.

We have a fact to prove that Danton was not in league
with the " Septembrisenisy The Commune of Paris had
ordered Adrian Duport, an ex-member of the Constituent
Assembly, and a political enemy of Danton, to be arrested
outside of the territory of the Commune, and brought to
Paris. If that order had been obeyed, Duport would cer-
tainly have been massacred. As soon as it was brought to
Danton's notice, he, in spite of repeated re7nonstrances front
Marat and Billaud- Varcnnes, — of whom we shall hear

92 THE COUNTER-RFA'OIMTIOX C/U'SJUC/l iSept.,

more in the future, — promptly and energetically directed,
by virtue of his authority as minister of justice, that Duport
should not be taken to Paris, but tried at the jurisdiction
where the arrest took place. That was done, and he was
acquitted.

And now, again, appears Madame Roland, and adds her
accusation : " History will undoubtedly preserve the infa-
mous circular of the Commune, which glorified the massacres
of September, and instigated all France to go and do like-
wise, — circular which was sent out in profusion under the
countersign of the minister of justice."

Yes, history has preserved it fortunately ; and it is a most
infamous circular, dated the 3d of September, and signed,
among others, by Marat and Billaud : but Madame Roland is
deceived in one particular ; it does not bear the countersign
of Danton, or of the ministry of justice, and has not the
name of Danton anywhere.

But Alai-afs name is there : he certainly instigated suffi-
ciently to such acts in general, he declared himself ready to
take the responsibility ; so let him have it ! He was in his
person the very embodiment of that mixture of suspicion,
terror, and cruelty which dominated the Parisians ; of that
mental state in hysteric women who one moment may be
terribly frightened by a little animal, and the next moment,
when it is caught, savagely wring its neck. That he, however,
was perfectly honest there cannot be a doubt ; but his con-
ceit, his pretensions, were so immoderate as to amount to
positive insanity. He liked to give snatches of liiography
of himself in his journal, and here is one morsel : —

" From my inflmcy T have been consumed with a yearning
for distinction. In all my studies 1 carry along with me a
holy respect for virtue, and my dominant })assion, the love
for renown. I dare (latter myself tliat I have not missed
my aim, judging from tlie unworthy persecution to which I

1792] IVA7! OF PROPAGANDA.

have been subjected during the last ten years by the mem-
bers of the Royal Academy of Sciences, as soon as they
learned that my discoveries on light upset all their work
during the last century, and tliat I myself had no wish to
enter their society ! "

But when he was assassinated, next year, his whole wealth
amounted to twenty-one cents. It is also to his credit, that
he did not, like He'bert later on, descend to addressing the
people in coarse and vulgar language,

Danton despised him. Once the former said, " I declare
to the Convention that I by no means like the individual
Marat, I freely avow that I have experienced his temper-
ament, and found it not alone volcanic and bitter, but un-
sociable." And on another occasion, " I have been accused
of being the author of some of this man's [Marat's] writings.
I call your presiding officer [the Girondin Petion] to witness.
He has read the threatening letter sent me by Marat ; he has
overheard an altercation which took place between us at the
viairie.'' This altercation turned upon nothing less than an
order of arrest issued by Marat, during the days of Septem-
ber, against Roland, which Danton tore in pieces, declaring
it should never be executed. Indeed, as we shall

afterwards see, Danton's humane behavior during these
September days may precisely be what mainly caused his

downfall.

* * *

Now the National Convention, the most remarkable
assembly of any on record, meets ; and the Legislative Body
dissolves on Sept, 21, 1792, Danton, Herault de S^chelles,
Camille Desmoulins, Fabre, Robert, Philip (formerly d'Or-
leans, now Egalite), Robespierre, Marat, Billaud-Varennes,
with others, are members from Paris among these eight hun-
dred and fifty " conventionals," Of the foreigners on whom
French citizenship was conferred, Priestley, Thomas Paine,

94 THE COUNTER REVOLUTIOX CRUSHED. [Oct.,

and Baron dc Cloots have been elected meml)ers by various
departments ; of these the last two take their seats. This is
the most radical of all assemblies, so far ; here the Girondins
form the Right, and the jjarty of Robespierre, Marat, and
Billaud, the Jacobins, or the Mountain, the Left. The mem-
bers of no particular convictions, except this, that they were
all republicans, form the Centre, or the Plain, and make the
majority by supporting either the Girondins or the Mountain.
Generally they go with the former, up to May 31. They'are
those who save their heads, and later on become great men,
and — write memoirs. Danton, at first, frequently consti-
tutes himself leader of this Plain, and tries, in that capacity,
to reconcile Right and Left.

The first business done by the Convention on the first day
of its session — the day of the autumnal equinox, by the
way — is to decree the abolition of royalty, and the estab-
lishment of the French Republic ; an easy thing to do, since
it has already been created, and a few days more will see
the last enemy driven from French soil. On the same day
Danton resigns his office as minister of justice.

But this very ease with which France had got rid of the
invaders, together with the usual French worship of princi-
ples, and impatience for applying them, gave rise to a policy
which like a whirlwind took possession of the Girondins,
and, to some extent, of the Mountain party, and ruled the
Convention from the first day of its session, throughout 1792,
and the first part of 1793. This policy was the so-called
-d'.-ir of propaganda.

The whole philosophy of the eighteenth century had been
a laying-down of " principles," and deductions from them.
The Constituent Assembly had preceded its constitution
witli a declaration of the rights of man, which was a string
of such " principles," or ideas, evolved out of the philoso-
phers' own consciousness; tlie main one of which was that

1792.] IVA/^ OF PROPAGANDA. 95

of Rousseau's, affirming the scnrrcigii/y of tlic people, which
the repubhc had now for the first time really realized.

Since these "rights" were looked upon as absolute and
universal, belonging to all mankind, without exception of
time and place, the conclusion followed, that royalty is
everywhere illegitimate, and against nature, a tyranny and a
usurpation ; and that it is the duty of every free people to
overthrow it at home, and, next, to assist other nations in
doing likewise.

The principal agitator of these doctrines was, curiously
enough, a Prussian, a millionnaire and a nobleman, — that
Baron de Cloots whom we have seen elected a member of
the Convention. In fact, with him these doctrines con-
stituted a whole system. There was but one sovereign,
Humanity ; one law, the Rights of Man ; one kind of gov-
ernment, that of dividing the whole earth into autonomous
municipalities and communes, with Paris for centre. It will
be noticed that these are precisely the notions of our anar-
chists, who have received them in true apostolic succession
through the later H^bertists, from Cloots. It is really curious
that such crude notions could take the whole Convention,
composed of educated men, by storm ; but, as a fact, they
did, with the exception of Danton and his closer friends.
But they, apparently, thought it impossible for some time to
oppose the current, for they kept silence ; but Danton, nev-
ertheless, as we shall see afterwards, goes on negotiating with
foreign powers whenever he can get an opportunity, which
is in flagrant contradiction with the doctrine, which does not
allow of any parleying with " tyrants." And we shall also
see, that, as soon as the policy commences to prove mis-
chievous to the interests of France, Danton courageously
stems the tide, and timely turns it.

But at the opening of the Convention, when patriotic fer-
vor was at its highest, and the French armies were victo-

96 THE COUNTER-REVOLUTION CRUSHED. [Nov. ig,

riously confronting Belgium, then under the dominion of
Austria, the hereditary foe that had invaded their country,
this pohcy of armed propaganda seemed very dazzhng.
Moreover, the Belgian middle classes, speaking the French
language, had naturally become infected with the French rev-
olutionary ideas, and implored French intervention. It was
therefore in the nature of things that the Convention should
resolve to invade and free Belgium. One battle, that of
Jemappes, won by Dumouriez, settled the fate of the'' cam-
paign. In a few weeks the French were masters of the whole
country, and received with open arms by its middle classes.
At the same time, at the South-east, a French army occupies
Savoy, belonging to Sardinia, without a blow, and is received
with the same enthusiasm.

Then the Convention cannot contain itself, but goes to
work to pass, unanimously and with enthusiasm, the remark-
able decree of Nov. 19, 1792, which is a most complete
and energetic legal expression of this anarchic theory and
policy : —

"The National Convention declares, in the name of the
French nation, that it offers fraternity and support to all na-
tions who wish to recover their liberty, and charges the exec-
utive power that it give the necessary instructions to our
generals, that they may give assistance to such nations, and
defend all citizens who have been, or may be, liarmed for
their devotion to liberty. It is further resolved that this
resolution shall be translated and printed in all /angi/ages,
and then distributed."

Danton was present at this extraordinary session, but said
nothing. He probably thought that this policy would not,
for Uie time being, have any mischievous consequences for
the Revolution. Shortly after, he and his friend Lacroix,
and a couple of other members, are sent as representatives of
the Convention into Belgium, to look after the necessities

1792.] IVAJ? OF PROPAGANDA. 97

of the army of occupation, and inaugurate the new govern-
ment.

But it was not long before it became evident to the lead-
ing men of the Convention, and especially to Cambon, the
celebrated revolutionary finance-minister, that — what had
not for a moment occurred to Cloots and his immediate
disciples — this " war of propaganda " would, under all cir-
cumstances, be a costly thing for France, both in money
and men ; that she, in fact, could not, however generous she
might feel, support its burdens alone. Therefore another
decree was voted, after a feverish discussion, on the 15th of
December, 1792, abolishing, in all the countries "conquered
for liberty," all feudal rights, duties, taxes, privileges, and
corporations, and directing the generals to take and hold,
"as pledge for the costs of the war," all the real and per-
sonal property belonging to the treasury, to the prince and
his voluntary adherents, and to all public establishments and
religious orders. The object of this law was simply the same
as the confiscation of the estates of the nobility and clergy
in France, — to broaden the basis of the assignats, and
thus extend their credit ; and, next, to induce the protected
nations to take and use this paper money as their currency,
as they had to do from the moment their own public revenues
were stopped.

But, as said, next year this whole policy will be reversed.
* * *

At the same time Louis XVI. — Louis Capet, as he is now
called — is being tried by the Convention, sentenced to
death, and executed Jan. 21, 1793, according to the English
precedent.

A member of the Convention, a lawyer, observed, " I ex-
pected to find here an assembly of judges, and I find an
assembly of accusers." Very true ; and this, of course, set-
tled Louis' fate beforehand. No doul)t he had conspired

98 THE COUNTER-REVOLUTION CRUSHED. [Jan 2t.

against France ; but tliat could never be a crime in his eyes,
whose standpoint, naturally, was that of Louis XIV., —
riitat, c' est mot, " I am the State."

The execution had no immediate consequences at all.
It became of capital importance a few years afterwards,
when the fact, whether a member had or had not voted the
death penalty, became the test of " civism," ' of cjualifi-
cation for becoming a member of the government ; which
test, undoubtedly, contributed considerably to defer > die
accession of Louis XVIII. to the throne. But the Revo-
lution would, probably, have run about the same course, if
Louis XVI. had succeeded in escaping. His execution,
however, proved this much : that the Revolution now was
strong enough to carry the stroke, and that the counter-
Revolution within was thoroughly crushed. In Danton's
words, " the tyrant's head was thrown as a gage of battle to
Europe."

The following is a report of the execution in the Gazette
de France, a Parisian daily journal of the period, a four-page
(juarto paper : —

" The tyrant is no more. A terrible example has been
given to the despots of the world. The axe of justice has
struck down him who already was condemned by the con-
science of the French people. This memorable judgment
rests solely on the responsibility of the nation itself, which
takes this responsibility on its shoulders. Its adversaries
will never have their last hope fulfilled, — that of one day
seeing the judgment reversed which has avenged it. ' The
nation knows its enemies, — the kings of the earth ; and if
they pretend to demand an account of the republic for a
judgment which, by executing a king, has placed all Jiuman-
ity on an equal footing, every French citizen will present
himself as the responsible party.

' The ijualily of being ;i good cilizcn, — tlic Jacoliin version of altruism.

1793.] LOUIS' EXECUTION. 99

"The f()lk)\ving were the measures that were taken in view
of the execution : —

"There were strong detachments of artillery in all the
public places, and strong reserves were kept in the various
barracks.

" Twenty citizens, well armed, each being provided with
sixteen cartridges, had been chosen by each section, e\'ery
one of them being vouched for as an excellent patriot.
These formed a guard of twelve hundred men, who preceded
and followed Louis Capet.

" Between eight and nine in the morning the latter seated
himself in the carriage of the mayor, who accompanied him,
together with Edgeworth, the English Catholic priest, whose
attendance he had asked for.

" The procession, commanded by Major-Gen. Santerre,
followed the grand boulevards till it came to the Place de la
Revolution [now called the Place de la Concorde]. Louis
Capet arrived at the foot of the scaffold twenty minutes
past ten. It seemed as if he wanted to address the people,
when a rolling of the drums gave the signal to the execu-
tioner. At twenty-two minutes past ten he who was formerly
king was no more. Deep silence and perfect stillness reigned
along the route and on the Place de la Revolution. When
the executioner showed the severed head to the people, cries
of ' Live the nation,' ' Live the republic,' were heard from
all sides. At several points were overheard these remark-
able words : ' We wanted to be friends with him, and he did
not want to be friends with us.'

" His body was taken to the parish church of La Made-
leine, and buried with religious ceremonies alongside those
Swiss who were killed during the loth of August."

The words put by so many historians into the mouth of
Abbe P'dgeworth, at the moment of the knife falling, " Son
of St. Louis, ascend to heaven ! " are a pure invention.

lOO THE COUNTER-REVOLUTION CRUSHED. [1793.

The Convention held its sessi(,)ns as usual this day. Shortly
after the execution the Executive Council submitted a very
laconic report, consisting of just three lines, which was
adopted. Immediately thereafter a decree was passed, that
a public funeral should be solemnized the following day over
the body of Lcpelletier, a member of the Convention, assas-
sinated for his vote in favor of the death penalty for Louis ;
that the honors of a burial in the Pantheon should be ac-
corded to it, and that the Convention should take part in a
body.

CHAPTER IV.

ENERGY OF THE YEAR I.
Jan. 32, 1793, to Sept. 31, 1793.

"Mercier. — Have you tiiadc a pact with Victory?
Bazire. — No, but we have made a pact with Death .'"

Revolutionary Tribunal. — Committee of Public Welfare. — May
31. — Danton as Statesman. — Absolute Government. — Levy
EN Masse. — Danton's Resignation. — La Carmagnole.

THE solemn funeral of that noble Conventional, Lepel-
letier, took place on Jan. 22, the day after Louis' exe-
cution. The streets were crowded. The whole Convention
and vast numbers of citizens followed to the national temple
the body of that very rich, very benevolent, and very popu-
lar man, who had spent much of his time in elaborating a
most generous scheme of popular education, which later on
will be adopted in principle by the Convention. This

solemnity may be said worthily to open the glorious spring
and summer of the wonderful year i — as by and by the
period from Sept. 22, 1792, to Sept. 21, 1793, will be styled,
— glorious by their fiery energy and unbroken sunshine.

Danton had of course, as was his duty as a representative
of the Convention in Belgium, faithfully carried out its two
decrees of Nov. 19 and Dec. 15, 1792 ; he had also, as the
Convention had ordered, assembled tlie people everywliere
in primary meetings, to determine on their future govern-
ment. In these primary assemblies the citizens had by an

103 ENERGY OF THE YEAR O.VE. [Feb.,

ovcrwliclming majority voted for the incorporation of their
country with the French Republic. In consequence, the Con-
vention, on the 31st of January, 1793, on motion of Danton,
decreed the annexation of Belgium ; and immediately there-
upon Danton and Lacroix were, for the second time, sent
into the annexed province as Representatives on Mission,
this time in a purely political capacity. They staid there
five weeks. Danton seemed on his return to be a more
mature statesman than before. There were several matters
that furnished him with food for reflection, down in the
"Low Countries."

F'irst, on departini,^ from Paris he left his beloved wife,
who had followed his career step by step with such anxiety,
in a very critical condition, and on the point of giving birlli
to his second son.

Next, on F'eb. i , the day after his departure from Paris, the
Convention declared war against Great Britain, of which in-
tention he, of course, was cognizant. This power had already
placed herself virtually in a state of war with France : she had,
the day after the loth of August, recalled her ambassador;
she detained ships loaded with corn for France, in violation
of treaty ; she had prohibited the circulation of the French
assignais within her borders; lastly, she now prepared for
open war, not at all on account of the execution of Louis, as
she pretended, but because of the occupation of Belgium,
which threatened her commercial interests. The oi)en
accession of Great Britain to the coalition immediately
turned the tables on France, as we shall see ; and yet shortly
afterwards the Convention, as if indifferent whether there
was one enemy more or less, contemptuously declared war
against Spain also.

That, however, which gave most fooil for serious thought
to Danton, was the fact that these rich middle classes of
Belgium, who had received him anil his colleagues with open

1793.1 REVOLUTIOXARV TRIPyUNAL. 103

arms tlic first lime they came, this time showed a decided
hostility, and were evidently ready to take the part of the
enemy if France's luck should turn ; and he soon discovered
the reason, to wit, that the French commissioners had i)ul
all citizens, rich or poor, on the same political footing, while
they had assumed that they would be permitted to rule.

Danton had many grave discussions with Lacroix on these
subjects, laid many plans, but matured particularly two, one
political, the other economical, which bore fruit in the future,
as we shall see.

The military position, meanwhile, was becoming very
critical in Belgium. The English and Manovcrians, to the
number of forty thousand, had rushed to the assistance of
the Germans, and the French in consequence had to dis-
perse themselves to form an enormous line of defence. They
were steadily being driven back. Dumouriez and the repre-
sentatives almost frantically demanded re-enforcements of
the Convention, where the Girondins exercised power, as we
should remember. The re-enforcements were promised, but
they never arrived.

Danton and Lacroix returned to Paris on the 8th of
March, to render a most discouraging report. Danton
found his wife dead.

Camille's journal contains this reference to her death :
" Danton is down in Belgium, and the cowards have profited
by that absence. They have represented him as pointing
out during the days of 2d and 3d of September the victims
that should be assassinated. His wife has received her
mortal stroke from reading in the journals this atrocious
invention. Those who know how much this woman loved
Danton can form an idea of her sufferings. Danton was
absent, but his enemies were present in the miserable sheets
that tore her heart."

She was already buried for some time, but he must see

I04 ENERGY OF THE YEAR ONE. [March g,

licr once more. He has her body exhumetl in order to gaze
upon it ; but when it is exposed, he actually wildly embraces
it ! Nothing, surely, can better show the passionate char-
acter of the man.

But after this, he again becomes the patriot, and once
more rises to the height of the situation.

The next day, the 9th of March, after Lacroix has ex-
plained the situation, Dan ton addresses the Convention : —

"We have now several times had experience of the.char-
acter of our countrymen, and have found that it is danger
alone that can rouse all their energies. AVell, the moment
has certainly arrived. You must cry out to the whole of
France, ' If you do not fly to the succor of your brctlircn
in Belgium, if Dumouriez be surrounded, if his army be
obliged to lay down arms, who can calculate the terrible
consequences of such a misfortune ? Our republic destroyed
may mean the death and destruction of six hundred thousand
Frenchmen.'

" I demand, as a first measure, that commissioners be
appointed who tliis very evening shall repair to all the various
sections of Paris, call the citizens together, make them take
uj) arms, and get them to swear by their liberty that tlicy
will fly to the defence of Belgium. The whole of France will
feel the rebound of such a splendid enthusiasm.

" 1 must add this, that our generals are not so much to
blame as is^supposed. You had promised them that by the
ist of February, at the latest, the army of Belgium should
be increased by thirty thousand men. They have not re-
ceived one man of these. They have told us that if they did
not get re-enforcements they would perhajjs have to evacuate
Belgium. Let us hasten to repair our faults. May the first
success of the enemy serve, as was the case last year, to
rouse the nation !

"I move that commissipners be appointed this moment.'''

1793] REVOLUTIONARY TRTBUNAL. 105

That is Danton's way of doing it, and tlierein precisely-
lay his power. He does not give his countrymen time to
brood over their misfortunes, and thus lose heart. He
straightway has sojiicthing for them to do, and that "this
evening," "this moment," " instant/y."

The first result is, as usual, a proclamation by the Com-
mune, inspired by Danton : —

"To Arms! Citizens, to Arms!
" If you wait you are lost.

"A great part of Belgium is invaded. Aix-la-Chapclle, Liege,
Bruxelles, are, perhaps, now in the power of the enemy.

" Parisians, it is mainly against you that this war is directed. This
campaign must decide the fate of the world. We must strike terror
into the kings and exterminate them. Men of July 14, Oct. 5, Aug. 10,
awake I

" Your brothers, your sons, pursued by the enemy, surrounded
perhaps, call upon you. Arise and avenge them !

" Bring all the arms you have with you to the sections. Bring all
your friends with you I Swear to save the fatherland! Save it!
Death to him who shall hesitate ! Leave Paris to-morrow by the
thousands ! Now the battle is waging between men and kings, be-
tween slavery and liberty.

"THE COMMUNE OF PARIS."

Meanwhile one bad report follows the other. Dumouriez
has been obliged to raise the siege of Maestrict ; he writes
that the only means of saving Belgium is to invade Holland.

Again, on the 1 2th of March, Danton sounds the alarm : —

"This is not the moment to examine the causes of our
disasters, but promptly to apply the remedy. When a house
is on fire, I do not collar the rascals who steal the furniture,
but I put out the fire. More than ever you must be con-
vinced by the despatches from Dumouriez that you have not
an instant to lose to save the republic.

" Dumouriez is not discouraged. In Holland he will find
provisions in plenty. In order to conquer all our enemies

I06 ENERGY or THE YEAR O.VE. [March 12,

he needs l)iit Frenchmen, and France is full of them. Do
we want to be free? If we do not, then let us perish, for
we ha\-e sworn so : if we do, let us rush to defend our inde-
pendence. Let Holland be coneiuered for liberty, and even
the commercial aristocracy which in this moment dominates
the English people, will rise up and overthrow this stupid
ministry, which believes that the talents of the ancient
regime can stifle the genius of that liberty which now hovers
over France. When that ministry is overthrown in the very
interests of commerce, the party of liberty in England [Fox
and his party] will come again to the surface, for it is by no
means dead.

" Let, then, your commissioners set out for the depart-
ments. Sustain them by your energy. Let them depart
this evening, this very nighf. Let them say to the rich,
* Either the aristocracy of Europe, thrown down by our
efforts, must pay our debts, or you must do it. The people
has only blood, and it is prodigal with it ; be up, then, mis-
erable men, and be prodigal with your riches ! ' [Violent
apj)lause.] 'What ! you have a whole nation for lever, and
reason for fulcrum, and you have not yet overthrown the
world ! [Still more applause.] I put aside all private
passions as totally foreign to me ; I know only passion for
the public good. You tire me with your personal quarrels,
instead of busying yourselves about the republic. I repu-
diate you all as traitors to the fatherland. What do I care
f(jr my reputation? If but France become free, let my name
be accursed ! ^Vhat do I care if they call me a drinker
of blood? Well, let us drink the blood of the enemies of
humanity, if so it must be !

" Some seem to fear that sending some of us away as
conmiissioners may weaken one or the other party in the
Convention. What vain fears ! The position of the masses
is a most cruel one. Our paper money is no longer at par ;

1793] REVOLUTIOXARV TRIBUNAL. lO/

the workman's daily wages are below the necessaries of life.
We have to find a great corrective remedy. Let us conquer
Holland ! Let us bring the republican party in England
again to life ! Let us cause France to advance, and we
shall go to posterity with glory ! Let us fulfil our grand
destiny ! No debates, no quarrels, and the fatherland is
saved ! "

That was Danton's leading idea in that moment, — by
carrying the war into Holland, and inflicting severe losses
on the English, to enable Fox and the Whigs, who were
ready to conclude peace with France, to hurl Pitt and the
Tories from power.

However, amidst this feverish activity, Danton is haunted
by the remembrance of the terrible days of last September.
He is anxious to deprive the populace of all excuse for per-
petrating any more lawless murders, before they hurl them-
selves against the enemies. Therefore, when, at the close
of the day, the Convention, worn out by excitement and dis-
cussions, was about to separate, Danton once more rushed to
the Tribune, and commenced with his stentorian voice : —

" I summon all good citizens not to leave their seats.
[All sit down, and a profound silence reigns, adds the
report.] What, citizens ! in this critical moment, when, if
Gen. Miranda be beaten, — and that is not impossible, —
Dumouriez will be obliged to lay down his arms, can you
adjourn without having voted the great measures demanded
by the public w^elfare?

" Everywhere the enemies of liberty raise their audacious
heads. There is nothing more difficult than to define a
political crime. Surely, then, extraordinary laws are needed
to frighten malecontents, and to strike the guilty. I see
no middle way between ordinary forms and a Revolutionary
Tril)unal ; and as some in this assembly have ventured to
recall those bloody da)s that have torn tlie hearts of all

Io8 ENERGY OF THE YEAR ONE. [March 12,

good citizens, I now declare, that, if there at that time liad
existed a tribunal, the people whom you so continually, so
cruelly charge with those days, would not have had that
blood on their heads. I declare, and all who witnessed
these terrible events will bear me out, that no human power
could have stemmed the tide of national vengeance.

" Let us, then, do now what the Legislative Body in its
time failed to do. Let us organize a tribunal ; not a good
one, — that is impossible, — />i/t the least bad one we^ can
think of, so that the sword of the hiw shall be suspended
over the heads of all who are guilty.

*' I therefore demand that a Revolutionary Tribunal be
organized at tJiis sitting, so that the executive power, after
we have re-organized it, be possessed of all the retjuisite
means of action and energy."

He spoke, obser\'e, of the " tide of national vengeance."
Undoubtedly in these words he gave expression to his
deepest convictions as to the state of the people's mind at
the time. He found a deep-seated hatred in the masses
towards their former rulers, — a feeling in no wise of his
doing, or in which he partook; but he believed, that, in
order to keep the reins of the revolutionary movement, it
was absolutely necessary to recognize this feeling as a fact.
The best thing, then, under the circumstances, to do, was
to prevent this hatred from acting blindly. He therefore
intended that this "national vengeance" sliould exercise
some discretion, some choice, in regard to its victims, and to
that end he did the best he knew.

That he acted in good faith, and that he was himself free
from these miserable vindictive passions, he clearly showed
a few days after by this reproof: "Citizens, I wish you
would not be always so terribly anxious to find guilty per-
sons." Nevertheless, the day will come for Danton to ask
pard(jn of (lod and men for having created this tribunal.

1793.] COMMITTEE OF PUBLIC WELFARE. 1 09

He gave the impulse to it ; by and by it acquired such a
momentum that he could not stop it when he thouglit it
was time. But the question still remains, whether the
establishment of this tribunal was not, at the time and
under the given circumstances, highly expedient.

These propositions of Danton were adopted under the
most enthusiastic applause ; and that evening the theatres
were closed, and a black flag hoisted on the Hotel de Ville
as a sign that the fatherland was in danger.
* * *
But at the very same sitting that brought forth the above
important results, Danton had made another far-reaching
proposition. We heard him incidentally speak of "re-
organizing " the executive power. That is one of the plans
he had matured down in Belgium ; and it is his experience
as a Representative on Mission that gave rise to it, and the
question of the volunteers furnished the principal motive.

We have seen with what energy Danton had, the preced-
ing year, hurried volunteers to the front ; with what alacrity
the people had responded. It was these volunteers that
had defended French soil, and driven the enemy out of
France ; and it was they, for the greater part, that had in-
vaded Belgium and Savoy. Among the stirring events at
the close of 1792, none was more remarkable than the ease
with which civilians, without military training or discipline,
had, when their country was invaded, and its regular army
disorganized and demoralized, turned soldiers. But the
generals and their staffs on the frontiers did not receive the
volunteers with open arms. These generals, of whom there '
were eight, — and of whom Dumouriez was undoubtedly
the ablest, and a German, ex-Prince de Hesse, curiously
enough, the most devoted to the Revolution, — all, with the
exception of Westermann, the hero of Aug. 10, belonged
to the old nobility and the old regime ; and so did their

no ENERGY OF THE YEAR ONE. [March 12,

staffs. No wonder they constantly (juarrelled with their
revolutionary superiors in Paris. They pretended that two
years were needed to make a soldier; while the republican
chiefs retorted, " Oh, yes ! two years in peace and in bar-
racks ; but three months are enough in war, and in front
of the enemy." These generals overwhelmed the ministry
of war with complaints of the cowardice and the lack of
discipline pf the volunteers ; while the true cause of their
annoyance was the republican spirit of these volunteers, and
the real trouble the insubordination, the intrigues, and aris-
tocratic insolence of the generals, and the rapacity and
corruption of the army contractors. For these volunteers
that had been rushing to the front since the month of
August, in response to the call of the Parisian commis-
sioners, with what clothes they had on their bodies, had
passed the winter, though conquerors, in rags," without shoes,
often without bread, and, what was worse, often without
weapons and ammunition. When, then, on top of that, they
were despised and insulted by their officers, shot without
mercy for the most venial fault, and placed at the most
exposed posts if they demanded to be led against the enemy,
it is no wonder that the enthusiasm of some among them
was cooled.

Yes, the contractors, they were certainly the greediest lot
that ever was seen. They evidently looked upon the new
republic as the golden age for rascals ; and they could do
pretty much as they pleased, for the inspectors and quarter-
masters, whose duty it was to protect the soldiers, nearly
all also dated from the old regime, despised the new, and
went about i)ublicly saying that the Convention was im-
becile, — which was true to some extent as long as the
Girondins were in power, — and that, at all events, the new
machinery would never work. And so the contractors stole

' Ilciicc ihc giajiliic epithet, sans-cnlottes, " Irouscrlcss."

1793-1 COMMITTEE OF PUBLIC WELFARE. I r t

and divided, — stole on tlie price, the quality, and quantity.
They bought corn, not for the armies, but for si)eculation,
and had it carried all over France at public expense. At
the Army of the Alps, the Jew, Benjamin Jacob, charged
thirty-four cents per pound for meat, — just double the
market price, — and declared cynically, that, since "morals"
to him meant to gain as much as possible, it was so much
the worse for the republic. At the Army of the North, the
priest d'F^spagnac, the prince of stock-jobbers, had obtained
the contract for carting, which he transferred to Masson c^'
Co. for a consideration of some thousands of francs /<•/
day.

And the ministry of war itself was surrounded and manned
with rascals from the old regime. Even the messengers
managed to make ten thousand francs a year. It was im-
possible to approach the minister, even with orders, without
paying for the privilege. When he made an appointment it
never would reach the citizen selected, before somebody's
palm was greased. It may thus be comprehended how they
had to bleed who solicited places. And it became still worse
under the dominion of the Girondins in the Convention ; for
every day they arrived with their pockets full of petitions
for places for their children, fathers, relatives, and friends, or
friends of their mistresses.

Meanwhile the generals and officers at the front corre-
sponded with their noble friends in the enemy's camp, and
snapped their fingers at the minister who was so far away,
and who had no power to introduce among them officers
from the volunteers.

There certainly was need for " re-organizing the executive
power," and this is Danton's great plan in the political field
which he discussed with Lacroix in Belgium, and which now,
on this same twelfth day of March, he suggests. It is a plan
so oi)pose(l to the cherished notions of almost ev.Tybody, that

112 EXERGY OF THE YEAR ONE. [March iS,

he ventures to bring it out only in a tentative way, and tliat,
even while yet its scope is but half understood, it fills both
Girondins and Mountain with alarm. His plan is to elect,
from the body of the Convention, a committee that shall
have most extraordinary powers, — none less than full con-
trol over ministers, generals, and, in fact, all executive offi-
cers of the government. It is the only one of Danton's great
propositions that is not accepted on the spot. It is referred
to a committee for consideration, and about three weeks
thereafter we shall hear more of it. Meanwhile much
happens that makes the proposition more acceptable to the
Convention, and which also greatly influences the future of
France and of Danton.

Paris, the undaunted capital, in the days immediately fol-
lowing this stormy session, rushed against the enemy. Vol-
unteers, upon the appeal of the commissioners, seemed to
rise up out of the ground. On the iSth of March Danton
and Lacroix were sent, for the third and last time, to Bel-
gium, in order to try by their i:)ersonal efforts to bring order
into affairs, and also to persuade Dumouriez to retract an
insolent letter he had written to the Convention, but which
Danton had persuaded the Committee on Correspondence
for the present to keep secret. He felt that this was not
the time when France could dispense with the general's
talents.

But things had suddenly taken a much worse turn. Just as
Dumouriez had, by the one battle of Jemappes, concnicred
Belgium, so he had, on the very day they left Paris, by one
decisive battle at Neerwinden, against the Prince of Cobourg,
lost it. The representatives met, all along their route, large
numljers of soldiers who were deserting, but whose flight
they succeeded in checking. Danton then met Dumouriez,
and succeeded in obtaining from him a few lines, praying
the Convention to await his i)crsonal explanation of his pre-

1793-] COMMITTEE OF PUBLIC WELFARE. II3

vious letter. That note Danton hatl in his pocket wlicn he
came back to Paris on March 29. But meanwhile the Con-
vention had despatched four special commissioners to arrest
Dumouriez, and bring him to Paris. He refused to be ar-
rested, threw the commissioners into prison, and fled then
himself over to the enemy. But not a single one of his
soldiers could he prevail upon to desert with him : they, on
the contrary, fired after him as he sped away, but without
hitting him.

This desertion was a terrible blow to France and to Dan-
ton. The worst consequence of all was the terrible strength
which popular suspicion, first aroused by the discovery of
Mirabeau's corruption, now attained against every promi-
nent man except Robespierre and Marat. Their popularity,
indeed, fed upon it, — especially Marat's, for he had for a long
time prophesied Dumouriez' treason, — and that was another
disastrous result. There is this to be said in favor of this
general : that, up to the moment of his desertion, he had
served France with all of his ability. He had not in all been
loyal to the Convention, but he had been loyal to France, —
a fact in his favor, which those who compare his treason to
that of Bazaine should remember. He had won victories
for her as long as he could ; and now at last, when he had
to give way to superior numbers, he simply did not choose to
trust his head to the Convention, whose Girondin majority
undoubtedly had contributed to his reverses, in not sending
him the re-enforcements that had been promised him, and
which he had been unceasingly clamoring for.

But now, and probably in consequence of these very disas-
ters, Danton's important suggestion comes to the front. On
the I St of April, Isnard, a Girondin, reports, from the com-
mittee that has been examining it, a bill which creates such
an executive committee as Danton proposed, to consist of
nine members, and which is to have power to dismiss any

114 ENERGY OF THE YEAR ONE. [April 7.

executive or ailministrative agent, of whatever character, and
wholly control them.

Danton thereupon speaks as follows : —

"We need an extraordinary extension of power, and strong
measures, to save the Commonwealth. It is necessary to
try to bring an agency into existence that shall be fatal to
kings. We all have come to the conviction, tliat if we arc
to create armies, and find new, able chiefs for them, a power
must be created, always subject to the Convention; and
which it can undo when it pleases. I believe that, though
a republic should proscribe dictators and decemvirs, it
nevertheless has the right, and even the duty, to create, on
occasion, a terrible authority. Do not be misled by fears of
usurpation .' Who, among us, could make himself a usurper?
Look at that man [Dumouriez], who has won victories for
France, and who yet has turned all Frenchmen against him-
self ! Let us unite fraternally ; it is needed for the salvation
of us all."

By " proscribing dictators " Danton undoubtedly meant
irresponsihie dictators. This very proposition of his, as well
as one greater still which he will make later on, clearly
showed that democracy, in his mind, did not exclude a tem-
porary virtual dictatorship, provided the dictator was made
responsible at stated times.

A few days after, the bill was made a law.

What an important measure ! For this " new executive
power," thereby created, is to become the terrible Committee
de Salut Public, of ''Public Welfare,'' to which France is
indebted for its victories and existence.

Tliis committee was first composed of nine members,
periodically re-elected. On April 7 the -first committee was
appointed, and remained unchanged for three months. Its
members were Danton, Lacroix, Treilhard, Cambon, Barere,
and four others. Danton became, by tlic unanimous choice

X793] ^fAV THTRTY-FIRST. II5

of the committee, its president, and thereby was, during the
summer of '93, virtually the French government. While he
was in power, no one, inside or outside of the Convention,
thought the hand of the committee too heavy. As an evi-
dence of his mild rule may be noted his pleading in the Con-
vention, on May 12, for the Vendeans, already then in revolt :
" There are among the rebels men who are simply misled.
We must not drive these to despair. I demand that you
order that the severe penalties decreed by you shall ai:)ply
only to those who have commenced or fanned the revolt."
It was so ordered.

By these various measures, as also by the diplomatic nego-
tiation, soon to be mentioned, which Danton carried on, tlie
disasters on the frontier were checked, and France had a

breathing-spell.

* * *

We now come to what is known as the revolution of the
31st of May, though it was really not accomplislied till two
days afterwards, the 2d of June ; to wit, the forcible eject-
ment of thirty-two Girondin members of the Convention,
and the consequent suspension of the rule of the Girondin
party and of the plutocrats, in the Convention and in
France. Danton took a prominent part in that event also.

It was an act of absolute necessity. As Carlyle says,
"The Convention had to purge out its argumentative Gi-
rondins before it could rule at all." They were nothing but
talkers, — many of them splendid talkers, undoubtedly, but
absolutely incompetent to govern France in such a critical
state of affairs, — and yet they positively refused to allow
those who were competent, to do the work. This is the
most damnable part of the indictment against them : that
they cared nothing for the Revolution and for France if
they could not be masters, and carried their insensate
opposition to such an extent that tlicy did not recoil from

Il6 ENERGY OF THE YEAR ONE. [May 31,

raising the standard of open revolt when they had been
dethroned.

The Girondins in the Convention were, as we have seen,
republican middle-class men, many of them lawyers. As
republicans they had done good service, in company with
Danton, in establishing the republic ; but they were not
democrats. On the contrary, they felt more than contempt,
they had an aversion, for the masses, who filled them with
terror. They had none of the effusive warm-heartedness of
Diderot, but imitated the dazzling, sneering levity of Voltaire,
which they carried to a, for serious people, most offensive
length, on preparing, later on, for the scaffold. Then, as true
middle-class men, they had their narrow formulas in politics,
horror for centralization ; and in economics, laissez-faire,
unrestricted private enterprise, — formulas which they would
permit nothing, not even absolute necessity, to set aside :
and yet the moment had just come when these formulas had
to be flung aside temporarily.

The immediate cause that compelled their removal was
their fanatical hatred of the Parisian delegation, and espe-
cially of Danton. They, however, had no reasonable ground
for hating him, or even for bearing any ill-will to him. Dan-
ton respected them, had even love for many of them, bore,
always cheerfully, testimony to the talents of them all, and
considered them honest but incapable men in practical
affairs. We have seen him taking his seat in that part of
the Convention called the Plain, the Centre, and as its chief
try to unite the two wings, Girondins and Mountain, lie
never tired, from first to last, of preaching concord to them,
of imploring them to stop their quarrels. He afterwards said
to Garat, made minister of justice by the Girondins,
"Twenty times I have offered them peace. Tliey have
refused to have faith in. me, in order that they might crush
me."

1793-] ^^AV THIRTY-FIRST. WJ

Now, why should they want to crush him? They pre-
tended it was because he was the guilty instigator of the
September massacres, a charge whicli has been proven a
falsehood. This pretence, indeed, was nothing less than
impudent, since they were decidedly more responsible for
not stopping these massacres than he was. No, the true
reason was envy. He stood head and shoulders above them
all in ability, and that they could not bear. If they had
allied themselves with him, they knew, from the experience
they had had during the invasion, that he would be their
master and director, and that they could still less bear ; and
least of them all could that vainest and most ambitious of
women, Madame Roland, their priestess, — yes, their " god-
dess of liberty," — bear it.

Many a sitting was spent with their recriminations ; but
hitherto the most exciting of them all had been that of April
I, when Lasource, one of their number, in a most shameful
fashion, and without a particle of proof, attacked Danton's
honor and probity in regard to funds expended in Belgium,
and when the former went to the ridiculous extent of accus-
ing him of having conspired with Dumouriez to deliver
France to her enemies, and re-establish royalty. Then Dan-
ton at length took up the glove of battle thrown at him, left
his seat as chief of the Centre, and joined the Mountain for
good, to the latter's immense joy.

Several times thereafter he, nevertheless, offered them
truce, but they would not have it. No, they went yet much
farther. They committed the unpardonable blunder of
first attacking the safety of members of the Convention, — a
fact that should always be borne in mind when the " Terror"
is spoken of. They first of all insisted on formally accusing
one of their number, and dragging him before the Revo-
lutionary Tribunal ; that member was Marat.

^'^ Do not miitihite the Convention .'" Danton then im-

Il8 ENERGY OF THE YEAR OXE. [Junes,

jjlored of them ; and lie certainly did not love Marat. But
their hatred rose superior to every other consideration.
Marat was taken before the Tribunal, triumphantly acquitted,
and carried back on people's shoulders to his seat.

Bear in mind, that these miserable personal attacks went
on from day to day in the most critical time of the history
of France, and blocked all business. It certainly was time
that energetic patriots resolved to put an end to it ; and
Uanton, with his usual energy, led in the matter.

He drafted a petition, which the Commune presented to
the Convention on May 31, praying for the exclusion of
thirty-two members, naming them. He had his friend
Herault de S<^chelles occupy the chair on the decisive
day, the 2d of June. On that day a hundred thousand
Parisians, "in insurrection," and thoroughly armed, sur-
rounded the Convention, and refused to allow a single mem-
ber to leave, or themselves to budge an inch, before the
thirty-two Girondins had been ejected.

Then an unexpected scene was enacted, that again shows
Danton's generosity and unselfishness. Carat rose, and
proposed to imitate the example of Aristides, who ostracized
himself for his country's good ; that is to say, that an
equal number of Jacobins and Girondins should voluntarily
renounce their membership. " There yet will remain
talent enough in the Convention to save the republic," he
l)leaded.

Danton immediately accepted. " I offer myself," he said
with tears in his eyes, " as the first, and am willing to go It)
liordcaux to stay as a hostage ; " but Robespierre objectetl,
and so nothing came of the generous idea.

Then the thirty-two Girondins were removed. They,
however, were not arrested, but for a long time moved about
freely in Paris. It was only after a numl)er of them had
raised rebellion in many of the dej)artments against the

I793-] DAxXTOX AS STATESMAN. 119

Convention, that they, and sixty-three sympathizers who
had signed a protest against their exclusion, were ordered
to be arrested, and finally, as many as could be got hold
of, executed. But no one tried so hard to save them from
that fate as Danton.

By that " revolution " the rule of the plutocrats is sus-
pended for fourteen months, and the Mountain, the Jacobin
party, is in unlimited power during that period ; that is to
say, from June 2, 1793, to July 28, 1794.
* * *

Since Danton during these summer months is the virtual
ruler and guardian of France, this is a good time to con-
sider his title to statesmanship. Already, while he was
merely an agitator, we have found him to be very much
wiser than any other public man, even than Mirabeau, as to
the form of government suitable to France under the changed
circumstances. His experience in Belgium, and the respon-
sibilities thrown upon him, undoubtedly mature him very
much. I think it can be claimed for him that he is not
only the only statesman of the First French Republic, but
that he is the greatest statesman of the Revolution ; that lie
had not only a deep insight into human nature, but that
especially he had a clear view of the terribly complex situa-
tion of France, and the fundamental necessities consequent
thereon. That he was a statesman of first rank is evident
from the truly tremendous feat he performed of stenuning
and finally reversing tlie foreign policy of the Convention
hitherto prevailing.

We have seen what that policy was, — the war for propa-
ganda, — and how enthusiastically it was pursued both by the
Girondin majority and by nearly all of the Jacobin party.
To have such a policy reversed was certainly an herculean
task. Moreover, that policy was afterwards taken \\\) by the
party of Hubert, who for some months during the autumn

I20 ENERGY OF THE YEAR ONE. ISpring,

became the most influential person, and :itienuously pressed ;
but Danton remained the victor.

That he never approved of tlic war for propaganda, thougli
he did not denounce it while excitement ran high, and
though he as Representative on Mission executed the de-
crees of the 19th of November and 15 th of December, as
was his duty, is evident from the simple fact that he never
ceased diplomatic negotiations.

For more than a year, from Aug. 10, 1792, to, say, Sept.
15, 1793, he directed the foreign relations of France, and
during that time he never for a moment ceased to negotiate,
though he did not speak of it publicly — to have told, from
the Tribune of the Convention or the Jacobins, that he
negotiated with kings, " those monsters," would have been
folly ; yet to maintain diplomatic relations was to ignore the
idea of war for propaganda. He all the time had diplomatic
agents everywhere, even, as we saw, with the invading armies.
Having a clear view of the situation, he feared that France
alone could not cope with the coalition, and so he tried to
create a diversion behind Prussia and Austria by using Turkey,
the Polish patriots, and Sweden ; though he actually did
effect a treaty of alliance with the latter country, these
attempts did not amount to much. Much more suc-

cessful were his efforts to sow discord between the States in
war with France. At Vienna and at Berlin he was in con-
stant connection with the adversaries of the Austro-Prussian
alliance, and it is to this very success that was due the
breathing-spell France had after the desertion of Dumouriez.

]>ut most important of all were his relations with the
opposition in the British Parliament ; that is to say, with
Fox and the ^Vhigs, with whom he was in constant and inti-
mate relations. By their help he tried first all he could to
prevent Great Britain from joining the coalition, and after-
wards to detach her from it. That was why the defection

1793-1 DANTON AS STATESMAN. 131

of Dumouricz was such a blow, in particular to him, for this
general had been used to go between him and the com-
mander of the British army, as well as the British ambassador
at The Hague. Indeed, the fortune of Danton very much
depended upon the success or failure of Fox ; if Pitt were
overthrown, and Fox rose to power, England, it was under-
stood, would retire from the coalition, and acknowledge the
French Republic, which in turn would evacuate -Belgium and
Savoy. Fox tried very hard to accomplish this ; Lord Bel-
ford came incognito to Paris, in these spring months of '93,
to confer with Danton. Motion after motion was made in
the House of Commons, but none of them would succeed.
Danton personally did not reap the fruit of all these labors,
but France did ; for it w^as this policy of Danton which the
Committee de Sahtt Public finally adopted, and which ended
in the peace concluded in 1795.

Danton was then certainly all the time an antagonist of the
idea of war for propaganda; but it was not till March, '93,
that he found it judicious to be it openly and fearlessly, and
his success was immediate and decisive. The Girondins
were dumfounded by his boldness. Brissot, one of the
most prominent among them, says, in his last letter to his
constituents, " You may form an idea of the liberty of
opinion, enjoyed in the Convention, from the fact that
Danton alone, or only supported by two or three of his
party, could make, without being howled down, a motion for
repealing the decree of the igth of November. We must do
him the justice to admit that he did it cleverly."

On the 13th of April Robespierre had made some motion
or other, when Danton rose and spoke : —

" It is time, citizens, that the National Convention should
teach Europe that France knows how to infuse prudence in
its politics.

" You have in a moment of enthusiasm, certainly letl by

122 ENERGY OF THE YEAR ONE. [April z6,

noble motives, decreed that you were ready to liel]) all na-
tions who would oppose resistance to oppressive tyrants.
By virtue of that decree you might he called upon to assist
patriots who would rebel in China.

^^ But surely above all it becomes us to take care of our-
selves, and do our best to make France great. Make the
republic strong, and France will influence other nations by
her example and attainments.

"Let us therefore now decree that we do not want to mix
ourselves into the affairs of our neighbors.''^

Immediately the Convention resolves, —

"The National Convention declares, in the name of the
French people, that it will in no manner intermeddle with
the government of other nations ; but it at the same time de-
clares that it will sooner bury itself under its own ruins than
suffer another power to intermeddle with the internal affairs
of the republic."

This is the first but decisive blow to the idea of the war
for propaganda. But Danton and his friends follow it vip.

When, on the 26th of April, Robespierre went back to
the ideas of the decree of Nov. 19, and proposed to insert
in the preamble to the new constitution such phrases as
these, " He who oppresses one nation, thereby declares
himself the enemy of all ; " " Kings and aristocrats are rebels
against the sovereign of the earth. Humanity, and against
the legislator of the universe. Nature," Robert, the Parisian
delegate and Dantonist, objects : —

" Let us leave to philosophers to analyze humanity in all
its relations ; 7ve are not the representatives of humanity.
I want that French legislators should forget the universe for
the present, and occupy themselves with the affairs of their
country. ... I do not care to examine what is the nature
of man in general, but what is the character of the l^'rench
people."

1793-1 DANTON AS STATESMAN. 123

Finally the Jacobin Constitution, i)romulgated Aug. 10,
1793, solemnly affirmed, in its 119th article, —

" The French people will never interfere with the govern-
ment of other nations, nor suffer other nations to interfere
with its own government."

The second mischievous policy which Danton had to
combat, and which he with equal success overcame, in
this case supported by the greater part of the Mountain,
was the Federalism of the Girondins, and after their fall,
like the previous one, adopted by the H^bertists. That
word meant in France the very reverse of what it designated
in the United States at the same period ; to wit, autonomy
of the departments and communes, a loosening of the bond
of political unity which was one of the three grand objects
that the Revolution of '89 had accomplished.

That the Girondists favored that policy was a natural
result from the liberty which they meant and worshipped, —
middle-class liberty ; this : not to be restrained at all. From
demanding such liberty for their persons and their class, it
was only a step to demanding liberty for their localities,
where they, of course, could rule by virtue of the influence
they possessed through their wealth. Another motive was
the hatred they felt for the population of Paris, that had a
most wholesome contempt for their imbecility. Paris has,
all through French history, exercised a predominant influ-
ence, and justly so. The spirit that animated Paris has
never been a local one at all, but national, and that because
she is a truly representative city, one which the strongest
minds from every nook and corner of France make their
home, at least for a period. London is just that kind of a
city for England, though not in the same degree, while
America does not possess that kind of a city at all.

It was a great merit in Danton that he oi)posed that
policy, and maintained the unity of France with all the force

124 ENERGY OF THE YEAR ONE. [Spring,

of his character ; for at an earlier period, as agitator, he
liad prated more about " Hberty " than any one. ]]ut as
he matured, as responsibility fell on him, " la patric,''' the
fotherland, France, secured a higher claim on his allegiance ;
and for France, at that moment especially, when she was
in a death-struggle, to have relaxed her unity, would have
been madness. These were his memorable words : " As
for me, I am not a child of Paris. I was born in a depart-
ment toward which I always turn an affectionate and
longing eye. But no one of us belongs to this or that
department : we all belong to the whole of France. Stop,
then, these di^^cussions, and let us devote ourselves to the
public welfare, ... It is said that there are among us men
who wish to cut France into pieces. Let us destroy these
absurd ideas by decreeing the punishment of death against
their authors. France must remain an undivided whole
with an undivided representation. The citizens of Mar-
seilles want to clasp the hands of their fellow-citizens of
Dunkirk."

And he was right. If the doctrine of evolution is at all
correct, nothing is surer than that progress lies in the
development of larger and larger unities ; and if the senti-
ment that moved so many among us to lay down their lives
for the union of the States were not mere froth, then // is
through the nation, our country, that toe enter into relation
with humanity. Between the three terms, family, country,
humanity, there is a close and intimate relationshi|X The
family is the germ of the nation, as the nation is the germ
of humanity. They are three successive manifestations of
human nature, three stages of the same idea ; a realization,
more and more complete, of the law of our being, of the
jjlan that is to be worked out through us. lather these
three ideas are all sacred, or not one is so.

Danton was just a statesman because he was a disciple

I793-] ABSOLUTE GOVERNMENT. 1 25

of Diderot. As such he had a profound contempt for meta-
physical (h-eams, and had a clear perception of what was
possible. It is therefore a most egregious mistake to think
that Dantoii was only a destroyer. He was the tnosl co::-
stnictive viind of all the public men of the Revolution, and
as constructive as it was possible to be at the threshold of
a transition period. His programme was the true pro-
gramme of the Revolution ; that is to say, —

Substitution of popular sovereignty for absolutism ;

Maintenance of order sufficient to resist re-action ;

Facilities for the greatest development of industry ;

Free development of science and philosophy ; and hence :

Separation of Church and State.

He was certainly, from the crown of his head to the sole
of his foot, a middle-class man, but it was precisely a merit
in a leader of France at that time to be that thoroughly ;
but he was more than that, he was a middle-class man with
a heart for the masses.

In a few words, he wanted such a republic as that which
recently had been established in the United States of
America, but with unity.

* * *

So from the 2d of July the Jacobins were masters of
France. That they did not lose a moment in carrying out
their social ideas, we shall see in the next chapter. Here will
be shown, how they solved the problem of the salvation of, and
security for, France ; for the breathing-spell she had enjoyed
was now at an end, and new, terrible dangers threatened.

Four short days after the revolution of the 2d of June,
it was learned that more than sixty out of the eighty-three
departments had risen against their authority, and threat-
ened to overj)ower Paris, the Convention, and the wliole
one and indivisible republic. Ni the word of the ejected
Girondins Marseilles revolts ; Lyons smds Clialier, ils Jaco-

126 ENERGY OF THE YEAR ONE. [June 6,

bin leader, to the scaffokl ; Toulon imprisons patriots, and
l)arlcys witli the English ; MontpclHcr, lionleaux, and Nantes
proclaim loudly that they are ready to take up arms ; Caen,
in the north-west, which a month hence will send forth tlie
young Girondin woman Charlotte Corday, with her dagger
destined for Marat's heart, is already organizing a small
army.

Then Danton once more infuses courage and energy into
France by his words — now rising in the former royal theatre
of the palace of the Tuileries, into which the Jacobin Con-
vention has just moved from the riding-school behind tlie
palace : —

" We are in the midst of storms ; the thunder rolls. It is
in the midst of these clashings that the work will be done
that will immortalize the French nation. They claim that
it is the insurrection of Paris that causes these movements
in the departments. I declare, in the face of the universe,
tliat the events of May 31 and July 2 constitute the glory of
this superb city. I proclaim, in the face of France, that
without the cannon and the insurrection the conspirators
would have triumphed. We are willing, then, to face the
whole responsibility resulting therefrom. I myself incited
to tlie rising of the people by saying, that, if there were in
the Convention a hundred men like me, we should overcome
the conspiracy, and found liberty on immovable foundations.
Do not mind the addresses, full of calumnies, against Paris,
which the conspirators have sent to the departments-; they
are no new tiling. Paris remains the centre, where every
thing must concentrate. Paris is the focus that will gather
all rays of French patriotism, which will consume our ene-
mies."

And action followed. The committees of the Convention
went to work. Special commissioners, with ]K'ace or war in
the folds of their mantles, ovi-rran the (hp:iiliiiriits. 'Hiey

I793-] ABSOLUTE COVERXMEXT. 127

appeared in the midst of their rebellious countrymen in the
prescribed costume of a Representative on Mission : a round
hat with three feathers of the national colors, a scarf, and
in a black-leather belt a naked sword, — the avenging sword
of the republic. They talked a few stern words, and they
conciuered. In three days they pacified France. Says one
of the rebels, ''The seventy-two departments which had
declared themselves for us turned round, and al)andoned us
in the course of twenty-four hours." The Girondins were
everywhere fleeing.

Then came, a month after, the murder of Marat, which
sent a thrill of horror through Paris. It was really a mis-
fortune, for it roused all the very worst passions, and brought
to the front Hebert, a worse man than Marat. The latter
died with twenty-one cents in his possession, his whole
wealth ; and it was this unselfishness that made sincere tears
flow down the cheeks of most patriots while his body was
being taken, a couple of days after, to the Pantheon, from
which the bones of Mirabeau had previously been igno-
miniously ejected. David made a splendid bust of Marat,
a copy of which was i:)laced in the hall of every primary
assembly of France. One can be seen to-day in a museum
in Paris, of which the eyes seem to flash fire.

The black clouds thickened over France, till the greatest
intensity was reached July 25, on which day Danton was
appointed president of the Convention, an office filled by
rotation. At that moment the northern frontier was overrun
by the united British and Austrians, who bombarded Valen-
ciennes ; the Prussians entered the heart of Alsace ; tlie
British flag floated over Toulon ; Conde had just surren-
dered ; Mayence capitulated, but the garrison departed
with all the honors of war (on condition of not serving
against the enemy for a year), headed by Merlin of Thion-
ville. Representative on Mission, who, when st)me one among

128 ENERGY OF THE YEAR ONE. [Aug. 2.

the spectators uttered an insulting word, imperiously cried
out, " Have a care ! we arc coming back." Lastly, the
rebellious Vendeans had just at the same time dispersed
the republican army, comman<led by Rossignol.

All these disasters became known in Paris, one after
another, at the end of the month of July. The situation
was terrible. Labor was paralyzed, commerce dead ; in
Paris itself was famine. The assig?iafs were falling in value,
and the Convention in a death-struggle with counterfeiters,
the last miserable guise of the counter-revolutionists. The
soldiers were without bread and shoes ; of powder there
was none. Some heroic remedies were imperatively needed.
On the 2d of August Danton ascended the Tribune and pro-
vided one, and a few days after another, and thereby, for the
third time and finally, saved France and the Revolution.

"The peril is imminent," he said, " but our people are
determined. Since it is to be war, let us be terrible ; let us
make war like lions ! Let us boldly esfahlisii a '■Revolution-
ary Goverjiment ' that can utilize the whole national energy
for gigantic measures. / declare it as ;;/)■ firm intention
not to be a member of such a government. I want to be
always free to spur on those who carry on the government ;
in other words, what I demand to-day is, that ministers shall
from this moment be simply the chief clerks of this Re7'olution-
ary Government. I add this other demantl : that fifty million
francs be placed at its disposal, for which funds it sliall render
account when its mission is at an end, l)ut witli ])o\ver of
spending the sum in one single day, if thought expedient.
Let us be extravagantly prodigal for the cause of libert)-, and
it will be returned to us a hundred-fold. It would be shame-
ful for us if the haughty minister' of a despot should have
superior resources and a larger purse than those charged with
the regeneration of the worUl."

' \Villi.-ini Pitt.

1793-] ABSOLUTE GOVERNMENT. 1 29

Then and there that " RevoUitionary (k)vcrnment," — an
absolute government, — the new Committee dc Saliit Piihlic
was created, that became the terror of F^urope. When he
had proposed the first committee, the proposition had been
listened to in alarm, it had been delayed and discussed ; now,
when a far more centralized power — a dictatorship, in fact —
was proposed, a step, be it known, that involved the suspen-
sion of the new constitution (of which more in the following
chapter), that had just been voted by the Convention, and
which the people were even then making preparations for
sanctioning enthusiastically and with festivities, it was adopted
on his mere proposal. But then, he had himself worked
the first committee ; his spirit was to be absent from tlie
second.

This "Revolutionary Government" disposed of all the
national forces ; it appointed and dismissed the ministers,
generals, Representatives on Mission, the judges and juries
of the Revolutionary Tribunal. The latter instrument became
its strong arm ; it was, in fact, a court martial worked by
civil magistrates. By its agents it directed the departments
and armies, the political situation without and within, strik-
ing down at the same time the rebels within and the enemies
without : for, together with the constitution, were, of course,
suspended the municipal laws and the political machinery
of the communes ; and thus cities and villages hitherto
indifferent or opposed to the Revolution were republicanized.
By the Tribunal it disposed of the persons of individuals ; 1)y
requisition and the law of inaxiniitin (with wliich we are
going to be better ac([uainted) it disposed of their fortunes.
It can, indeed, be said that the whole of France was placed
in a state of siege ; but that was the price of its salvation,
as in some countries it may be the indispensable price of
salvation of society when the Coming Revolution, the last
revolution, occurs.

130 ENERGY OF THE YEAR ONE. [Aug. lo,

There can be no doubt now that it was the intention of
the coalition, in i 793, to dismember France. Not one of the
States that composed it seriously proposed, as the exclusi\e
aim of the war, to save or revenge Louis XVI. Every one
of them expected a piece of the country. Austria wanted
Flanders, Lorraine, and Alsace ; Prussia wanted some con-
tiguous strips ; England, DunT^irk; Sardinia, Provence; and
Spain, Roussillon. Even royalist writers have been honest
and patriotic enough to admit that. Thus a modern diplo-
mat, M. de Bourgoing, writes, —

" If the Jacobins had been conquered, France would have
fallen with them ; and the miserable fate of Poland teaches
us but too plainly what would have been in reserve for us.
Foreign nations would have trampled us pitilessly under foot,
and, to save themselves remorse, would have reproached us,
as they did the Poles, with our internal divisions ; one jiart
of us with their crimes, the other part with their appeals to
foreigners. Those who always glorify success would have
loudly proclaimed that we deserved our fate."

And that still more renowned Catholic writer, De Maistre,
frankly admits, " Once the Revolution given, France could
7wt possibly have been saved except by Jacobinism.^^
* * *

And now Danton created the second heroic means of sal-
vation. It was the levy en masse.

It has been said that the people prepared themselves to
celebrate by festivities the completion and adoption of that
constitution which had been suspended before the people
had even sanctioned it. But, nevertheless, they met in
their eight thousand primary assemblies, and adopted it with
remarkable imanimity. Each primary assembly further ap-
pointed a delegate ; and these eight thousand delegates went
tf) Paris, and on the lOth of August, tliat now had become
the great national holiday, on tlie first anniversary of the

1793.] LEVY EN MASSE. I3T

fall of the monarchy, celebrated a new " Feast of Federa-
tion," much more remarkable than its prototyi)e of July 14,
1790.

A wonderful people ! to witness theatrical displays, and
give themselves over to festivities, in the darkest hour of
their history, with their fate as a nation trembling in the
balance ; in a situation for which Anglo-Saxons would have
fortified themselves with fasting and prayer !

The whole population of Paris, the eight thousand dele-
gates, and the Convention in a body, that had chosen for
president of the occasion H^rault de Sechelles, took part in
the " feast." It commenced at sunrise at the Place de Bas-
tille, and ended at sunset round the altar of the country on
the Champ de Mars, by swearing the oath of fidelity. The
next day the Convention held a sitting, when the eight
thousand delegates (or as many, I suppose, as could find
room) were admitted to the bar of the Convention ; and it
was then that Danton made his other supreme effort.

"You, the envoys of the primary assemblies of France,"
he said, " should be empowered, by the Convention that
grasps the thunderbolt of the nation, to draft those citizens
whose enthusiasm is lagging behind into the service of the
country. By joining the aposdeship of liberty to the rigor
of the law we shall create an immense force. I hereby ask
the Convention to give these delegates most direct and
extensive powers to levy recruits. If each of these eight
thousand men sends to the front twenty men, the fatherland
is saved. I demand, further, that besides being invested
with ample powers of lev^ying men, in concert with the con-
stituted authorities and with all good citizens, they be also
authorized to take an inventory of corn, and that the Com-
mittee de Salut Public shall direct this sublime movement.
I have noted the energy of these men whom the primary
assemblies have sent here, and I am convinced lliat they

132 ENERGY OF THE YEAR OXE. [Aug. 23.

are ready to swear that tliey will, on returning to their
homes, give an impulse to their fellow-citizens in this direc-
tion. [All delegates present rise and swear, ' Indeed, we
are ! '] This is the moment to take for the last time the
oath, to devote ourselves to death, or to destroy our enemies.
[All in the hall and galleries rise, wave their hats, and cry,
' Yes, we swear ! ']

" I also demand that all truly suspected persons be
arrested, but add that this vicasiire be executed 7a»th )nore
care than hitherto, for, instead of seizing the great scoundrels
and conspirators, many humble, innocent persons have been
made to suffer. Let, then, the Convention, recently invested
with new dignity from the unanimous approval just bestowed
upon it by the people, empower the delegates of the pri-
mary assemblies to make requisitions of arms, provisions,
and ammunition, and to levy four hundred thousand men to
be sent immediately to the front."

This motion is adopted immediately. As a supjilement,
the Convention on the 23d of August issued the following
sufificiently high-sounding decree : —

" From this time, and till the enemy is beaten, all French
men are declared liable to military service, and to be
drafted at any time.

" Let our young men go to battle ; our married men forge
arms and transport subsistence ; their wives make tents and
clothes, or serve in the hospitals ; their children make old
linen into lint ; and our old men be taken to the public
places, there to encourage our soldiers, and j^reach to them
hatred of kings and the unity of the republic.

"This levy shall be a universal one. All unmarried citi-
zens and childless widowers between eighteen and twenty-
five years of age shall go first. Let them repair to the chief
places of their respective districts, and there be exercised in
arms till they be reijuired to de])art for the .seat of war."

I793-] LEW EN MASSE. 1 33

And behold, it was really done !

Yes, by a simple motion this wonderful man conjured
out of the ground fourteen grand armies and six hundred
thousand soldiers, — these great republican armies which
filled the horizon of Europe for the next twenty-five years,
and with which, in particular, the great republican Jacobin
generals made the decisive wars of '93 and '94 in the in-
terior and on the frontier, in the Vendee and on the Rhine,
at Lyons, at Toulon, in the Alps and the Pyrenees. The
7-epiihUcan Jacobin generals, mark ! Not the aristocratic
royalist ones, whose imbecility was noted at the commence-
ment of this chapter; for it. was out of the very men levied
by these delegates of primary assemblies that arose the
renowned chiefs Jourdan, Pichegru, Marceau, Dugommier,
Moreau, Joubert, Kleber, and the first among equals, Hoche.
The minister, as we saw, had no power of introducing vol-
unteers into the corps of officers ; but the absolute Com-
mittee de Saint Public had, as it had the power of ordering
the minister, its " chief clerk," to do it. It was fortunate
that it secured as chief clerk, titular minister of war, a man
able to carry through that most important measure, the
so-called amalgamation of regulars and volunteers, and that
man was Col. Bouchotte.

The very saddest thing in the world it is to see a man who
has rendered either humanity or his country splendid ser-
vices, not alone unappreciated by posterity, but depreciated
and contemned. Ungratefulness is about the blackest vice
posterity can be guilty of; and perhaps no man concerned
with the French Revolution, next after Danton, has been
wronged so much as Bouchotte. He has been styled a
follower of Hebert and an imbecile. All credit for the
splendid success of the armies has been given to Carnot,
the eminent member of the Committee de Saliit Public, and
not a particle, of course, is given to Bouchotte. Now, it i'*

134 ENERGY OF THE YEAR ONE. [Aug..

true that Carnot is entitled to great credit : he was the
organizer of their victories, since he it was who formed
the plan of campaign ; he was the republican Von Moltke.
True it also is, that Bouchotte was not a genius : but it is the
lieight of injustice not to admit that the most splendid plans
would have availed nothing, if Bouchotte had not seconded
Carnot, and especially had not organized those fourteen
armies and six hundred thousand men ; if he had not for
many months toiled for sixteen hours a day in amalga mating
these volunteers with the regular army, and used his excel-
lent knowledge of men in appointing the right sort of new
officers and generals. Every one of the renowned repub-
lican generals owed their appointment to Bouchotte, and it
is a shame that honest, patriotic toil shall not have its
credit, as well as talent and genius.

But, above all, there was a universal rising of the whole
people. They showed an energy and felt a conviction of
victory, impossible to explain. They believed the republic
almighty. Forges blazed everywhere in Paris ; the cells of
the convent of the Chartreux filled with workmen, making
a noise that might have awakened the monks, buried there a
century ago. A thousand muskets were daily turned out ;
seven hundred bronze and thirty thousand iron cannon were
made in a year. All metal was turned into cannon, muskets,
and swords ; the ground all over, the hearthstones, kitchen
walls, were ransacked for saltpetre.

As leather was lacking, Bouchotte wanted to induce the
soldiers to wear wooden shoes occasionally ; but how should
he make them take kindly to the suggestion ? He finally
concluded to send them the following circular, certainly the
most remarkable communication ever sent by a war minister
to his soldiers : —

" Brothers and Friends, — the Committee </e Saint Piil>lic
has ordered me to distribute to each of )ou a pair of wooden

1793.] LEVY EX J/ASSE. 1 35

shoes, which you are requested to wear out of service. This
resohnion is a new proof of the sohcitude of the comniillcc
for the well-being of the defenders of our country. Such
shoes are the healthiest of all during this season : will pro-
tect your feet from dampness and cold when you rest, and
equally when you march, for they will enable you to dry your
other shoes ; lastly, they will save the consumption of leather
shoes, which has become excessive from your wear and tear
and the dishonesty of the contractors, and will thus leave us
time to get a better supply for the future.

" No doubt, brothers and friends, you will hasten to get a
pair of these wooden shoes, and wear them whenever the ser-
vice permits it. There will be no deduction made for them,
except when they should get lost through your own fault.

" Your interest for the finances of the republic, and your
own interests, demand that you take 'as much care of this
foot-gear as of all other things that protect you from the
rigors of the season.

" The fatherland will always look after your wants with the
attention and liberality of a tender mother, mindful of your
sacrifices for her ; but you ought also, like careful and eco-
nomical children, to neglect nothing that can save her effort
and expenses."

Would it not be impossible to resist such a fraternal invi-
tation?

But this measure did not prove sufficient ; and one of the
Representatives on Mission, therefore, on his own responsi-
bility, issued the following proclamation to the citizens of
Lyons : —

" Whereas wooden shoes suffice for those who stay at
home, it is ordered that all citizens not employed in the ser-
vice of the armies deliver up their shoes within eight days at
their respective town-halls, when a receipt will be given to
them."

136 ENERGY OE THE YEAR ONE. [Aug.,

It was done. It was imitated, and soon Paris, Strasbourg,
Rennes, and other cities put their shoes at the disposition
of the country's defenders. What proof of devoted self-
denial !

The consequence of this wonderful enthusiasm was, that
a few months thereafter the soil of France was cleared of all
her enemies, and Europe in its turn stood trembling at the
advance of the republican armies.

And more wonderful things yet come to be seen and Heard.
Listen how that terrible Jacobin Convention orders the gar-
risons of the fortresses of the enemy to surrender within
forty-eight hours, — and they obey ! For the first time in all
history the world listens to decrees like these : that at such
and such a time this town must be taken, that battle must
be fought and won, — and it is being done ! That is the sub-
lime of it. If it had not been done, such decrees would

have been ridiculous.

* * *

But Danton has committed a great mistake, — one that he,
and especially France, will come to rue. He has declined to
become a member of tiie Revolutionary Government, which has
been established on his motion. " It is my firm resolve not
to be a member of such a government," he had said. .In
other words, he has declined re-election as a member of the
Committee de Saint Public, now it has been erected into a
dictatorship.

He unfortunately lacked all ambition.

He hitherto had professed perfect indifference to all
tlie false charges affecting his honor and character which the
Girondins had brought against him. He constantly had re-
peated that his reputation was a matter of no concern. " Let
my reputation be blasted, if but France be saved." But
a]:)l)arendy he got tired of these slanders. This absolute
government will have vast sqms confided to its discretion,

1793] D ANTON'S RESIGNATION. 137

and that would give rise to future insinuations against his
honesty if he accepted a place in it.

And then he had married again in July, five montlis after
his first wife's death. This may astonish those who remem-
ber his violent sorrow at her removal from him, but it must
be remembered that he had two small children who needeil
a mother's care ; that his temperament was one that re(iuired
a companion to love ; that they lived fast during that stormy
period, when they breathed an atmosphere of ozone, of fire,
when five months corresponded to five ordinary years ; lastly,
it should be known that Mademoiselle Gely had been an
intimate friend of Madame Danton. But she certainly was
unworthy of him, as is amply shown by this fact : that she
hastened to marry again after her husband's death, and trieti
as much as possible to hide the fact that she had been
the wife of the great Danton. Possibly, as she was pious
and conservative, she somewhat influenced his subsequent
actions, for he loved her as tenderly as he had once loved
his first wife.

At any rate, when afterwards, on Sept. 8, one Gaston tells
the Convention, " Danton has a mighty revolutionary head.
No one understands so well as he to execute what he him-
self proposes. I therefore move that he be added to the
Revolutionary Government, in spite of his protest," and it
is so unanimously ordered, he again peremptorily declines.
" No, I will not be a member ; but as a spy on it I intend to
work."

A most fateful resignation ! for while he still for a short
time continues to exercise his old influence on the govern-
ment, both from the outside, in his own person, and inside
the committee, in the person of Herault de Seychelles, selected
in his place, he very soon loses ground more and more, — so
much so even that Herault, his friend, is "put in quaran-
tine," as was said in the committee. And very natural. A

138 ENERGY OF THE YEAR ONE. [Sept. 8,

statesman cannot have power when he shirks responsibihty,
and without power he soon loses all influence witli tlic mul-
titude.

Those who now succeed him in power are Robespierre,
Barere, Billaud - Varennes, and Carnot, — the two last,
very good working-members, good men of the second
rank, but after Danton not a single man is left fit to be
leader.

Ah, the significance and importance of a leader were never
more apparent, and the lack more disastrous, than here ! The
impulse once given to affairs serves, indeed, to procure for
the young republic victories on the battle-field ; but other-
wise the government, rudderless, drifts away from the jjalhs
marked out by Danton, and commits one excess after the
other. In spite of victories, France is evidently going down,
down.

As the middle classes of France had their song of vic-
tory, Qa ira.i so the masses, the victorious Jacobins, have
now theirs, La Cariiiagii0le. It is during this year, '93,
sung everywhere in the public places ; yes, and danced !
Indeed, the dance is just as important as tlie melody. The
words are nonsensical, are, in fact, changed from day to day,
but the melody and the dance have a tremendous effect on
all : in the aristocrats it makes the blood congeal, and with
the common people makes it run quicker. The same

effect is caused even at the present time on a mere spectator,
when he watches the working-peoj^le of Paris at tlieir re-
unions, with sparkling eyes and flushed cheeks, re])eat the
refrain, —

" Ddiis-oiis la Carmagjw-le
Vi-ve le son, vi-ve le sou,
Ddns-ons la Carvingno-le
Vi-ve le son du canon ! "

1793] LA CARMAGNOLE. 1 39

The most popular verse of all was this : —

"Madam Veto avait prctnis {bis)
De faire egorger tout Paris {bis) ;
Mais le coup a tnaiique,
Grace d, nos canoimiers.
Dansons" etc.

("Madam ^t'/ti' had promised
To have all Parisians killed ;
But the blow has failed,
Thanks to our cannoneers.
Let us dance the Carmagnole
To the sound, to the sound.
Let us dance the Carmagnole
To the sound of our cannon ! ")

' The Queen.

CHAPTER V.

FRATERNITY OF THE JACOBINS.
June 2, 1793, to End of Year.

" God covimnnicaies his will to 7iten, written in the events, an obscure text
and a mysterious language. Men straightway jnake translations of it, — hasty,
incorrect translations , full of faults, of blanks, and contradictions. The viosi
sagacious, serene, and profound minds decipher it hut slowly; and -when they
bring their texts, there are already twenty translations among the people. Every
translation gives rise to a party, and every contradiction to a faction : and each
party or faction believes it has the only true meaning. Ofteti those i}i power are
but a faction." — Victor Hugo.

Constitution of '93. — The Maximum. — A Poor Law. — Down with
Speculators ! — Education. — The Civil Code, — A Great Wrong.
— "Private Enterprise" Indispensable.

THE Jacobin Convention had to build its new temple,
like the Jews after the Babylonian exile, " trowel in
one hand, sword in the other." For it is the greatest

possible mistake to think that the men of the Mountain were
only men of violence : on the contrary, they were possessed
with the idea that it was their mission to institute a new
social order ; and now, having their hands free, they, in that
former royal theatre of the palace of the Tuileries, set to
work constructing vigorously, ay, feverislily !

What a contrast between these two spheres of activities !
It is difficult to comprehend that it is the same assembly,
the same set of men, now fighting for existence, now fasli-
ioning a new society ; that it is the same theatre of action.
One moment every thing is confusion, fear, hate, sus])icion :
all sorts of passions violently contend fur mastery. To exter-
140

1793-1 CONSTITUTION OF NINETY-THREE. 141

minate or be exterminated, is the question. The next mo-
ment, as by the turning of a kaleidoscope, we seem abruptly
removed to an academy of learning, where we hear the most
ardent revolutionists discuss — in curious, high-flown periods
certainly, but with remarkable moderation and gentleness —
the most generous plans for bettering the condition of tlicir
fellow-creatures, and, be it noted, — for this constitutes their
glory, — for bettering the condition of classes to w/iich not
one of thcni belonged. This is in itself a most curious

fact : that in such a great overturning of society not one man
or woman of the working classes rose to a leading position.
They exercised, as we have seen, a considerable influence
on events in corpore, in masses, and in a somewhat inarticu-
late fashion, but individually they remained dumb. What a
modesty !

Yes, these bourgeois patrons and advocates did their
full duty to their clients, and form in this respect the most
complete contrast to the plutocrats, Girondins, and others.
That which the latter should have done, and never did be-
fore or since, that the Jacobins performed to the best of
their ability ; and this fact raises them above every legislative
assembly that ever sat in any country. They were mindful
of their helpless fellow-citizens ; they did " guard against
gluts," and against scarcity too, and did " preside over the
apportionment and distribution of wages for work done,"
as Carlyle has demanded of our plutocrats. That chronic
evil of Paris a century ago, famine, did not put in an ap-
pearance this winter. In other words, though hardly sure
of their heads for the space of twenty-four hours, they yet
tried faithfully to realize, as a counter-weight to Individual-
ism, pRATRRNrrY, whicli at bottom is simply the conscious,
frank acknowledgment of that interdependence which, as a
matter of fact, binds us together in society.

" But they fliilcJ ; in spite of the absolute power they

142 FRATERNITY OF THE JACOBINS. [June,

enjoyed for fourteen months, with none so much as to gain-
say them, they failed," so say both their enemies, all re-
actionists, and their friends, our modern reformers ; and the
latter add, "Ergo, the French Revolution fiiiled."

Well, in this chapter we have not to do with the whole
Jacobin reign, but only with the period after June 2 in which
Danton's influence was paramount. During these few months
the Convention was a most noble assembly, and passed or
initiated those remarkable measures that are now to be dis-
cussed. During that time the Convention was perfectly
successful, remarkably successful, and really laid firmly the
foundation of the new society.

Then came the fatal change : the Convention passed
under the influence first of Hubert, then of Robespierre.
They then became, in the words of Victor Hugo at the head
of this chapter, "a faction." They then commenced to inter-
pret "God's mysterious ityX'' falsely — too hastily. More
than that, they got not only a wrong conception of the will of
the Power behind Evolution, a wrong conception of the social
order that then and there was to be instituted in France, but
they also — just. because they were Frenchmen, and there-
fore deemed nothing gained before they had realized the
last conclusion of the syllogism — were far too hasty in re-
ducing that conception of theirs to practice. They in con-
sequence failed, and the foundation they had laid was torn
up. But when our reformers say that this implies the failure
of the Revolution itself, they thereby show that they them-
selves share the illusion of the Jacobins ; that they also ha\e
a wrong translation of "the mysterious text." They believe,
as the Jacobins did when they became "a faction," that the
millennium could and should have been immediately organ-
ized. The truth is, that what they started in doing, and did
well, was pretty nearly all that could be done.

We have seen that the National Convention had in ])leni-

1793-] CONSTITUTIOX OF NINETY-THREE. 143

tude all powers, whether legislative, executive, or judicial.
It had flung to the wind the usual middle-class formula
of a "division of powers." And these powers it exercised
through its committees and the commissioners it was con-
stantly sending out into the departments and to the armies.

There were not less than twenty-two committees. The
most important were, on the Consfltiifion, of whicli Danton
and Herault de S^chelles, his intimate friend, were mem-
bers ; of Public Welfare, of which Danton ceased to form
part in August ; of General Security, which had charge of
the national police, and whose first president was Herault
(this committee remained in the hands of the Dantonists as
long as they had power at all, and was second in importance
only to that of Public Welfare^ ; on Education, with Lakanal
for chief; oti Finance, whose soul was Cambon, also a true
friend of Danton ; on Legislation, with Cambaceres for di-
rector; and lastly, on War, where Carnot had the lead. It
was by the incessant labors of these committees that the
Convention carried on its immense work, while breathing an
atmosphere of fire.

The very first thing they did after ousting the Girondins was
to perform the work for which the Convention had mainly
convened, but which the danger of the country had postponed
from month to month, — to frame and adopt a nera con-
stitution. This work, known thereafter by the name of the
Constitution of Ni net}'- three, was performed with feverish
haste ; and though not in force for even a day, being sus-
pended before even receiving the sanction of the people, it
is important as embodying the principles that governed the
Jacobins in all their measures.

From the very first there had been a Committee on the
Constitution. Danton was a member of it ; but the great
majority were Girondins, and the principal of them the noble
Condorcet. This philosopher had for a considerable time

144 FRATERNITY OF THE JACOBINS. [June,

had reaily tlic draft of a constitution, on which he had re-
peatedly but vainly asked the Convention to take action.
After June 2 Danton resigns his membership ; and in his
place, as well as in that of the expelled Girondins, his friend
H(^rault de S^chelles and other Jacobins are elected. They
take up the draft of Condorcet ; make, in a couple of da)'s,
considerable changes in it, then submit it to the Commit-
tee oj Public IVei/are, where one day is devoted to examining
and slightly amending it; and finally, on the loth, the'dis-
cussion of it begins in the Convention, which adopts it on
June 23, — the whole work thus done in three weeks.

The differences between the draft of Condorcet and the
constitution as adopted were very marked and highly sug-
gestive.

First, as to style : the Girondin draft was dry and diffuse ;
the Jacobin Constitution laconic, giving the impression of
gigantic letters hewn into granite and painted in warm colors.
One of its first articles ran, —

" French citizens are : every foreigner of the full age of
twenty-one who has resided one year in France, and lives
there by his labor, or acquires landed property, or marries
a French citizen, or adopts an infaiit, or supports an old
person.^''

One of its last articles said, —

" The French Republic will not intermeddle with the gov-
ernment of foreign nations. It gives asylum to all foreigners
banished from tlicir country for the cause of liberty. It re-
fuses asylum to tyrants.^''

But the most important difference was the spirit that
pervaded the two documents from first to last.

The draft of Condorcet was the charter of individualism.
It had no conception of humanity, but only of a collection
of individuals, each standing aloof from, and sharply, even
hostiicly, opposed to others ; clad to the teeth in his "rii^^hts,"

1793-1 CONSTITUTION OF NINETY-THREE. 145

as in a coat-of-mail. What it concerned itself about, and was
solicitous for, was to defend these individuals from oppression
and interference from others. It was a scheme oi guaranties.
It guaranteed the liberty of the person and the press, and
the security of the home, and to that end surrounded them
with a long array of sacramental forms, exactly as our con-
stitutions do. It prescribed minutely when, how, for what
causes, and by whom arrests might be made, and search-
warrants issued. In other words, this Girondin draft, as was
natural, gave expression to middle-class, plutocrat ideas, —
protected those who sufficed themselves ; but, if the burden
was too heavy for the weak, so much the worse for the weak.
Its motto was simply, " No despotism."

The Jacobin Constitution, on the other hand, was a charter
of fraternity. It did not look on society as a mass of
individuals, but as an organic loholc. It, however, did not
overlook the rights of individuals, for we read, —

" This constitution guarantees to all Frenchmen equality,
liberty, security, property, the free exercise of religion, a
common education, public assistance, unfettered freedom
of the press and of public gatherings."

But that is also all ; and this, it will be seen, is very
vague, very indefinite. The fact is, they were pre-occupied
with the duties of society, — pre-occupied with the weak that
were to be protected, the poor that were to be fed, the un-
fortunate that were to be saved, not merely from oppression,
but from abandonment. Therefore, when the Girondin draft
defined liberty as " consisting in doing all things not con-
trary to the rights of others," they added, " It must have
for rule justice.''

Condorcet's draft simply stated that public assistance
should be at the charge of the State. That did not satisfy
the Jacobins. They laid it down distinctly, so that he who
runs may read : " Society owes subsistence to unfortunate

146 FRATERiXITV OF THE JACOniNS. [June,

citizens, either by procuring them work, or, in case they are
unable to work, by furnishing them means of existence."

Condorcet's draft was absokitely silent on the interde-
pendence of men. The Jacobins solemnly declared, "It is
to be accounted an injury to the social organism when one
of its members is injured."

Their motto, their dominant idea, then, was social pro-
tection; and this fact should with all men of heart, with
the working classes especially, cover these bourgeois with a
mantle of charity.

That was their great merit : tliat, however shallow their
reasoning might be, they felt that no man does eviluntempted,
unless he have all other men to help him to it by standing
aloof from him, and leaving him in abject penury, physical
or moral.

Their great merit : that they instinctively felt that our
human failures generally — yea, even our thieves and murder-
ers to a great extent — should be ascribed to the organized
inclemency of man to man ; to society being a niggard steza-
ard of nature's bounties and the accumulated labors of past
generations.

Intimately connected with this difference in spirit is the
circumstance that the Jacobin Constitution commenced with
these words : " In the presence of, and under the auspices
of the Supreme Being, the French people declare," while
the Girondin draft had no corresponding phrase anywhere.

The Jacobins were not orthodox believers, any more than
the Girondins. They, just as little as these latter, bcHeved
in a lawless ruler outside humanity, rather leaning to the
side of the rich and powerful ; but, as has been said, tliey
believed in humanity, wliile the Girondins could see only a
crowd of independent beings. ^Vhilc, therefore, the latter,
like Bonaparte later on, had " no need of the hypothesis " of
a Supreme Spirit, the Jacobins precisely had such a need.

i793.] CONSTITUTION OF NINETY-THREE. 147

They did very much need a mystic bond to biiid society
together, and also the highest possible moral sanction for the
stern duties on which they insisted.

Then there was another noticeable difference between the
two documents, that on first view may puzzle the readers :
this, that Condorcet's draft seemed the most democratic
instrument.

His draft divided France into a great number of small
primary assemblies, in which the people were to elect not
only the members of the national Legislature, but also all
executive officers of departments and the State, about in the
same way as the people of one of our States elect their gov-
ernor. The Girondins seemed already, then, to have learned
that universal suffrage, when used for the selection of men,
is perfectly compatible with the narrowest of class interests ;
that is to say, they had already learned the power of wealth,
of glib talkers, of intriguers, over a poor, ignorant, ingenuous
body of voters.

The Jacobins had learned that too. They were not
less democratic than their brother boia-geois, but they were
honest democrats, and they had a, for their time, really
remarkable insight into the essence of democracy. They
knew very well that a nation's business at no time — and,
above all, the business of France at that time — can be car-
ried on by votes of town-meetings ; " by the counting of
heads," as Carlyle has it. They knew — they showed that
by their acts — that an administration freely consented fo by
all, by the competent, skilful, and wise, for the benefit of the
whole society, is a truly democratic administration. They
knew also that competent and wise administrators can-
not possibly be selected by the whole people in primary
assemblies; that only persons in a position to know certain
personalities are able to tell whether tliey are competent and
wise, or otherwise. And it is very much to be wished that

148 FRATERNITY OF THE JACOBINS. [June,

those who arc to inaugurate the New Social Order will
know that too.

The Jacobins, therefore, amended the (iirondin draft in
this way : that while they let the people, in their primary
assemblies, elect their members of the Legislature, as for
executive officers they provided that the primary assemblies
should select departmental electoral assemblies, and these
should have the function of electing administrators of the
departments, and nominating a number of men froni'vyhom
the national Legislature was to appoint the executive officers
of the State.

The Jacobins did not at all, as it seemed, and as they
have been charged with, mistrust universal suffrage, — a mis-
trust which, however, the second Bonaparte's plebiscites
would amply justify ; but, as a matter of fact, they did not,
nor did they want to, govern from above. They simply said
that the people at large are wholly unfit for the function of
selecting agents to do the nation's business, a function they
will be eternally unfit for. But, further : they discovered the
function for which the people are fit ; to wit, that of passing
upon laws after they are made, and saying whether they want
them or not. That is to say, they inaugurated the refe-
rendum, at first to a very limited extent certainly. They
divided the expression of the national will into two classes,
decrees and laws ; the former were the enactments that were
urgent, and therefore operative without the people's assent ;
tlie "laws" became valid after forty days, unless a_ certain
number of primary assemblies had meanwhile protested.

What the Jacobins were after, and undoubtedly would have
secured, was a government by the competent for the masses ;
what the Girondins were after, and did afterwards secure,
was a government by the middle classes for the middle classes.

Among the clauses where the Jacobin Constitution agreed
with the Girondin draft were those on property and unre-

1793.] CONSTITUTION OF NINETY-THREE. 149

stricted private enterprise. The charge against the Jacobins
which is found in so many histories, and particularly in the
latest of them, by Von Sybel, that they wanted to abulisli
property rights in any shape, is the grossest falsehood. In
that respect they were precisely typical middle-class men,
most conservative even.

Only one Jacobin has written Memoirs : it is the physician
Baudot, a member of the Convention. Certainly the fact
that such a man sat on the top of the Mountain ■ during the
whole term of the Convention, without hearing a word from
Danton, from Robespierre, or anybody else, destructive of
property, or about interference with property in any way, is
strong proof that such ideas did not exist in their heads
at all. These are his words : " The Convention regarded
property as the fundamental basis for social order. I never
heard any member of that assembly make any proposition
against the principle. Not a word, not a phrase, can be
quoted." And he was in the secret of the Jacobins.

On all economic subjects, it may be said, they believe
like their brother boio-gcois. Just as they, with the Giron-
dins, beheved that property is the necessary foundation of
society, so they believed with them that the wage system,
competition, and " private enterprise," lately freed from all
shackles, would prove unmixed blessings to all classes, work-
people as well as employers; and the greater the bless-
ings, the more unfettered they were ; that there was, indeed,
no other system under which industry could be so well
carried on. And so we find that the articles that treat
of property in the Constitution of '93 are just like those of
the Code in force in France to-day. Nay, more.

AVhen Robespierre (who on this subject really seemed to
have a prophetic insiglit into the future) proposed two
amendments that in our days should l)e acknowledged excel-

' So called because llicir seats were raised one above another, .inipliitlieatrically.

I50 FRATERNITY OF THE JACOBINS. [June,

lent ones, — to wit, to define " property " as that part of the
fruits of a citizen's labors which the law guarantees to him,
and forbidding any industry found to be immoral and
harmful to the well-being of others (like our " corners "), —
the whole Convention ranged itself round the draft of
Cordorcet against him.

And as to "private enterprise," they were so jealous of
it that they violently opposed themselves to the establish-
ment of associations both of work-people and employers
(to which opposition it is due that trades-unions were not
legalized in France till 1884). This, again, was 7wt caused
by ill-will on their i)art to workingmen, for they say in their
constitution, naively, " Only the bond of help and gratitude
w/// exist between employed and employer."
* * *

As Danton was a lawyer by profession, it was not so very
remarkable that he had distinguished himself in the spheres
in which we hitherto have seen him active. It is more
remarkable that we are now going to find liim taking an
equal interest, and equally active, in matters that might be
supposed entirely foreign to his mind. Thus we shall find
that it is he, again, who makes the decisive motions on
economic and educational subjects. But, to speak the
truth, this is the case with all these wonderful conventionals :
they seem equally at home, and masters, whether in the
tribune or at the head of the armies, whether in the current
jjhilosophy or in commerce.

Danton never pretended to be a politico-economist. In
that field he entirely relied on and supported the judgment
of his friend Caml)on, the celebrated revolutionary finance
minister. But, as mentioned in the preceding chap-

ter, Danton had, down in the Low Countries, thought very
deeply on economic subjects, and had especially matured a
scheme, sketched in a memorandum in his own liand-

1793.] THE '' MAXIM UMr 15 I

writing, — a very rare relic, now found in tlie French
national archives, — as follows : " The Convention decrees,
that, in every section of the republic where the price of
corn is not in a just proportion to wages paid, the treasury
shall levy a contribution on the rich, out of which shall be
defrayed the difference between such price of corn and the
wages of the needy." This proposal he causes to be made
into a law on the 2d of April.

We have seen the whole Convention partisans of free
competition and private enterprise, — Jacobins just as much
as Girondins. But circumstances compelled them to vio-
late their cherished convictions, and adopt measures con-
siderably restricting competition. The boldest of these
extraordinary measures was the maximian ; that is to say,
the highest price for wares.

The Constituent Assembly had, as we saw, rehabilitated
the finances by issuing assignats based on the confiscated
estates. This basis amounted to fifteen milliards of francs,
or three thousand million dollars. The assignats certainly
would have remained at par if the counter-Revolution,
crushed at home and overwhelmed on the frontiers, had not
resorted to the most shameful and monstrous forgery of
them, reduced to a perfect system, and carried on in Lon-
don, Holland, and Switzerland. To this crime the
Convention opposed — death ! But that did not prevent
the paper money from sinking in value ; and that conse-
quently made all necessaries of life, and especially corn and
bread, rise in price.

To bring relief to the poor, and also to raise the paper
again to par, the first law of maximum was passed May 3,
1793. It ran as follows : —

" Every merchant and proprietor of corn and flour shall
make to the municipality of his domicile a declaration as to
the quantity and nature of what he has in his possession.

152 FRATERXITV OF THE JACOBINS. [Sept.,

" Corn and flour must be sold only in the public markets.
Nevertheless, it shall be lawful for private individuals to buy
provisions from the farmers, merchants, or proprietors of
their canton, if they procure a certificate from the munici-
pality to the effect that they do not deal in these articles,
and that their purchases are necessary for their own con-
sumption for a month.

" The average price at which each kind of corn shall have
been sold between Jan. i and May i, 1793, shall' be the
maxitmitn, above which corn must not be sold.

" Thus fixed, the maxiinum shall be reduced in the fol-
lowing proportions : On the ist of June by one- tenth, on
the ist of July by two-tenths, on the ist of August by three-
tenths, and on the ist of September by four- tenths.

'' Anybody who buys or sells above the maximuni shall
be fined from three hundred to a thousand francs, and his
corn or flour confiscated.

" Those who, with design, destroy or remove corn or flour
shall be punished with deaths

Now, this law did provide for the necessities of the
moment, and did prevent very grave perils ; at the same
time, it necessarily gave occasion to many obnoxious and
vexatious inspections. Therefore, also, the Girondin mem-
bers of the Convention had opposed it all they dared. But
the necessity was imminent, and their economic formula of
Free Competition had to give way.

Remember that France at that time was engaged in a
titanic struggle, forcing back all her enemies north, south,
east, and west, and compelling almost the world to recoil
in astonishment at her approach. It is not by ordinary
means that such prodigies are accomplished.

To feed fourteen armies on the frontiers while a fratri-
cidal struggle is raging within, and when all the sources of
wealth are dried up, is a problem wliich it is doubtful that

1793.] THE '' maximum:' 153

Free Competition could ha/e solveil, but wliich the assii^nats,
sustained by the maximiun, did solve.

Undoubtedly the establishment of the maximum was in
flagrant opposition to individualism and the doctrine of
laissez-faire ; and this fact remained the grand obstacle,
since the middle classes were de facto in social power since
the destruction of feudalism. Private interests opposed
themselves all they could to the exigencies of social welfare,
and the counter-Revolution encouraged this resistance all
it could and dared. The farmers would not bring their
corn to market, and force had to be used. Moreover,
certain local executive officers, speculating privately, neg-
lected to fix the maximum.

And then, there was in tlie law, as it stood, one great fault,
overlooked by the Convention, to whom the whole thing
was an experiment, which fault soon became apparent in
practice, and made itself felt. Corn showed a most natural
tendency to go from the departments where it was cheap
to other departments where it was dear.

It is now and here that Danton, carrying his wonted
boldness into the economic field, cuts the Gordian knot.
On the 4th of September, 1 793, he makes the following
motion, which is immediately adopted : —

" From to-day's date the quintal [two hundred pounds]
of wheat shall, until Oct. i, 1794, over the whole extent of
the republic, not exceed fourteen livres [about ^2.80]."

The memorandum above mentioned showed that Danton
was prepared, if occasion required it, to cut Gordian knots,
in economics as elsewhere. The occasion had come ; he
did it. And it proved successful. Corn was, if not

l)lenty, at all events to be had in sufficient quantity, at that
price, up to the fall of Robespierre.

But it will be easily perceived that these bokl innovators
would soon be brought to ask themselves, " If we lix a

154 FRATERNITY OF THE JACOB IAS. [Sept.,

maximum for wheat, why not fix it for other articles of jirune
necessity?" For them, again, it was only a step from regu-
lating the sale of commodities to dealing with the rate of
wages.

Hence another law, decreed Sept. 29, 1 793 : —

" The objects of first necessity, on which the Convention
hereby fixes a maximum, are, fresh and salt meat, pork,
butter, sweet-oil, catde, salt-fish, wine, whiskey, vinegar,
cider, beer, firewood, charcoal, coal, candles, salt, soap,
potash, sugar, honey, white paper, leather, iron, lead, steel,
copper, linen and woollen stuffs, cloths, raw materials for
factories, wooden and leather shoes, and tobacco.

"Th.Q ^naximum for firewood and charcoal shall be dieir
price in 1 790, and one-twentieth addetl.

"The maximum for tobacco shall be twenty cents a pound ;
for salt, two cents a pound ; for soap, twenty-one cents a
pound.

''The maximum for all other above-mentioned articles
shall be, over the whole extent of the republic, until next
month of September, the prices of each in 1790, as shown
by the price-currents, and onc-tJiird added ; deduction being
made of all duties then levied.

"The maxi/iu/ii! for all wages and prices paid for piece-
work shall be, until next September, what they were in 1790,
with one-half atlded, to be determined by the various gen-
eral councils of communes."

The law was guarded by severe ix'nalties : " All -persons
buying or selling above the maximum shall be punished by
a fine, double the value of the object sold, and inscribed
among the suspected.^^

That law was certainly a stronger slap in the face of the
doctrine of laissez-faire and the principle of demand and
sui)ply. It was a kind of democratic i)rotest against con-
sidering a state of society which allows demand and supply

I793-] THE '' maximum:' 155

to rule, unharnessed so to say, as " the best of all possible
words " — except for the plutocrats.

But now the smaller middle class — the smaller middle-
men — rebelled. As soon as the law was proclaimed, dealers
were seen closing their shops, declaring they had no more
sugar, oil, candles ; manufacturers threatened to close their
factories. Those who had ready money took advantage of
this state of things, and soon emptied all the shops. The
police had to interfere, and forbid traders to deliver more of
one merchandise to one than to another.

It was then seen that the maximum had to embrace all
the agents in production ; as the law stood, it very much
wronged the retailer. The maximitin ought to commence
at the source.

The law was therefore amended as follows : —

"The price of every kind of merchandise comprised in
the law of maximum shall be what it was in 1 790, at tlic
place of its production, plus one-third of said price, plus
five per cent for the wholesaler, plus five per cent for the
retailer, and, furthermore, a fixed price per mile for trans-
port added."

Another decree ordered the Committee on Subsistence to
make out a so-called Tableau of Maximum, which should
make known the cost of raw materials and the values which
labor added to the products.

A truly gigantic work, and of an imposing novelty ! All
the mysteries of production were explored ; daylight was let
into all factories ; industry was interrogated by commissioners
as indefatigable as learned, and from their labors issued an
immense statistical work, — the said Tableau.

This law did its work well. We cannot sufficiently insist
on this : that the assignats rose io par again, and remained
pretty nearly there until the fall of Robespierre ; that these
assignats sustained fourteen armies, and were the instruments

1 5 6 FRA TERNIT] ' OF THE J A Ci )IUXS. [ Sept. ,

that saved France ; and, further, tliat // was this maximum
that sustained the assignats and gave them life.

"However, the normal working of the maximumm\(\Q\\h\.-
edly presupposes a social organization founded on intimate
harmony between all interests [a Co-operative Common-
wealth, so to speak]. Had the Revolution been allowed to
pursue the path farther, those who established the maximum
would have been led, step by step, to a social revolution, the
depth of which they could not possibly at the time' have
foreseen," thinks Louis Blanc.

I, on the contrary, should say that it would have obviated
all the difficulties of the transition period which we now
experience, and smoothed the passage over into the New
Social Order.

Note, first, what this Tableau really was. Just as the French,
as we saw, first inaugurated our Universal Expositions, so
this Tableau was the first precedent for the splendid sta-
tistical tables which are periodically issued by the unique
Bureaus of Statistics of Labor of the United States, to
which no other country as yet has any thing corresponding.

We have seen that the wage-system, and competition, and
"private enterprise," were necessary in order to accomplish
the great desideratum, — increase of productive power. That
has been splendidly accomjilished. The wage-system and
competition have thus justified themselves, and have i)roved
themselves historic necessities.

Note, also, that the Jacobins were perfectly in accord witli
their brother bourgeois as to the necessity and desiral)ility
of this wage-system and competition.

But there are some decidedly evil effects following at the
heel of the good ones. Competition now causes every one
to produce for himself, sell for himself, /// secret, without
knowing what his rivals ])roduro and sell. And yet his very
success depends on his knowing this.

1793- ] A POOR-LAW. 157

These arc just the evils that this Tableau, for which they
thus had by circumstances been forced to provide, would
have obviated. It would have brought order into what lu.s
become anarchy. It would have prevented the secrecy. It
would, just what now our Bureaus of Statistics of Labor are
commencing to do, have enlightened our "movers in pro-
duction " as to their own interests, have told them how best
to use their resources, and have brought about orgaiiizafion
of industry, so much desired ; it would not, as Louis Blanc
thinks, have led to the " Co-operative Commonwealth," but
simply have made this transition period more tolerable to all
concerned, and prevented the wage-system and competition
from doing more harm than good, as they are at the present
day. France could, by leading in industry, have continued to
lead the world. It is curious to think that at that very

moment Saint-Simon, the social philosopher, was engaged in
land speculations, to gain means to think out and publish an
Organization of Industry — with the plutocrats for chiefs.
* * *

The Jacobin Convention made, as has been intimated,
several tentatives to rtaWzQ fraternity, in striking contrast to
their plutocratic brethren. As such tentative may,

perhaps, be considered the motion made by Danton in tlie
spring of 1793 for the abolition of imprisonment for debt,
which was carried. On that occasion the royalist Peltier
sneered : " He [Danton] liberated those detained for debts ;
then he made debts ( ! ), then he was a profligate ( ! ! )"
Good logic, is it not? And this is really the way most of
the charges against him are supported.

But more important is what they did for \\\t\x paupers.

The English plutocrats have at least felt that society owes
subsistence to the indigent, hence their poor-laws ; but it
should also be noted, that as soon as they had grasped
supreme power, by the Ivcfv^rm Act of 1832, they showed

158 FRATERXITY OF THE JACOniXS. [June,

their contempt for the poor by imposing on them most
degrading conditions for being admitted to reUef. But the
French boui-geoisic have done nothing, absohitely nothing.
True, in France they have what they call "public assist-
ance." But do not suppose that means relief by the State.
No, it means that certain of the most populous communes
are empowered to levy rates for the support of the poor ;
however, the amount in all France is not more than a two
hundred and fiftieth part of what the British expend ; and in
Paris the average relief to each person yearly is the pittance
of nineteen francs, or three dollars and eighty cents.

The Jacobin Convention did what follows : —

On June 23, 1 793, they passed, as we saw, their consti-
tution, which, among other things, provided, —

"Art. 21. Public assistance is a sacred debt. Society
owes subsistence to its unfortunate citizens, either by pro-
curing them labor or by insuring subsistence to those who
are unable to labor."

They did not wait long with the practical application.
Five days afterwards a law was passed organizing the assist-
ance that should be given annually to children, old persons,
widows, and paupers.

The following are some extracts of this, the most humane
Act, dating from the French Revolution, of June 28, 1793.

" Article L Parents who have no resources but their
labor, are entitled to assistance from the Slate whenever their
wages do not suffice for existence.

" Art. III. Those living by their labor, wlio already have
two children, can claim support from the State for the third
child that may be born.

" Art. IV. Those who already have three infant children,
who likewise live exclusively by their labor, and who do not
pay rates exceeding five days' labor, can claim a like su]i]:)ort
for the fourth child.

1793] A POOR-LAW. 159

"Art. V. Likewise lliosc not living l)y the i)ro(luct of their
labor, who pay a rate above the value of five days' labor, but
not exceeding ten days' labor, and already have four chil-
dren, can claim support for the fifth child that may be born.

"Art. VI, The support shall commence for all as soon
as their wives have reached the sixth month of pregnancy.

"Art. VII. The parents who already are in receipt of
support from the nation, shall be entitled to receive the same
support for each child that may be born after the third, the
fourth, and the fifth.

"Art. XL Children who are supported on the labor of
their father exclusively, shall all be maintained by the nation,
if the father dies or becomes incapacitated, until they can
earn their own living.

" Art. XII. In case of the death of the husband, the
widow, the head of a family, who cannot by her labor sup-
port it, shall equally have the right to maintenance from the
nation."

The subsequent articles lay down, that the support may
amount, every year, to eighty francs (sixteen dollars) for
each child, and a hundred and twenty francs (twenty-four
dollars), in addition, for the mother, and this pension shall
commence with the birth, and continue to the age of twelve
years ; that children twelve years of age who show them-
selves fit for a trade, shall be apprenticed at the cost of
the nation, so that the expenses do not exceed a hundred
francs (twenty dollars) annually; and that the others who
may prefer to devote themselves to agriculture, shall receive
a donation of two hundred francs (forty dollars). Moreover,
the mother was to receive eighteen francs (three dollars and
sixty cents) to defray the expenses of her confinement,
and twelve francs (two dollars and forty cents) in addition
for baby-linen.

The same support was to be given to unmarried women

l6o FRATERNITY OF THE JACOBINS. [June,

becoming mothers, who, moreover, were entitled, at any
period of tlieir pregnancy, to enter special lying-in hospi-
tals, maintained by the nation.

Indigent old persons should be supported at their homes
or in special houses of refuge, as they might choose, from
the time of being incapacitated by old age from earning
their living, and in proportion to their incapacity. The max-
imum of their annual pension was fixed at a hundred and
twenty francs (twenty-four dollars).

Committees, selected by the citizens for two years, and
renewed by halves each year, were to carry out these pro-
visions.

The same law provided for the organization of a medical
service and dispensaries of medicines, so that all needy per-
sons were entided, over and above their pensions, to medical
care and medicines.

Curiously enough, this Act has never been repealed, and is
thus, even now, the law of France, but, of course, a dead
letter ever since the fall of the Jacobins. Practical propo-
sals, indeed, have been made in our days for the raising of
sufficient means to carry out the law, by M. Godin of Guise,
but, of course, ignored.

Again, here is a splendid idea Danton had for the benefit
of maimed soldiers : —

" Without doubt, tlie moment is not far away when not a
single poor person will be found in the whole territory of the
republic. But a? it is by enjoyment that man is attached to
his country, I believe it would be well to make, without delay,
an attempt to carry out your great ideas. Representatives,
there are already many citizens among us who have been
mutilated in our defence ; would it not be well to grant
land to them in the suburbs of Paris, and give them beasts,
and thus start, under the very eyes of the Convention, a
colony of patriots who have suffered for the fadicrland ?

1793.) DOWN WITH SPECULATORS ! l6l

Then every soldier of the republic will say to liimself, ' If I
am mutilated, if I lose a limb in defending the rights of my
people, I know what I can expect. There are already sev-
eral of my brethren who are rewarded for the service they
have rendered ; I shall add to their number, and bless un-
ceasingly the founders of the republic' I demand that the
Committee of Public Welfare work out this idea, so that we
may soon have the satisfaction of seeing those of our breth-
ren who have earned well of the country in defending her,
eat together under our eyes, at the common patriotic table."

Danton delighted in nothing so much as in feasting with
his family in public with his fellow-citizens. This was the
period when long tables were placed in the streets, where
the patriots took their prepared food and ate it in common.
Curious folks, these Frenchmen ! This proposition

was referred to the committee, and bore some good fruit,
at any rate, as we shall see.

Lastly, I just mention, in this connection, a measure to
which I shall return in another place, which, on its face, is
for the relief of the poor ; I mean the celebrated Lmv of
Forty Sous, proposed by Danton Sept. 6, 1793, and adopted
as soon as proposed. It reads as follows : "■ Be it decreed,
that the sections of Paris shall for the future assemble in
regular sessions, every Sunday and Thursday, and that every
citizen attending the same shall, on demand, be i)aid forty
sous (forty cents) for each and every session."

Now the Jacobin Convention comes, and strikes a powerful
blow at that wet-nurse of the plutocratic classes. Speculation.

On the 27th of June, 1793, a decree orders the closing of
the Exchange. Let me here add, as a companion

picture, and as a curious sign of the rigorous manners of
these heroic times, so different from the present, that shortly
afterwards the Cuininittee of Public Welfare is charged with

1 62 FRATERNITY OF THE JACOBINS. LAug.,

removing all notoriously lewd women out of France, because
" the republic needs vigorous bodies and Spartan souls."

Again, on Aug. 24, Cambon says from the 'I'ribune,
" There is at this moment a struggle for life or death be-
tween money-changers and the republic. • It is necessary
to destroy these destroyers of public credit if we wish to
establish the reign of liberty , " and the Convention decrees,
" All associations whose capital stock is based on shares to
bearers, on negotiable instruments or titles, transferable at
will, are hereby suppressed."

As long as the closing of the Exchange lasted, speculations
were, as a matter of course, still carried on clandestinely ; to
wit, at the Palais Royal. But the speculators had to be very
careful, for sometimes it happened tliat the Revolutionary
Tribunal put its iron hand on them.

The Jacobins also tried to change the course of the sales
of the national estates. We saw how the plutocrats threw
themselves, like vultures, on them, and how the national
assemblies, the Convention included, as long as the Girondins
predominated in it, had loyally farthered their nefarious
practices. After May 31 things change.

On the loth of June the Jacobin Convention decrees that
the communal lands are to be distributed. All inhabitants
of the communes, farmers, agricultural laborers, servants, etc.,
are to have an equal share ; the lands to be divided as
much as ])0ssible into equal parts, and distributed by drawing
lots in ali)habetical order. And in communes that have no
commons, the heads of families shall be entitled to buy
five hundred francs worth of emigrants' estates, the purchase-
money payable in the course of twenty years.

Yet the good intentions of die Convention were frustrated
by die civil war and the war against the coalition. The Revo-
lutionary (lovernment, soon after established, had other things
to attend t<i than distributing lands, or, for that matter, col-

1793] DOWN WITH SPECULATORS ! 163

lecting dues, so we may be sure the jol)bers who owed the
repubUc for their enormous purchases in previous years paid
less than ever. But, as an offset, confiscation after confiscaticju
swelled the bullc of the national estates to an enormous mass.
Before the end of the year nearly half of the soil of France
belonged to the State, and in Paris alone the State owned
two-thirds of all houses.

The plea by Danton in favor of maimed soldiers, reported
a few pages back, bore some good fruit, as stated : it resulted
in another good decree to the effect that a milliard (two
hundred million dollars) toortli of tJic jiational estates should
be t'esetued for and distributed amongst tlie volunteers, fight-
ing on the frontiers for the life of the republic. We shall see
how, afterwards, the plutocrats succeeded in nullifying both
the above popular decrees.

But these plutocrats did not get away from the Jacobins
without bleeding a little. At the same time that Danton roused
the people to the final efforts, in August, 1 793, Cambon caused
to be decreed a forced loan from them to the amount of a
milliard (two hundred million dollars) and made them pay it.

Cambon's greatest feat, however, one that has withstood
all changes, was to merge all national and royal debts (which
still attached many to the royal cause) into one great rev-
olutionary debt, inscribed on le Grand Livre (the Great
Ledger) of France, thereby very much simplifying, and
especially greatly strengthening, the credit of the republic.
All creditors were summoned to bring their titles within a
given time to the treasury, there to be destroyed, and the
claims instead inscribed in the Ledger, or forever after de-
barred from recovery. This was a very shrewd measure,
considering that a public debt was to remain an institution.
* * *

Children pre-occupy the Jacobin Convention even more
tlian men ; its patience as to educational matters is infinite.

1 64 FRATERNITY OF THE JACOB LYS. [Aug. 13,

A unique spectacle, thus to see childhood protected by rude
hands that soon after lean on the scaffold !

A most remarkable fact this is, that there is no improve-
ment discussed to-day, whether in regard to organization or
methods of education, no subject-matter of education in a
democratic State, which was not conceived and discussed in
the Jacobin Convention.

Among the papers of the rich patriot Lepelletier, assas-
sinated in the month of January, was found a scheme for
national education, which, read by Robespierre before the
Convention July 13, excited in a high degree the enthusiasm
of all. The scheme, which contained noble sentiments,
and a touching sympathy, especially in a rich man, for chil-
dren of the poor, consisted in giving a common education
to all the children of the republic. Lepelletier demanded
that all boys from their sixth to twelfth year, and all girls
from their fifth to eleventh year, should be educated in
co?nfnou, at the cost of the republic, and have during that
period, by virtue of the holy "law of equality," the same
clothes, food, instruction, and care.

This plan was, in principle, adopted by the Convention
Aug. 13, 1793, but fortunately accompanied by the follow-
ing modification, moved by Danton : —

"There shall be created national establishments in which
the children of citizens shall be fed, instructed, and lodged
gratuitously, and also classes where the citizens who may
wish to keep their children at home can send them for in-
struction simply."

The speech which introduced this motion was, in effect, as
follows : —

" Citizens, — Next after giving France liberty, and conquer-
ing her enemies, nothing will be more glorious than to secure
to coming generations an education worthy of our liberty ;
this was the great aim Lepelletier had jjlaced before himself.

EDUCATION. 165

He started irom the principle that whatever is good fur
society, is and should be a concern of each. Our colleague,
assassinated by tyranny, deserves well of humanity ! But
what is the task the lc^^islator\\-\'~, to perform? It is, to bring
principles and expediency into harmony. Thus, the objection
has been made to the plan, that parental love opposes itself
to its execution ; and no doubt we must reckon with human
nature, even when on a wrong tack. At the same time, if we
come to the conclusion that we ought not to make education
compulsory, we must be very careful not to deprive the
children of the poor of education.

"The greatest difficulty in our way is undoubtedly the
financial one. But, as I have expressed myself on other
occasions, we do not really spend money when we make
profitable investments of it for the public benefit. Here I
add this : that it is eminently proper that the children of
the people should be educated out of the superfluities of
men with scandalous fortunes. When you sotu the vast field
of the republic, do not, I implore you, count the cost of the
seed! Next after bread, education, is the first necessary of
life for the people. [Applause.] I therefore submit this ques-
tion to you : Shall there, or shall there not, be founded, at
the expense of the nation, establishments to which every
citizen can, if he chooses, send his children for public, na-
tional education ?

" The instruction, of course, must be common. Education
at home narrows the mind : a common education broadens
it. I know that paternal affection has been made into :\w
objection to it. Well, I myself am a father ; when I on-
sider the relation which this circumstance places me in, in
regard to the Commonwealth, I assure you I feel proud ! My
son, I declare, does not belong to me, l)ut to the republic ;
it is the duty of the latter to teach him his duties, that he
may perform them well.

1 66 FRATERNITY OF THE JACOBINS. [Sept. 15,

" It has also been said that our peasants object to being
deprived of the help of their children. Well, then let us
not compel them ; let us simply offer them the opportunity.
Let us establish classes where they, perhaps, may be induced
to send their children, at all events on Sundays. Institutions
will form new manners."

In order to bring together all the ideas of Danton on this
matter, I quote the following from another speech, delivered
some months afterwards, in favor of compulsory education : —

" It is time to establish a great principle which seems to
have been neglected ; this, to wit : that children belong to
the republic rather than to the parents. No one respects
nature more than I do. But social interests demand the
full allegiance of the affections. Who is there who can
guarantee that children trained up in the egoism of the
family will not be dangerous to the republic? AVe have
humored private affections sufficiently when we tell the par-
ents, 'We will not tear your children away from you, but
neither shall you be permitted to withdraw them from social
influences.' It is in the national schools that our children
will imbibe national, public milk."

The above motion of Danton's creates a splendid system
of national education, and for a couple of years truly great
results are olitained. There was manifested an unquench-
able thirst after knowledge.

The Revolution made the French a homogeneous nation,
also, in language ; and that, too, was the work of the Jaco-
bins. AVhen they came to power, nearly half of the tiuenty-
five million Fre7ichmen did not speak or understand the
French language, but spoke innumerable dialects. The
Jacobin Convention put a teacher of French into every com-
mune of every frontier department, and every Frenchman
did learn French.

i\\\k\ now is seen a truly astonishing spectacle. On the

EDUCATION. - 167

very day when it is resolved that the Revohitionary 'rrihimal
shall divide itself into four sections, each with its guillotine,
to cut heads off the quicker, on the 15th of September, i 793,
in the midst of this terrible excitement, which one should
think would leave room for nothing but violent emotions, a
deputation from the constituted authorities of Paris and her
suliurbs appears at the bar of the Convention, and strongly
urges the immediate organization of superior instruction .'

And immediately the Convention enthusiastically de-
crees, —

" Independent of the primary schools, there shall be estab-
lished in the republic three progressive degrees of instruction :
first, for giving the (technical) knowledge indispensable to
artisans and working-men ; secondly, the (technical) knowl-
edge necessary to professions ; and thirdly, furnishing all
needed opportunities for pursuing such difficult studies as
only the more gifted minds are fit for."

And this same Jacobin Convention further had the great
merit, during the period with which we are dealing, of
initiating, and afterwards of founding, the following grand
institutions, that survive to this day : —

The Normal School ;

The Conservatory of Arts ;

The Museum of Natural History ; and last, but by no
means least,

The Polytechnic School, of all the above institutions the
most eminent.

The error of the Jacobins was, that they thought that
education had the power to transform, at one stroke, the
manners, opinions, us^ages, and sentiments of France, and to
regenerate society altogether. The i)easants had profited
by the abolition of the tithes, of taxes, and feudal burdens
which the Revolution had secured for them : nevertheless,
it proved an easy thing for the enemies of the Revolution

1 68 FRATERNITY OF THE JACOBINS. [Autumn,

to inspire them with a great distrust for the schools of
the repubUc ; and, as a consequence, while many of the
ideas of the Jacobins have at length, in our days, become
victorious, many others are still in abeyance.

The "enemies of the Revolution" were, in this case, of
course, the clergy ; in particular, the orthodox Catholic clergy,
— the "non-swearers," so called. Their hatred for the Con-
ventionals was equal to that the latter felt for the former. In
order to comprehend this hatred it is requisite to bear one
thing in mind : religion in France did 7iot mean Christianity ;
it meant the Catholic Cliiirch ; and this, again, meant noth-
ing else than obedience, — obedience to the Pope. The
faithful wanted genuine sacraments ; to get them they had
to obey the priest; he had to obey his bishop, and he again
the Pope. The Conventionals were thus placed in the un-
fortunate predicament, that, by attacking this obedience to
the Pope, a patriotic object, they necessarily attacked religion.
But in this open struggle of theirs against the Pope they
could not help failing, as Edgar Quinet well observes. A
form of religion, and the authority of the Catholic Church
in particular, can be overcome by force, but only when there
is anotlicr religion to take its place. That history has taught
us in the Reformation of England, Germany, and Scandi-
navia. Unfortunately the French had no other religion to
substitute. They were, therefore, bound to fail. And they
did fail. The Legislative Body had ordered the clergy to
take an oath by wliich they virtually would l)reak the bond
that united them to the Pope, but three-fourths of their
number refused, — hence their name of "non-swearers."

Under these circumstances there was only one thing to do,
in order to create that free field for science and philosophy
that was recjuired : it was the policy Danton strenuously
advocated, — not to have any tiling at all to do widi the

1793.] THE CODE. 169

clergy, the Cliurch, and the Pope, separation of Church and
State, as practised here in our country. This poHcy, indeed,
was pursued a couple of years afterwards, until Bona[)arte
unfortunately reversed it.

But meanwhile a most miserable and odious step is entered
upon, due to Hebert. It consists in closing the churches
by force, and cajoling as many of the clergy as can be
influenced to surrender their priestly credentials, and resign
their places. A wave of insane fanaticism passes over France,
and the great scandal is witnessed of the Archbishop of
Paris, and then a number of tlie clergy from all over the
country, appearing before the Convention to declare that
they had till then been contemptible hypocrites, and been
teaching the people falsehoods. Fortunately Danton also
here stems these outrages. He causes an end to be put to
further reception of clergy ; and, since Hebert had \)xo-
posed to withdraw their pensions from the clergymen who
do not declare themselves impostors, Danton roundly de-
nounces it as unjust, and succeeds in defeating the pro-
posal.

* * *

On the 9th of August, 1793, Cambac^res deposited his
Cii'il Code on the table of the president of tlie Convention.
That body had given its Committee on Legislation three
months to draft it ; the work was done in one month. The
jurists, too, would show themselves heroes.

Yet that is the moment when all Frenchmen are exhorted
to join the armies. Every one is aware that the enemy has
passed the frontiers. The nation seems to have but a mo-
ment to live. Suddenly it becomes calm. The place
that a few minutes ago resounded with cries, curses, prayers,
and weeping, is so quiet you can licar a pin drop. The
representatives of a nation that seems to have but a day to
live occupy themselves in voting laws that now govern thirty-

I/O FRATERNITY OF THE JACOBINS. LSept.,

five millions of men, — tables of law truly descended among
thunder and lightning !

And who is the president? H^rault de S^chelles, Dan-
ton's intimate friend. Cambac^res proposes, the Conven-
tion votes, Hdrault S^chelles proclaims, the princi^Dles which
now govern the social relations, the lives, the deaths, the
property, of Frenchmen of to-day. How, then, comes it
that the Convention is now remembered only as a destructive
body? Because another has shamelessly plundered

it of its works.

That which constitutes a civil code, in French jurisprudence
especially, are its fundamental principles. If, now, we com-
pare the Civil Code of 1793 ^'^^^ '^^'^'^ o^ 1803, we find these
fundamental principles have been taken literall}' over from
one to the other. But a nation has to be effaced in

order to glorify a man.

The labor of the Convention on its code goes on bravely,
quietly, obstinately. When the factions are tired out in strife,
when there is a moment's silence, the code re-appears, and
unites all intelligences ; and in this way the Convention gives
sixty sittings to it. It was the work complementary to that of
Aug. 4, — upbuilding and destruction, both done without fric-
tion. I note the following incidents of the discussions : —

Once the question is, whether a functionary elected by
the people to an office shall give security. Danton rises,
and says, —

" I object to security : it is absurd in theory. The respon-
sibility that is wanted is moral, not pecuniary. When the
lime comes, as we all hope it soon will, that the people select
for public functions only the talented and the virtuous, there
will be no need for financial security." So decreed.

At another time the question is as to the right of married
people over their property. Danton asks in what way the
Committee on Legislation has solved the problem.

1793] -/ GREAT WROXG. IJl

Cambarcens. "\\'e have declared that the husband shall
not be able to dispose of the common property without the
consent of his wife."

Danton. "Good ! Nothing is more reasonable."

One of the most solemn moments was when slavery was
declared abolished in the French colonies. Observe ! this
Jacobin Convention is the first sovereign authority that abol-
ishes modern negro sla\'er}'. A deputation of colored men
from the colonies is admitted to the Convention, and saluted
by the president with a kiss on the cheek. Danton seems
to have had an almost proj^hetic insight into the future, for
he says, among other things, on that occasion, —

" By sowing liberty in the New World, we shall cause it to
bear abundant fruit, and shoot profound roots there."
* * *

And why should such a convention, one moment en-
gaged in decreeing a victory, another founding museums and
schools, not create entirely new weights and measures of
capacity and distances? Tliey ilo it: they establish the
metrical system, which at last, in our days, after a hard
struggle has been victorious. From weights and

measures they deemed it but a step to a neio calendar;
Frenchmen of the last century had such a need, such a
desire, of forgetting their past, of forgetting every thing that
could remind them of former times, forgetting even the old
names of days, months, and seasons. Fabre d'Eglantine, an
author, and also friend of Danton, lays it before the Con-
vention in the fall of i 793.

Did not Nature itself sanction the French Revolution,
when the republic was proclaimed on the 2 2d of Septeml)er,
1792, the very day of the autumnal equinox? The great
French Republic is, therefore, a part of the firmament of
heaven, and ought to reckon its era from that date, as the
first day of year i. Said era lasted twche years, ll was

172 FRATERNITY OF THE JACOBINS. [Autumn,

really the most foolish of all their conceptions, — a remarkable
instance of their unbounded conceit, to believe that all other
nations would cheerfully adopt a new calendar whereby to
regulate their most private relations, and in the framing of
which they yet had had no share.

They even could not, in spite of all they might do, make
their own peasants accept the new calendar. It is well known
with what tenacity the common people cling to habits that
have become ingrown with all their daily tasks. When even
the decimal system of weights and measures, in spite of its
evident superiority, has only in our days, after eighty years
of struggle, been accepted, how could it be expected that
a span-new calendar, luliicli abolished Sunday, could be
acceptable ? No more Sundays ! this was something the
peasants could never understand. Somewhat differ-

ent was it with the towns. For the Sundays the calendar
had substituted dccadics — every tenth day — as a holiday.
In nearly all towns the municipal officers, with their tri-
color scarfs of office, went every decadi in procession to
the churches, where in the place of the altar a tree of lib-
erty had been planted, and held, often with a great deal
of pomp, municipal " festiv^als," which all "good citizens"
attended. National hymns were sung, orators of the locality
gave vent to their eloquence, and marriages were solem-
nized.

This was a matter in which the Convention greatly wronged
the working-people, and simply in order to gratify arithmetical
fancies and hatred of the Church. To substitute every tenth
day, instead of every seventh, as a day of rest, to give them
but three instead of four holidays in the month, was to rob
them of so much of their little leisure. It was indefensible,
the more so as they really had a tender sympathy for the
working-classes, in spite of their middle-class notions about
property and the wage-system. But it was the only instance

1793] ''PRIVATE ENTERPRISE'' ESSENTIAL. 173

where the Jacobin Convention knowingly did any thing to
the prejudice of the poor,

* * *

So far, then, every thing the Jacobin Convention Iiad
done or attempted in the way of social reform — excciit
the childish freak of the new calendar — had been prac-
tical and promised to be permanent. Let us repeat the
grand measures they had passed in such a short space of
time : —

The maximum.

Industrial statistics.

A most generous poor-law.

Closing the Exchange.

Land grants to the poor and to soldiers.

A splendid scheme of primary and superior education.

The Polytechnic School.

Universalization of the French language.

The code, including the abolition of slavery.

The decimal system of weights and measures.

The Great Ledger.

It was all in harmony with the programme stated as being
that of Danton in the preceding chapter, except the maxi-
mum, into which they had been forced by circumstances,
and in that they had been eminently successful. They had
so far not allowed metaphysical speculations to influence
them in action ; they had brought no translation at all of
" God's mysterious text " into the public place, except as
every day's necessities demanded it.

In other words, they had, led by Danton, practised the
policy now known by the name of " opportunism," — the
only practicable policy under the circumstances, since they
were absolutely ignorant, and could not help being ignorant,
of the society that was to be evolved. We now know that
was to be a transition society. We know that the two

174 FRATERNITY OF THE JACOBINS. [Autumn,

principal things to accomplish were, to increase production
and productivity, and make the tnental preparation, the prep-
aration in the minds of the people, for the final change. A
third thing, otherwise resulting from the new system, was
the teaching the vmltitude new wants. In order to increase
production, it was necessary that the rich middle classes
should have supreme potuer and be enabled to practise free
competition and private enterprise to tiic utmost and //;/-
fettered. This policy of opportunism, so prudently entered
upon, would have accomplished that ; for we have seen that
the Jacobins believed as fully in these middle-class principles
as the plutocrats.

The Jacobins in that case would, if they had preserved
their power, or at least some part of their influence, have
become the good genius of the French bourgeoisie. Not
alone would they have prevented, or at least bridled, the
shameful excesses, the criminal practices, of the plutocrats :
more important it is, that they would have insisted on these
plutocrats performing their other, their incidental duties of
rulersliip. Since the middle classes accepted, courted, su-
preme power, they should have assumed all the responsi-
bilities, as the clergy and nobility had done in the Middle
Ages. They should have looked after social interests, in-
stead of which they have steadily sacrificed social interests
to personal, private interests. The Jacobins would have
secured to the poorer classes mea?is to satisfy their increased
wants. They would have " prevented gluts," and " presided
over the apportionment and distribution of wages for work
done." They would have softened the hatred of the bou7--
geoisie for the poorer classes, and thus prevented the hatred
and the terrible feelings of revenge which these classes
now, on their side, nourish for the bourgeoisie. They would
have made our present order a smooth transition over into
the permanent social order which approaches, instead of the

1793] ''PRIVATE ENTERPRISE'' ESSENTIAL. 1 75

violent revolution it now threatens to become. They would
have retained France at the head of progress.

But they suffered themselves to be misled by Hebert and
Robespierre, became brutal, cruel, or rather, cowardly ; in
consequence, the splendid foundation they had laid was de-
stroyed. Only a little here and there remained, as the Code,
retained under a false name to gratify a selfish individual's
vanity. Undoubtedly our days have seen other of their
works resurrected, as their educational system, because built
on eternal verities.

They became a " faction ; " they insisted on a false inter-
pretation of "God's text," — insisted on translating it in the
light of the gospel of Jean Jacques, and on twisting France
into the shape and measure of ancient Sparta, ignoring her
whole previous history. But not that alone. Frenchmen,
as they were, they were impatient in applying this false con-
ception. It is an essential difference between Englishmen
and Frenchmen, that the former are what is called fond of
compromises, which really means that they are not in a hurry
in drawing ultimate conclusions ; the latter are unhealf/iily
logical, — as already said, deem nothing gained till they liave
realized the last conclusion of the syllogism. It was this
characteristic that caused their failure here, as it has done
at other times. Their reign became but a short episode.

On the other hand, what a blunder to draw therefrom the
conclusion that the Revolution failed ! No, the Revolution
accomplished the role assigned to it in history. Our reform-
ers who draw such a false conclusion, like these other " re-
formers," Godin of Guise and our own Henry George, are
precisely as near-sighted as the Jacobins of '93, and with
less excuse ; they all have a wrong interpretation, a false
translation, of " God's mysterious text."

CHAPTER VI.

TERROR.
Sept. 17, 1793, to July 28, 1794.

" Nothing is more difficult than to harmonize ivith the narrower fanatics oj
one's own faith."

Hebertism. —Pity.— April 5. — Danton Disinterested. — Dans le
N£ant, " Nothingness '" (?). — The Incorruptible. — " Monsieur !"

NOW the French Revolution suffers its great eclipse,
commencing with that terrible code of the Terror, the
" Law of the Suspect."

Danton had intended the stern revolutionary measures of
which he was the author to be provisional, temporary ; they
were to enable France to crush conspirators, and win vic-
tories. That having been accomplished, the feverish excite-
ment, it was supposed, would cool, and the severity of the
government would then be more and more relaxed. First
of all, the Revolutionary Tribunal would be abolished ; and
by and by the Committee of Public Welfare would give way to
a regular, liberal government, under the constitution, which
perhaps would be amended. Danton supposed all the time
he would be able, by his adroitness, to control the course
of affairs, as he had hitherto done.

But in this he was now commencing to be bitterly disap-
pointed. Ever since his refusal to assume responsibility
(though his foreign policy is steadily being pursued) he is
more and more being supplanted by Robespierre in the
committee, — or, rather, by Billaud-Varennes, as tlie power
behind llie throne, — and in tlie Commune by llebert.
i;6

1793-] HEDERTISM. 1 77

Ah, Hubert was certainly the very worst of all the revo-
lutionary chiefs, and a wholly pernicious influence ; an influ-
ence which, during the autumn months of '93, became
paramount, and overshadowed even that of Robespierre.
^Vholly pernicious it was. Marat had been hysterically,
insanely cruel, but never coarse. Hubert was equally cruel
and bloodthirsty — from calculation. But there was another
enormity of which he was guilty, — the very blackest of
offences, in my opinion, and for which, alone, he almost
deserved to be guillotined ; this : that, though refined in
personal tastes, and almost a dandy in appearance, he yet
descended so low as to address the people in the coarsest
and most vulgar language, having fallen into the gross but
common error that the work-people understand and like
such language best. He accordingly sprinkled his paper,
the Pere Duchesne, with the most atrocious obscenities,
which were copied by all the journals of Europe, in order
to show to what depths Paris had fallen. And yet Hebert
finds apologists, even in our days, who fancy they clear his
reputation by showing that his paper was not, from first to
last, obscene, but that frequently it had very readable articles
and good ideas.

Yet I firmly believe he was perfectly honest, and a patriot.
I believe that all the Jacobin chiefs were unselfish men, and
that this very quality nobly distinguishes them from the lead-
ing plutocrats of the period. But that very fact should be
a warning to us. Hebert was no rascal, but terribly wrong-
headed, — and wrong-hearted too, it may be added. He
was in that respect, and, indeed, in all others, a good repre-
sentative of our anarchists of to-day : he was a prototype
of John Most.

He and his party were, as the Girondins had been, and
as our anarchists are, partisans of the war for propagantla,
ardent partisans. It was their religion. Again, after

178 TERROR. [Sept.,

the fall of the Girondins, the Hebertists perpetuated their
"Federalism," carried it even farther; that is to say, they
wanted to do away with the supremacy of the State, and, in-
stead of it, ''municipalize " France and all Europe, — divide
them into autonomous communes, — the notion, it may lie
remembered, of Baron Cloots, who in some respects be-
longed to Hubert's party. Our modern anarchists likewise
propose, in the teeth of cvohitiou, that society be dissolved,
in order to allow the formation of small, voluntary, " autono-
mous " groups, and apparently do not reflect that these
sovereign "groups" will virtually be small States, which
experience should have taught us are far more dictatorial
than large ones. I think it, by the way, very unfortunate
that nearly all French revolutionists, of all schools, seem com-
mitted to the sovereignty of the " Commune," as opposed to
that of the nation. Lastly, like tlie Ciirondins the

Hebertists were atheists, and like our anarchists, fanatic
atheists. In the approaching montlis of November and
December they will make the hall of the Convention, and,
indeed, all Paris and France, into a madhouse, by their atlic-
istic mummeries and processions.

In all this we find many ideas common to Girondins and
Hebertists. Indeed, the difference was this : that, while tlicir
principles were identical, the former wanted them carried
out for the benefit of the plutocrats exclusively, and Hebert
for the benefit of the proletariat, the " Have-nots ; " and, if
we go to the bottom, I think we shall find the same really to
be the difference, and the only difference, between our
anarchists and our individualists, between John Most on the
one side, and Herbert Spencer and Auberon Herbert on
the other.

It was the same in regard to centralization. Hd-bert was
violently opposed to the Committee of Public IVr/fare, and
opposed to it the doctrine of unrestricted liberty, which, in

1793] HEBERTISM. 1 79

his mouth, really meant license : the government of " the
street." It was the attempt to carry this doctrine into
practice that finally doomed him. But that which,

together with his journalist obscenities, constituted his worst
crime, was what I called his " wrong-heartedness ; " was that
he, his party, and journal constantly incited to murder,
bloodshed, and outrage. He was the true father of the
Terror, though he had a rival to this distinction in Billaud,
of the committee. In that respect many of our anarchists
are, unfortunately, also too like him. It is not an uncom-
mon thing, though it will hardly be believed, to find in
French anarchist journals leading articles that openly preach
the doctrine of vengeances particidieres ; that is to say,
recommend their followers, at the breaking-out of the
revolution, by all means to obey the worst promptings of
\k\€\x private malice and revengeful feelings. It is perfectly
devilish !

It was on Sept. 1 7 that was voted this " Law of the
Suspect," the first-fruit of the spirit of Ht§bert. Billaud-
Varennes was in the chair of the Convention — as was fit.
This law was terrible, as has been said, — terrible from its
vagueness. All who by their conduct, position, words, or
writings, had shown themselves " partisans of tyranny or
enemies of liberty," all who had been refused certificates of
"civism," all functionaries who had been suspended by the
Convention or its commissioners, all former nobles, all
wives, husbands, fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, sisters,
brothers, or agents of emigrants " who had not uninter-
ruptedly manifested attachment to the Revolution," were
declared " suspects," and ordered to be arrested. Lists
were immediately to be made of such persons, and their arrest
to be effected at once. No one opposed tlie passage of this
law ; there was no discussion, in fact. And Danton ? He
pursued his usual policy, that which he had carried out in

l8o TERROR. [Oct.,

regard to the decree of Nov. 19 the i)revious year: he
thought it inadvisable to oppose it in the heat of passion.
We shall see he did oppose it when he thought the time had
come.

And now Hebert and Billaud hurry their victims to the
guillotine : the ci-devant (former) Queen ; then twenty-one
Girondin members of the Convention, who spent the night
before their execution in songs, drinking, and ril^^ldry ;
then Philip Egalit^, ci-devant Duke of Orleans ; then Bailly,
once president of the National Assembly and mayor of
Paris, executed for the part he took in the killing on the
Champ de Mars, July 17, 1791. Arrived at the usual place
of execution, it was thought fit, on reflection, that he should
meet death where he had inflicted it ; therefore he and the
guillotine were taken to the Champ de Mars, where with
genuinely Parisian refined cruelty he had to wait in a rain-
storm till the instrument of death was once more erected.
Then followed Madame Roland, Madame Elizabeth ; and
then they came xw/oiirnees, as it was styled (ovensfull).

It was fit that the device of the republic were now
changed : it now became " Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, —
OR Death ! "

All these excesses grievously wounded Danton. Once,,
speaking of the H^bertists, he said, stamping with his foot,
as if crushing an insect, " This is what I would do to this
miserable crew." Some time before the Queen's execution,
the representative of Austria, who still supposed him in-
fluential, asked him to see that no harm befell her, at the
same time offering him a considerable sum of money. He
spurned the bribe, but promised to do what he could for her,
adding that her death had never entered into his thouglits.
He had once publicly recommended that she be returned to
her family. As for the Girondins, their fate almost broke his
heart. He told Carat, the tears flowing down his cheeks,

1793.] HEBERTISM. l8l

that he had done all he could to save them, but in vain.
This failure, which must have happened about the middle of
October, made him even bodily ill, it is said.

Fairness requires that something additional be said about
a man belonging to this " crew," Chaumette, the legal adviser
and representative of Paris. He, also, was a dogmatic atheist,
but with many noble qualities. He had obtained the aboli-
tion of the lash and of corporal punishment in schools ; the
suppression of lotteries, that bane of Parisians at all times ;
the closing of gambling-houses ; and the daily opening of
the libraries to the public. He furthermore procured for the
patients, who hitherto had been horribly crowded in the
hospitals, a separate bed for each, and that books be sent
them ; also the assignment of a separate building to lying-
in women ; the amendment of the atrocious treatment of
criminals ; and the founding of an asylum for the indigent
and the aged. He helped to found the Conservatory of
Music, and procured the suspension of the Vandal restora-
tion of pictures in the Louvre. Lastly he demanded equality
of burial, and wished — such a beautiful idea to a French-
man — that the winding sheet of every citizen in his coffin
should be a national flag. He was far from being a dan-
gerous man. Among anarchists of to-day similar nol)le men
are found, such as Krapotkin. Unfortunately, and most
unjustly, he became a victim of Camille's pen, and had to

share Hebert's fate.

* * *

Whether bodily or mentally sick, Danton got leave of
absence from the Convention, and retired for six weeks,
with his young wife, to his beloved birthplace, Arcis-sur-
Aube, and the society of his mother and stepfather. Tradi-
tion has preserved some information as to what he did, how
he lived, and what he said, then and there ; and it so hap-
pens that Madame Roland, in the i)rison of Saint-Pelagic,

1 82 TERROR. [Nov.,

concerns herself at the same time with Danton. By con-
trasting what she thinks Danton is about, and what he is
actually doing, we can discover how much we ought to rely
on her other slanderous statements.

She writes in her Manoires : —

" O Danton ! it is thus thou sharpenest thy knife against
thy victims. Strike ! One more will add but little to thy
crimes ; but their multitude cannot fathom thy scoundrelism,
nor save thee from infamy. As cruel as jSIarius, as frightful
as Catiline, thou surpassest them in wicked deeds."

No ; poor Danton was not sharpening any knives against
Madame Roland or anybody else. He was going about
feeding his ducks, or planting with trees a meadow behind
his house, which he wanted to convert into a garden. They
tell a story of him from these days : —

One day a laborer hired by him cut himself seriously
while at work. Every one else ran about bewildered, seek-
ing assistance ; while Danton tore his shirt in pieces, stemmed
the blood, bandaged the wound, and tlien took the work-
man up in his arms and carried him to his house, where
he had good care taken of him.

Another story, told by his son, sets in still better relief
the ravings of Madame Roland : —

Shortly after the 31st of October, the day of execution
of the Girondists, Danton was one day walking in his gar-
den, together with one of his neighbors, who afterwards
was mayor of Arcis, when some one approached them with
hurried steps, holding a paper in his hand.

" Good news ! " cried the new-comer, " good news ! "

''What is it?" asked Danton.

"The Girondists have just lost tlicir heads on the scaffold."

"And do you call that good news?" exclaimed Danton,
while his eyes filled with tears.

" Well, were they not factious? "

1793.] riTY. 183

" Factious ! Have we not all been factious ? We de-
serve death as much as they, and we probably shall have to
travel the same road."

When somebody else reminded Danton of the crimes of
the Girondists, he answered, " It ought to be held a sacred
principle that a patriot must do wrong three times before
we use him severely."

That was exactly the contrary to what Robespierre
thought, and nothing can better serve to distinguish the
two men ; for the latter said, that, let a man have rendered
ever so great services to the State, if he once sinned against
"virtue" he should be "spit out."

Otherwise, the six weeks were passed by Danton in the
company of his fellow-townsmen. Here as elsewhere he
was in the highest degree social. He took his meals with
open windows and doors, and it is said his neighbors stood
in crowds in the open windows to see their great fellow-
townsman eat and hear his talk.

He comes back to Paris in November. He and Camille
Desmoulins, who lived in the same small street, and passed
nearly all their leisure time in each other's homes, walked
one evening along the Seine. The setting sun rendered the
waters of the river purple. Suddenly Danton stopped.

" Look ! " and his eyes became humid, " how it looks
like blood ! The Seine runs blood ; there has been too
much spilt. Go, take thy pen, demand ckiiicncy, and I
shall support you."

Camille did write. Tlic Old Cordelier was the result,
and the noblest memento a writer could well have.

First, numl)er one appeared, then number two ; they were
read. Besides Danton, who inspired the whole enterprise,
it is said that these two numbers were shown to Robespierre
in manuscript, who approved them on the whole, and made
a few immaterial corrections.

1 84 TERROR. [Dec,

Then the famous numljcr tliree appeared. It lashed the
system of the Terror that obtained, especially the " Law of
the Suspects," under the pretence of being a translation from
Tacitus from the period of Tiberius.

The success of this magnificent satire was enormous.
People crowded round the shops of the newsdealers, and
the price of each copy rose to a dollar and more. Camille,
really a child in spirit, was childishly joyous at this success,
and going home, it is said, took his little son Horace on his
knees, and made him jump, singing, not knowing how
truthfully he prophesied, "■Edainus et bibamus eras eniin
vioriainur " (" Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we
die").

" Do you really think," he said one day to his friend
Bruno, a future marshal of the Empire, who called to lunch
with him, " that they will attack me, me and my Old
Cordelier, for asking for a Committee of Clemency and
Justice ? for wanting to consolidate the work of our Revolu-
tion ? Why, I have the whole of France in my favor ! I
am read and applauded everywhere."

Then number four came out. In it Camille wrote, —

" Liberty ! Is it nothing but an actress from the opera,
with a red cap on? or perhaps the statue which David pro-
poses to erect, forty-six feet high ? If by ' Liberty ' you do
not mean, with me, principles, but only a piece of stone,
surely there has never been a more stupid and costly idolatry
than ours.

" No, my Liberty descended from heaven ; is neither a
nymph from the opera, nor a red cap, nor a dirty shirt. It
is happiness, equality, justice, the Declaration of Rights ; it is
our sublime constitution. Do you want me to fall at the
feet of that Liberty? spend all ray blood for it? Then open
the prisons to the tioo hundred tJioitsand citizens you call
suspects, fur in our Declaration of Rights there arc not

1793.] PITY. 185

mentioned at all any prisons of suspicion, but only prisons
of arrest. You will exterminate all your enemies by the
guillotine, but was there ever a greater folly? Can you
make one perish on the scaffold without making ten enemies
of his family and friends?"

This is too strong for the Terrorists; they bring it up in
the Jacobin Club, where Robespierre proposes to burn the
numbers, when Camille blurts out his famous reply, " Tnit
burning, Robespierre, is not answering," which makes the
latter very angry. In that meeting Danton speaks some
words to the effect that they should be careful how, in judg-
ing Camille, they make a fatal blow against the liberty of the

press.

* * *

On the 4th of March, 1794, the H^bertists proceeded to
overt acts of insurrection. They had, in their Club of the
Cordeliers, a tableau of the Rights of Man. This they
covered with black crape ; " and," said Hebert, " it shall
remain veiled till the ' moderates ' — the Dantonists — are
destroyed." And he went farther : he called upon the
people of Paris to rise to overthrow the Revolutionary Gov-
ernment, and establish his own anarchic system by force.
His attempt failed miserably, — only his own section declared
itself willing to follow him, — and in consequence he and his
followers were arrested and brought before the Revolutionary
Tribunal. Then he had to feel the weight of the very law
he himself had been the loudest in agitating for, — the
law which allowed the Tribunal to close the defence after
the lapse of three days, though Danton, who otherwise lent
all his force and influence to the prosecution, was willing to
grant him all the latitude of defence he wished. Hebert
and party were executctl the 24th of March, from five to six
in the afternoon, as had lately become the flishion, since
executions were now looked upon as popular spectacles.

l86 TERROR. [March 24,

The people in the streets hooted and mocked him, and
applied to him the coarse and cruel vulgarities with which
he had accompanied his victims to the scaffold in his paper.
One enormity, however, was reserved for him which, like
the one done to Bailly, I verily believe would not be perpe-
trated in any other civilized country but France, and whicli
again shows the cruel disposition of Frenchmen. As Ht^bcrt
lay prostrate on the guillotine, waiting for the knife, the
executioner, Samson, — a royalist, by the way, — positively
amused the crowd by playing with his terror ; that is to say,
he allowed, several times, the knife to descend halfway, rais-
ing it again, till he finally allowed it to descend to do its
work ; and the crowd enjoyed the sport hugely.

The fact is, that Hebert's execution gave not alone great
satisfaction to the government and the Dantonists, wliom it
rid of a most dangerous fanatic, but also unbounded joy to
the royalists and counter-revolutionists. For it cannot be
denied that it was the-turning point in this tragical part of the
Revolution. Hubert was the first patriot condemned by the
Tribunal. Marat had, eleven months before, been taken be-
fore it, on the accusation of the Girondists, but he had been
triumphantly acquitted and carried away on the shoulders of
the people ; but now a patriot was condemned, and destined
to prei)are the way for so many others. Yet, even if Danton
was aware of it, he could have done nothing else ; it is just
the pity of every new movement that it is loaded with fa-
natics who often destroy it by carrying things to extremes.

It is now that Danton delivers his last address in the Con-
vention, Pache, the mayor of Paris, came, March
19, before that body, and protested in the name of tlie Com-
mune its devotedness to the national representatives. Rulil,
the president, expressed his gratification, but at the same
time reproached it with being somewhat tardy. Then
Danton rose and said, —

1794] APRIL FIFTH. 1 8/

"The national representative body should always main-
tain a worthy attitude. It ought not to mark a whole col-
lective body with its displeasure because some of them have
been guilty men. The General Council of the Commune
has come to declare its loyalty. The president has showed
himself dignified ; his answer is worthy the majesty of the
people. However, may we not have reason to fear thai
malecontents will misinterpret his expressions? In the name
of our country, I say, let us not give the least cause for
misunderstandings. If ever, when we are victors (and victory
is already an assured thing), if ever, I say, private passions
shall prevail over love of country, if ever they shall create
a new abyss for liberty, / shall be one of the first to precipi-
tate myself into it. The president has made a response full
of severe justice, but it may be misinterpreted. Let us
spare the Commune the sorrow of ha\ing been censured with
bitterness."

The President. " I wish to reply from the Tribune.
Come, my dear colleague, and occupy the chair meanwhile."

Danton. " No, president, speak from your seat ; you oc-
cupy it worthily. [Applause.] If my remarks have sounded
harshly, pardon them. See in me a brother who merely
has frankly stated his opinion." The report adds,

" Ruhl steps down from his seat, and throws himself into
Danton 's arms. This scene creates the liveliest enthusiasm
in the assembly."

This was Danton's last speech. During the arrest and
trial of the H^bertists his f.ite was, indeed, being sealed ; for
at that time two of Danton's closest friends, and both notaljle
members of the Convention, were arrested. They were
Herault de Sechelles, who drafted the Jacobin Constitution,
falsely charged with giving asylum to an emigrant, and re-
vealing the secrets of the Committee of Public Welfair, of
which he was a member \ and Fabrc d' Eglantine, the noted

1 88 TERROR. 1 March,

dramatic author who had invented tlie new calendar, lately
adopted. The charge against the latter was infamously out-
rageous, and is particularly damning to Robespierre, who
bears the responsibility for the murders that now follow. I'he
charge was, that he had forged a decree of the Convention in
the interest of stock-jobbers and speculators ; while the fact
was, that, so far from having forged it or any thing else, he
had been untiring, by his motions in the Convention, in ////-
masking the forgers, which flict was well known to Robe-
spierre, who had repeatedly seconded and spoken in favor of
these very motions.

I have said that Robespierre must bear the responsibility
of Danton's execution, and that is simply because it could
not have been effected without his sanction and even active
support. If Robespierre had said, " No," Danton would have
lived. Robespierre, moreover, was the person that princi-
pally benefited by the fall of his friend. But when histo-
rians, and especially those Positivists who have done so
much to rehabilitate Danton, insist that his execution was
Robespierre's work from beginning to end, that Robespierre
had first conceived the idea and initiated it, I deny it. It
must be noted that Robespierre had, at least a dozen times
after Danton's popularity began to wane, while his own was
in the ascendant, taken Danton's part, and taken it warmly,
even furiously. To have done so when at the same time
he meditated his death, would stamp Robespierre as a
most scoundrelly hypocrite, which there is no evidence he
was. Further, Robespierre had no reason to wish Danton's
removal ; the latter being, as we have seen, without any
ambition at all. Danton was well aware of this, and used to
say, "All will go well as long as people say ' Robespierre and
Danton,' but I shall be in danger if they ever commence to
say ' Danton and Robespierre.' '• And at no time did Danton
charge Robespierre with being the author of his misfortune.

1794. J APRIL FIFTH. 1 89

He well enough knew that his most dangerous enemy was
Billaiid-Varenncs. Yes, it was 15illaud who pursued Dan-
ton with an implacable hostility, and did not tire, till at last
he had persuaded Robespierre to give his consent to Dar.-
ton's loss ; and he lived long enough to heartily repent of
his act. Billaud was three years older than Danton ; a
lawyer, like him ; had been second only to Marat in egging
on to the September massacres ; entered the Convention as
a member from Paris, and became immediately known
as one of the chiefs of the Mountain. He entered the Com-
mittee of Public Welfare on the 6th of September, and took
part in all its future patriotic labors, but also, and that as a
leader, in all its terrorism. For while he undoubtedly was
a patriot, and, as the future showed, a man of inflexible recti-
tude, moreover, a man of untiring industry when working
under leadership, he was also a bloody, implacable Terrorist,
That determined his hostile attitude to Danton. It was on
principle that he pursued Danton : it was the hatred of the
Terrorist to the man of pity. And that hatred dated already
from the September massacres. It is Courtois de I'Aube
who, in his notes on the Revolution, has given us this
insight : " It will, no doubt, astonish a great many people
when I say that one of the sources of the hatred they
nourished towards Danton was simply that he had not, in
the days of 2d and 3d of September, played the part they
wished him to play, and that from this moment he was
looked upon as a man without revolutionary character.
Many patriots may remember that these complaints came
often from the mouth of Billaud." It is because Danton
had shown himself heretofore a man of pity, and because he
is now the chief of the party of clemency, that he perishes.
At the time of the arrest of Fabre d'Eglantine, Billaud
let these words of menace esca])e him : " Damnation to him
who has sat at the side of Fabre [to wit, Danton], and who

1 90 TERROR. [March,

is yet his dupe." A little later, in full committee, he pro-
poses, without any circumlocution, tlie arrest of Danton.
But Robespierre is not yet won over : he is still almost
scandalized ; he rises, and cries out in a fury to Billaud,
"Wilt thou then destroy all the best patriots? " That there
may be no doubt of Billaud's being the responsible author,
here are words he uttered after the fall of Robespierre : " If
the death of Danton be a crime, I accuse myself of it, for I
was the first to denounce Danton. I have said, ' If Danton
continues to live, liberty will be lost ; ' " and " Danton is the
only representative of the people whose punishment I have
caused, because he seemed to me the most dangerous con-
spirator." Let him, then, have the honor of his fateful
work.

But, undoubtedly, after Robespierre had allowed himself
to be persuaded to kill off Danton, he hunted him to his
death in the most odious manner. He not only dished up
the stale charges of their common enemies, the Girondists,
as to his honesty, but especially made it a crime in Danton
that he was a whole man, delighting in the enjoyments of
life, and liking to satirize his own Puritanic notions. One
of the most remarkable of his accusations is this : that Dan-
ton once clasped the sister of Robespierre's bride, with
whom he had years of acquaintance, ro'and her waist, saying,
"There is one thing that will cure you, my little friend, and
that is, to get a husband." At this time it is said

that Danton had an interview with Robespierre, in which he
tried to get the latter away from the influence of Billaud.
Toward the conclusion Danton said something to the effect
that it was well enough to be terrible towards royalists and
conspirators, but that it was even more important to dis-
tinguish between the innocent and the guilty. " And dost
thou say that one innocent has perished?" flared up Robe-
spierre. " What ! not one innocent ? \\'hat saycst thou,

I794-] APRIL FIFTH. 191

Paris? " addressing the l)ailifr of the Revohitiunary Tribunal,
wlio was present.

From this time, and to his last moment, many of Dan-
ton's remarks that have been preserved are most touching,
and all of them, with but very few exceptions, are in a noble
vein ; while Robespierre's conduct and remarks become
inexpressibly mean. ^Vhen Danton's friends warned him
of his danger, and implored him to act, he said, " No ; I
would rather be guillotined than guillotine others." When
they implored him to flee the country, he made a reply
which Frenchmen have not forgotten to this day, even if
forgetting its author : '•' Do we, then, carry our country on
the bottom of our shoe-soles? "

In the still hour of the night of March 30, 1794, the
three committees, of Public Welfare, of Public Security, and
on Legislation, met together, when, on the motion of Saint-
Just, Robespierre's henchman, the order for the arrest of
Danton, Camille Desmoulins, and Lacroix: was signed.
Carnot, the great war minister, remarked, " These are
only suspicions ; you have not a single proof," but signed
anyway. Robert Lindet, a Dantonist, and Ruhl, an Alsa-
tian, refused to sign ; the former saying, " I am here to work
for my country, not to kill off patriots." In the early morn-
ing of March 31 the three Conventional were arrested in
their homes, and taken to Luxembourg Palace.

On entering the prison the first words of Danton were,
" At length I perceive that in revolutions the supreme
power ultimately rests with the most abandoned." Still, if
Danton had not thrown off responsibility, this would prob-
ably not have been so here. At all events, this is
what must be prevented for the future, and which can be
prevented by men of good tuill organizing themselves for
effecting the changes that clearly must be made.

One of the first prisoners he met there was another Con^

192 TERROR. [March 31,

vcntional, the American Thomas Paine, to wliom lie gave
his hand, saying, in Enghsh, " What you have done for the
hai^piness and hberty of your country, I have in vain at-
tempted to do for mine. I have been less fortunate, but not
more guilty." They were put into the room that the
Girondins had occupied. There he said with energy, " It
was just a year ago that I caused the Revolutionary Tribunal
to be instituted. I beg pardon for it of God and man. My
object was to prevent new September massacres, and not to
let loose a new scourge upon mankind." Then, giving v\ay
to his contempt for his colleagues who were murdering
him, he exclaimed, "These brother Cains know nothing
about government. I leave every thing in a frightful dis-
order." For a moment he showed regret at having taken
part in the Revolution, saying it was much better to be a
poor fisherman than to govern men.

The next day the Convention is informed of the arrest,
effected over night, and its formal assent asked to taking the
accused before the Revolutionary Tribunal. The C^^nvention
is thunderstruck. Legendre, Danton's faithful lieutenant
on Aug. 10, makes the motion that he be heard at the bar
of the Convention in his own defence. If that had been
granted, Danton's voice and his good cause undoubtedly
would have righted matters. But a mere sneer of Robe-
spierre negatives the motion, showing at once the great
ascendency he had now acquired, and liis contemptible
meanness. " Legendre," he said, " has talked of Danton
because he thinks a privilege attaches to that name. \Ve
want to know of no privileges at all ; tve want no idols.
It is a bi-each of equality to render more favor to one citizen
than to another."

The " trial," so called, is not worth discussing, for it was
no trial at all. It is worth noting, to his honor, that Paris,
the bailiff of the Tribunal, with splendid courage came for-

1794.] APRIL FIFTH. 1 93

ward and embraced the accused, his friends, on tlieir entrance.
The accusation against them, tluit they luui conspired to
restore the monarchy, was, of course, arrant nonsense. They
were convicted without a particle of evidence against them ;
without one of the score of witnesses in their favor, that they
called for, being permitted to appear ; with their mouths bru-
tally shut by a special law passed for the occasion ; and they
were condemned to death, all as a matter of course. It is
at this moment that Camille, in impotent rage at the shame-
less farce, tears some documents to pieces and throws them
at the heads of the jurors ; and these are the " bullets of
bread " which Carlyle, in his history, makes the accused, in
their " levity," throw in the faces of their judges !

At the moment of hearing his sentence Danton said these
memorable words : " I feel a consolation in believing that
the man who is to die as chief of the faction of the merciful,
will find grace in the eyes of posterity." How harsli these
words should grate in the ears of " posterity " !

Tlie next afternoon, at the usual hour, the fatal cart, with
Danton and his friends, passed the usual route. But this
time there was no jeering. There was perfect stillness
everywhere. The people felt that their friends were passing
by them ; but how it all came about, they did not seem to
understand at all. The cart went past the house where
Robespierre lived ; all the shutters were closely drawn. At
that moment Danton looked up at the windows, and broke
out, " Imbecile ! He kills me, and I am the only man who
could save him." There is certainly nothing that sliows
Robespierre's imbecility so much as not to be able to see
that Hebert's execution formed a terrible crisis ; that, while
it was imperatively necessary to get rid of him, it was more
than ever necessary to protect the rest of the patriots.

Then the heads of the Dantonists commence to drop in the
fateful basket. At length steps forth Herault de Sechelles,

194 TERROR. [Aprils,

the handsome nobleman wlio liad been such a true friend
of the people, with a rose in his hand. He wants to em-
brace Danton, but is prevented by the executioner. " You
stupid ! " says Danton, " you cannot prevent our heads from
kissing each other in yonder basket." A curious coin-

cidence characterizes the period perfectly. There was then
played in the theatres of Paris a piece which represented the
y?/^ of Aug. 10, 1793. The Convention was shown assem-
bled on the Place de Bastille, with its president, none other
than Herault de S^chelles, drinking a toast in water to
Nature. At the very hour when the actor who represented
Herault drank to Nature, the true Ht^rault, a short distance
away, laid his head on the block as a traitor to the father-
land. What a contrast !

Then came Camille, who, in rage, had torn nearly all his
clothes from his body, cursing Robespierre, who had been
for twenty years his friend, and a few years ago was a witness
to his marriage with the handsome Lucile. " What

a style and what a handsome wife he had ! " they yet say in
France, when speaking of him, as they often do. Indeed,
the personal and polemical journalism which is such an
abuse in that country, comes chiefly from the admiration
which young French journalists feel for poor Camille, his
style — and his wife.

Last came Danton himself. At the foot of the scaffold
he seemed moved, and was heard to lament, " () my dearly
loved wife, whom I shall see no more ! " 'I'hen he checked
himself, saying, " Danton, no weakness ! "

A man who happened to be an eye-witness, and who
has written his reminiscences, describes his last moment
thus : —

"Danton was the last to appear upon the platform, red
with the blood of his friends. At the foot of the horrible
statue [of Liberty], whose enormous mass was outlined

1794] APRIL FIFTH. 1 95

against the sky, I saw the tribune stand, hke one of Dante's
shadows, half illumined by the dying sun, looking ralhcr as
if newly arisen from the tomb than ready to go into it.
Nothing was ever seen more brave than the demeanor
of this atlas of the Revolution, more formidable than the
expression of the face which defied the axe, than the bear-
ing of the head which, though about to fall, seemed still to
dictate laws. Terrible picture ! time will never efface it
from my memory. I perfectly comprehend the feeling which
inspired him to utter his last words, — these terrible words,
that I could not hear, but which were repeated in trembling
horror and admiration : ' Do not forget,' he said to the exe-
cutioner, ' to show my head to the people. It is good to
look at.' " '

Thus ended the statesman of the Revolution, the patriot
par excellence, the disinterested hero ; so young, and yet so
strong and wise ; so able to organize, create, and govern !

But Billaud-Varennes lived to repent. Three months
afterwards he contributes to Robespierre's fall. On April i,
1795, ^^ i^ himself condemned, for some words in favor of
the masses, by the Girondins of the Convention, to depor-
tation to Cayenne. There he lives as an agriculturist, and
is the only one who peremptorily refuses the amnesty of
Bonaparte. His wife had secured a divorce from him ; mar-
ried a second time, a wealthy man ; becomes a widow ; and
then she invites Cillaud to come and share her wealth. He
refuses this offer also, with the words, " There are faults
that are unpardonable." At the time of the Restoration
he moves to Hayti, where he dies. In his later days he
used to say, " I had too direct a share in Danton's death,
and I did it with a horrible hatred. The misfortune of
revolutions is, that we must act too hastily ; we have no tinie
to examine. We seem to be in a violent fever, antl are in a

* A. V. Arnault: Souvenirs oj a SLity-Ycar-Olcl Man.

196 TERROR. [April

mortal dread that our ideas will miscarry, for lack of energy.
Danton and his triends were able men, true patriots, and we
massacred them ! They had not, like us, clean hands
(j/V/) ; they loved luxury too much : but they had noble ( ! )
and revolutionary hearts. You will some day learn to know
tlieir services ; then the true history of these times will be
written. Danton showed admirable courage in '92 and '93 :
he made Aug. 10. He did not care for the show of power ;
but what immense calmness and activity under the most diffi-
cult circumstances ! what breadth of mind ! what ability !

" I am now sincerely convinced that there would have
been no i8th Bnimaire, no Bonaparte, if Danton and
Robespierre had lived and remained united."

Dr. Robinet asks pertinently, apropos of the above, " How
do 'noble hearts' and 'unclean hands' rhyme together?"
But the confession of the crime is worth having.
* * *

I called Danton disinterested — yes, pure, unselfish, as
much so as Sir Harry Vane, he was, in spite of the loads of
calumny that have been heaped on him.

Oh, it is a burning shame to France that her deliverer
should have lain for seventy years under this heap of oblo-
quy before any one tried to do him justice ! that all the
historians of the Revolution should have contributed to
blacken his memory by retailing the same charges ! And
what shall I say of Victor Hugo, who in his novel Ninety-
Three, in an imagined dialogue between Danton and Marat,
puts him in the pillory as a venal demagogue, for his coun-
trymen to gaze on and loathe ? With the fullest conviction
of the injustice done to Danton, I say that this dialogue
deserves to be branded as Voltaire's La Pueelle has been.
For now we know from Dr. Robinet's books, TJie Private
Life of Danton and The Trial of the Dantonists, and
from the official documents therein at length set forth, that

1794-1 DANTOx disixtI':ri-:sti-:i). 197

every one of the charges against his honesty and purity of
hfe is absolutely false, every one !

I said all historians have retailed the same charges ; that is
to say, each of them, one after the other, has repeated tlic
same charges, without trying to verify them at all, so that we
find, by going far enough back, that they all proceed from
Mirabeau and three personal enemies, — Lafayette, Madame
Roland, and Robespierre,

We have already had one specimen of Madame Roland's
reliability. Now we shall see one of her proofs. Shortly
after the loth of August a robbery of a considerable portion
of the royal treasures was committed. Concerning that,
she writes : " I have had this morning a visit from one of
the robbers of the gardc-meiiblcs ; he came to see if he was
suspected, — Who, then? — Fabre d'Eglantine [who at that
time was Danton's private secretary], — How do you know?
— How? Can such an outrage be the work of any one
but the audacious Danton? I do not know if this truth
will ever be mathematically proven, but I feci it acutely'' ( !)

And such an accusation, though the robbers were shortly
after caught and executed, it is that Victor Hugo gives
currency to !

But the first regular charge made, among others, by
Lafayette, is, that the King paid Danton an enormous sum,
really as a bribe, but under the pretence of being a compen-
sation for the abolition of his office as King's counsellor.
But we know, from official documents published in The
Private Life of Danton, exactly what he paid for his office,
and also what he received as compensation, and we dis-
cover that he received exactly what he was entitled to.
With that amount he bought land in his native town, and on
his death we find him possessed of precisely that laud and
nothing else.

Then, they charge him with misappropriating the large

198 TERROR. [April,

sums of money tliat had been intrusted to him when he was
virtual dictator, in '92, The answer is categoric, that he
did account for every soi/, hni that, as to the secret expencU-
tures, he refused to Q.ZQ.o\\n\. publicly — what no law i-cquiicit
0/ hi/n. He did, however, render an account of the same to
the council of ministers. (See The Private Life of Da u ton.)
In a previous chapter I have suggested a probable reason for
this refusal.

Again : they charge him with misappropriating, while in
Belgium, large sums of money intrusted to him as a Repre-
sentative on Mission, and with carrying away with him large
loads of plunder, on leaving the country. It is proven

by Cambon, finance minister of the republic, that he ac-
counted for the money, and proven in other ways that he
carried absolutely nothing away with him /'/// Ids own clothes.
(See The Private Life of Dan ton.)

There remains, then, but one charge, which is worthy of
notice only because Mirabeau makes it. He states in a
letter to a friend at court. Count Lamarck, as a matter of
gossip, but also as a matter of course, that Danton " yester-
day received thirty thousand livres " from the royal treasury.

Now, much has been made of the circumstance, espe-
cially by Louis Blanc, that this was a private letter which
the writer not for a moment thought would ever be pub-
lished; but afterwards it came out that Mirabeau particu-
larly charged his friend to publish this very correspondence
after his death.

On its face, all must admit it looks ludicrous tliat Danton,
the destroyer of royalty, the man who from the very start of
the Revolution fought the court step by step, and was its
most persistent opponent, should have been in its pay.

Ijut Mirabeau says so, says so positively, and is in a
l)Osition to know.

Yes, but remember tliat Mirabeau, also, himself was in

1794-] D ANTON DISINTERESTED. 199

the habit of receiving bribes : this is notorious. He did not
see any thing wrong in it at all ; he does not mean to blame
Danton at all for it. He simply states the " fact," I say, as
a matter of gossip.

Now suppose a parallel case. Suppose a woman of noto-
riously easy virtue write to a friend of equally easy virtue,
that " Miss so and so has relations with Mr. so and so."
Ought this to convict this young lady, 7vit]iout a particle of
corroborative cviilence? Well, the case against Danton is not
a particle stronger than the one I have supposed. There is
not a rag of testimony co7-roborating this cliarge. All the
papers of the King and court were ransacked after his de-
posal ; and, while they furnished damning testimony against
Mirabeau, there was 7iot an iota implicating Danton. Louis
Blanc, also, is compelled to admit, " If Danton received this
corrupting gold, he by no means earned it, and served the
Revolution none the less vehemently."

I close this portion by quoting this explicit denial of
Danton at a meeting of the Jacobins, Dec. 3, 1 793, when
attacked by the Ht§bertists.

" You will be astonished, when I lay bare to you my pri-
vate affairs, to see the colossal fortune which my enemies
and yours have charged me with, reduced to the little
amount of property which I have always hatl. I defy my
opponents to furnish the proof of any crime whatever by
me." And he demanded that the society appoint a com-
mittee of twelve to examine the charges, which, however,
after a defence by Robespierre, was thought needless.

And then, the still more untenable charge, by Lafayette
and others, that he was a dcbaiiclie, and " m(;nstrously
immoral." Is it to be a di'baiichc to have been married
twice, and to have loved both wives i)assionately? For, as
far as it is possible to have certainty in such matters, these
are the only women with wliom Danton ever had any carnal

20O TERROR. [April,

relation. He was, as already said, an excellent fomil}- man,
delighting to pass all his leisure in the cora])any of his
mother, his stepfather, his wife, and children, as testiiied to
by all, especially by his young faithful disciple, Rousselin dc?
Saint-Albin, a well-known character under Louis Philippe,
He was no gambler. What, then, are his " great vices " ?
He lived economically but decently, delighting in company
and the healthy enjoyments of life — that is all.

I have often thouglit of how differently things might have
turned out for all parties and for France, if, instead of Danton
marrying Mademoiselle Charpentier, and Mademoiselle Phli-
pon becoming Madame Roland, these two persons had met
and mated. True, Danton's first wife was a most noble woman ;
but unfortunately she died too early, and Danton precisely
needed the ambitious helpmate which Mademoiselle Phlipon
would have been. True, also, that Madame Roland found
Danton unbearably ugly, but Madame Danton did not think
him so at all ; and the same ambition that made the old man
Roland a desirable mate to her, might have rendered Danton
handsome in her eyes, especially since her ambition would
have been really gratified.

A few words as to Danton's rhetorical resources. Tliat,
he was eloquent, all, of course, admit ; that is evident from
the fact that he more than once was able, by simply deliver-
ing a speech, to bring about most stupendous results, and
that not with the masses, but in the Convention, of which so
many learned and distinguished men were members. His
gestures and his delivery must, from indication furnished by
the reports, have played a great role on such occasions ; but
it is impossible to get a true idea of them now, since tradi-
tion is very contradictory on tiiese points. 'J'he notion
that he ever used coarse language is false. All his speeches
have been collected, and they are absolutely classical, and
will come to be so considered more and more in the future.

1794-

D ANTON DISINTERESTED. 201

He was always most solicitous for the dignity of the Conven-
tion ; for instance, on occasion of Hebert's atheistical mas-
querades, which he put an end to by thundering out, "This
must be put a stop to ! " He possessed the precious quality,
almost alone among his contemporaries, of speaking to the
point.

It has been made a reproach to him, that, when he had the
multitude on his side, he generally flattered its passions, and
frequently inflamed his audience still more by violent, ex-
travagant language ; while when, on the other hand, the
masses were against him, he seemed afraid to oppose them.
This is a very serious reproach, and, if true, would stamp him
as a moral coward. I admit, that, on superficial view, the
charge seems well founded. There is no doubt that he
frequently accentuated the fury of his audience. But on a
closer study we discover, I think, a complete justification,
from an oratorical point of view. First let me pre-

mise, that whenever he flings forth savage, ferocious words,
as he now and then does, they are always aimed at general-
ities. " He appeared," as Mignet observes, " inexorable in
regard to classes, humane and generous towards individuals."
Therefore whenever he uses such phrases — and they are
very rare — as "Let us drink the blood of aristocrats!"
" Let an aristocratic head fall every day ! " (the very worst
that can be picked out), they never cause any harm. He
never excited the people's passions against individuals. But
this is the point : his use of such phrases was an adroit
rhetorical manoeuvre ; he wanted to seem to be in accord
with his audience, even to go beyond them, in order to insin-
uate moderate measures, to bring them to adopt some sensible
measure. This is visible in very many of his discourses ; for
instance (p. 164), where he moves to amend the impracti-
cable plan of Lepelletier. This was always the case, but
particularly on the occasion when he uttered the above

202 TERROR. [April,

murderous words. It was the stormy session of Sept. 15,
1793, alluded to in the previous chapter. Billaud had
moved that the Revolutionary Tribunal be divided into four
sections, aiid that a "guillotine folloio each sectioti." By
the words, " Let us drink the blood of aristocrats," he abso-
lutely made his audience forget the latter part of Billaud's
proposal, and thus took the savage sting from it. This should
be insisted on, to Danton's eternal honor, that his uiterior
aim was always good ; that he never, ncvei', even in his most
savage mood, intended to lead his hearers to do a wicked
thing. And what seems moral cowardice in the face of a
hostile multitude was, as we have already seen in the case
of the war for propaganda and the Law of the Suspects, a
deep-settled conviction in his mind that it is good states-
manship to bend the head to storms of passionate excite-
ment, in order to act with courageous decision when the
storm is over. All that can be contended is, that he went too
far in this policy, stooped too low ; for instance once, wlien
he invoked protection from " the shadow of Marat," — from
the " individual " whom, living, he had heartily despised.

It was in this same session of Sept. 15 that he caused
to be passed the well-known law of the forty sous, wliich
has generally been considered a demagogic measure. I
think Danton has here been completely misunderstood ; that
he did not i)ropose this law as an economic measure at all.
It was in this session that Hubert's and Billaud's influence
commenced to be paramount. Their followers consisted of
that part of the Parisian population that devoted all their
days and time to politics, — the kind of persons we know
too well here in New York City. To offset their influence,
and checkmate it as mucli as possible, by bringing the hard-
working, patriotic majority, that could not aford to leave
their work ivithout compensation, to the sections, it was, that
he projiosed that the sections should be legally assembled

iro^i /).L\rox ])js[XTi:Ri:sTEn. 203

but twice a week, and should have ih^ir loss of time reim-
bursed on demand. That puts the measure in a very dif-
ferent light.

But do not believe that I want to make Danton into a
saint. While I firmly believe him an uncorrupted and in-
corruptible man, I must say that he sometimes was not above
corrupting others, and was even cynical about it. I do not
now speak of the possible bribe to the mistress of the King
of Prussia, which many honest souls would excuse, consider-
ing a bribe that saves one's country from ruin in war, merely
a ruse of war.

No, I refer to something else. In a speech delivered in
September, 1 793, he declares that with gold they ought to
conquer the Lyonnaise insurrection. These are his words : —

" I say that with three or four millions we might have
reconquered Toulon for France, and hung the traitors who
delivered that city to the English. You will say, your decrees
have no entrance there. Well, has the corrupting gold of
your enemies not had entrance? You have put fifty millions
at the disposition of the Committee of Public Welfare. That
is not enough. Undoubtedly a hundred millions would be
well spent, if they served to conquer liberty. If we had
rewarded the patriotism of the popular societies at Lyons,
that city would not be in the state in which it is. I suppose
no one does not know that we need secret expenses in order
to save the country."

Indeed, everybody knew that. But Danton was entirely
too frank, and this they called cynical. In those days they
would blush to talk loudly about money. To corrupt the
enemy might be a sad necessity, but to talk of " rewarding
the zeal of republicans " ( ! ) that was too much for tlie man-
ners of the time. This, no doubt, did much to lessen his
influence in these fatal autumn months of '93, when it was
so much needed. * * *

204 TERROR. [April,

Especially when judged by the fashion of the times or by
the habits of his contemporaries, Danton indulged but rarely
in hyperbolic language, and still more seldom was he flip-
pant ; but he did so indulge, and flippantly, in one instance,
before the Revolutionary Tribunal, of which his serious
Positivist admirers, I am sorry to say, seem to feel proud.
Asked for his name and residence, as a matter of form, he
gave for answer, "Ma demeure sera bientot dans Ic neaiit''''
(" My home wiU soon be nothingness"). This, on

first view, will prejudice refined and cultured Anglo-Saxons
against him, since with themselves doubts about God and im-
mortality cause pain, at all events. Yet something can be said
for his beliefs, as far as we know them, the flippp,ncy aside.
This may be found in the fact that the French Revolution,
as it denoted a transition in economic, political, and social
relations, it likewise was a transition phase from the religion
of the Middle Ages to the religion of the future.

Danton repudiated atheism. On one occasion he pro-
posed festivals where the people could worship the Supreme
Being, the Lord of nature, " for we have not destroyed super-
stition to establish the reign of atheism.'^ Danton, as well
as Diderot, denounced " the great superstition ; " that is to
say, the popuhir, the dogmatic conception, in tlie first place,
of God. They repudiated the idea of a lawless despot,
omnipotent, and consequently siding with the rich and
powerful of this world. And when we read in a late work.
Groundwork of Economies, by an orthodox believer, that
the only valid reason why the many shall toil for the few is
the evident will of God, then even to atheism, as a protest
against such a God, against false gods, one may become
reconciled. But Danton could not possibly be wanting in
faith in the Ideal, he who moved thousands to sacrifice their
lives for liberty and fiitherland.

And in like manner the revolutionists repudiated tlie

I794-] DANS LE NEANT. 2^.5

popular ideas of immortality. Cultured people of the future
will hardly be able to do without the hope of immortality.
William Morris's idea, that people will by and by be so happy
on earth that they will be dreadfully afraid of death, seems
to me preposterous ; and George EHot's conception, of living
in the thoughts of posterity, will hardly sufifice. But if the
idea of immortality shall commend itself to the instructed
minds of the future, it evidently must be cleared of its earth-
ly dross, — precisely that against which the Encycfopaedists
protested. The desire to remember our earthly experiences,
to remember whether we have been kings or beggars here,
will be accounted by our posterity simply a passing weakness
of the flesh, I am sure, and death be looked upon as a
sponge that wipes out our memory (as diseases, in some well-
authenticated instances, have done completely : a new mem-
ory thereupon having been formed), w'hile it is the ego, the
/, vouched for by consciousness, that will be held to persist.

But, at all events, Danton was a faithful instrument to the
Power behind Evolution, — an unselfish instrument, and that
is the essential thing. His heroic cry, " May my name be
accursed, if but the cause be saved!'''' should always be
remembered whenever his name be spoken. It certainly is
better to do the will of God while denying his name, than
to acknowledge it while defying his will.

How grateful France should feel to Danton, its deliverer !
How grateful, especially, its bourgeoisie, the beneficiary of
his herculean labor ! But look ! for seventy years there
liardly was even a peasant's hut or a workman's shop that
did not have the picture of a Bonaparte ( ! ) Danton's was

found no\vhere.

* * *

Robespierre, though not the originator of the act, was, by
his sanction of it, the murderer of Danton and friends.
He became the beneficiary of the executions — nominally ;

206 TERROR. [May,

tliat is to say, he liatl lor four months the honor of being
the sole man to whom to look up in France, but also the
cloak behind which Billaud and his fellow-Terrorists could
safely terrorize. Thus the latter ones were the real bene-
ficiaries. Let us simply compare the number of executions
up to Danton's death, and after.

From Aug. 17, 1792, to Oct. 2, 1793, more than a year, —
that is to say, the period when Danton had power, — ^^ there
were 90 executions. From Oct. 2, '93, to April 5, '94,
six months, and while he was powerless, there were 462 more ;
in all, 552 executions. But a/Zcr his death, from April 5, '94,
to July 28, '94, for three months and three weeks, they rise
to 2,oSj executions, or 20 a day on an average. The
most atrocious of these w^as that of the sweet, lovely, inno-
cent Lucile, wife of Camille, just one week after her hus-
band's death, without a motive at all. Yet, in order
to be perfectly fair, we should remember that at this con-
temporary period there was many a year when just as many
executions took place in Great Britain as during the whole
"year of Terror;" only, because the victims were mostly
petty criminals, no notice was taken of them.

How came Robespierre to this immense power ? Do not
think for a moment that he imposed on the Convention as
a whole, or on the really able men. Danton despised him, —
that is, his capacity, — and so did most capable men. But all
feared him, because he had the masses at his back. He had
an enormous ascendency over the common people ever
since Mirabeau's venality had been revealed. From thence
the people saw in him, by contrast, the Incorruptible ; and
he tvas incorruptible. But for that very reason Robespierre
should be a solemn warning to our own j)eople, and teach us
that incorruptibility is not enough, is /<;/■ //v^/;/ cnoi/gIi,m
a leader. He was the impersonification of incorruptibility
plus imbecility.

1794.] THE IXCORRUPTIBLE. 20^

We have already noted what that noble (iirondin, Con-
dorcet, thought of Danton. The following is what he had to
say of Robespierre : —

" People ask themselves why so many women follow
Robespierre everywhere, — home, to the Jacobins, to the
Convention, to the Cordeliers. It is, that the French Revo-
lution is a religion, and Robespierre makes a sect of it, —
/le is a priest who has his devotees. He preaches, he moral
izes ; he is furious, grave, melancholic, severe in his speech
and his conduct ; he thunders against the rich and the great ;
he spends but little, and has but few physical wants. His
whole mission consists in talking, and he is almost always
talking. He has disciples who guard his person ; he in no
way resembles the founder of a religion, but in many ways
the founder of a sect. He always has God and providence
on his lips. He proclaims himself the champion of the
poor and the weak ; he affects the company of women and
the childlike ; he gravely accepts their homage and venera-
tion. He hides himself at the approach of danger, and does
not re-appear till the danger is over."

Robespierre, undoubtedly, was sincerely attached to the
masses. He went as far as anybody — remember his consti-
tutional proposals in regard to business and property — in
advocating economic measures in the interest of the poor.
He wanted the State to exist for them, and the government
to be carried on for their benefit. Like all Jacobins, he
believed that the government should be conducted by the
competent and wise ; but he further held that he, Robe-
spierre, was the only person competent to govern. He verily
fancied that his God had sent him on purpose to govern
France ; that he was the very prophet of (jod.

First of all, then, he wanted to moralize men. " We
want," he said, " in our country, to substitute morality in
place of egoism, principles in place of customs, dut)' instead

208 TERROR. [June,

of pleasure, greatness instead of \anity, love of glory instead
of love of money ; " in a word, to put all the virtues in
place of all the vices. That, precisely, was what Danton did
not want ; he had no ambition to change the inner man,
but he did want to surround his fellow-men with better
material conditions.

This made Danton a strong, wise man, and that rendered
Robespierre an imbecile, a fool.

Now, it is easy to understand Robespierre's intolerance,
his cruelty. All who differed from him were bad people ;
no conciliation with them ! Oh, no ; cut their heads off!

His folly went so far that he verily believed that society
was at his disposal, and so independent of all its past de-
velopment that he could refashion it to suit himself by
simple legislation, and with the guillotine for sanction.

No wonder he did not accomplish any thing. Though
he for four months had more absolute power in France than
Louis XIV. possessed, he initiated not a single measure for
founding the republic ; not to one decree of public utility
did he attach his name. There are only two measures to
mark his reign, — one the puerile /^/^ to the Supreme Being,
really a fete to himself, and that most extraordinary de-
cree ever passed, the infamous law of Prairial (of June),
suppressing all testimony and all defence by those accused
before the Revolutionary Tribunal.

It is Robespierre's sad honor to be the exclusive author
of this law, whose efficiency may be seen from the fact, that,
of the 2,085 executed after the death of Danton, only 739
belong to the period before the passage of the law (d/ days),
and 1,346 to the period thereafter {4J days). It is said, and
without doubt correctly, that the use he meant to put the
law to was, to rid himself of his Terrorist fellow-members of
committees. The latter seem to have become aware of it,
and anticipated him.

1794.] THE INCORRUPTIBLE. 209

There is a twofold reason why lie suceumbed. The
Parisians have been eited as an example of popular ingrati-
tude in not saving even their greatest idol. That is wrong.
They were, at all events, not fickle ingrates : they still trusted
in Robespierre ; indeed, there was no one else left for them
to trust in. They would have responded to his call, and
undoubtedly have carried him through, if he had appealed
to them \ but also for that he was too imbecile.

Next, his adversaries succeeded because they played off
the Convention against him. They proposed to aliolish the
absolute committee, and restore power to the Convention ;
they organized the Convention for that purpose, and this
proved the stronger force. But, in destroying the cloak that
had hitherto sheltered them, they were compelled to cease
tlieir Red Terror. Robespierre, who had given a

mock trial to Danton, did not get even that much himself:
lie was simply declared an outlaw, to be guillotined when-
ever laid hands on. A genstfanne fired upon him, breaking
his jaw, before securing him.

With the fall of Robespierre, then, .ends the absolute
"Revolutionary" Government. But, unluckily, at the same
time ends the strong government, advocated by Danton ; and
anarchy virtually reigns for five years, till Bonaparte steps
upon the scene. And with his fiill ends, moreover, the gov-
ernment for the masses ; the plutocrats are again restored to
power, and henceforth France is governed by the plutocrats
for the plutocrats.

Looking back over the episode of the fourteen months'
rule of the Jacobins, the thought occurs to me, that possibly
events might have had another course, if all the leaders had
not been such young men. They were all, at most, thirty
to thirty-five years old when they fL-ll. Mature and ripened
age does, after all, count for something.

210 TERROR. rSummer,

Robespierre's shiljbolelh was Equality, as Liberty for a
time had been Danton's.

Saint-Just, the fanatic youth and Robespierre's closest
friend, ended the speech in wliicli he demanded of the com-
mittees Danton's arrest, with these ominous words : " Our
people must learn to be modest ; the solid, hig/wst good is
obscure probity y The natural conclusion from that was, that
all heads that protruded above this ideal level of " obscure
probity " should be cut off, as " factious."

That, candidly expressed, was Robespierre's philosophy in
a nutshell, and the practical application of it was the execu-
tion of Danton and Lavoisier. The latter was the most
illustrious French representative of science, to whom the
office of a farmer-general of revenue had been conferred by
Louis XVL as a recognition of his scientific contributions.
Under Robespierre, all farmers-general since the accession
of Louis were prosecuted for the large incomes they had
drawn from their offices, and all sentenced to death by tlie
Revolutionary Tribunal, Lavoisier among them. He asked
a few days' grace, in order to write down a discovery by him
in chemistry ; but Robespierre refused tlie prayer, as it
would be a violation of " equality." Danton, it will be re-
membered, was brutally refused the privilege of defending
himself at the bar of the Convention, because " We do not
want any idols." Ecjuality is certainly one requisite of
democracy, but such an interpretation of it as that by
Robespierre would destroy all progress.

Li what, then, does true eciuality consist?

Let us for a moment consider its opposite, Carlyle's Jiero
7voi'sJiip, — a sentimental reverence for great men, and con-
tempt for the great mass. It is a prominent Britisli char-
acteristic. Let somebody do a worthy deed, and he will
be appreciated nowhere more than in (Jreat P>ritain. They
have a high sense o{ personal c\\\\\\i^, and that is commend-

1794.1 " MONSIE URr' 211

able; but their souse of human claims is weaker than else-
vvhere, as already remarked by Dr. Johnson : " Sir, we
Englishmen do not yet understand the coniinon riglits of
hiiiiianify." But there is a class among them of

whom Mallock is the representative. If he were ])erfectly
frank he would say, " Life is not worth living to any but an
aristocracy. An aristocracy implies an exclusive class, im-
plies that the mass of men be kept down. Then let them
be kept down, for it is better that life be enjoyed by some
than that it be enjoyed by none." This is a sentiment so
selfish as to be Satanic, and it is false.

I think true equality lies between the two extremes. The
great mass of humanity, the coininomuealth of viankiiui, is a
holy object, to labor for whose welfare is the only worthy
living, the only true life. It is this mass, this commonwealth,
this association of our kind, that every man among us is,
jointly and equally with every other man, dependent upon
for all he is and all he enjoys, and of it and of its well-being
we are equal partakers. But of this well-being we are not
EQUAL PRODUCERS. There are superior men and women.
We all have our superiors, recognized or unrecognized ; and
it is a very unhealthy state of affairs not to recognize our
superiors when we meet them or have to work with them, as
we constantly have to do. It is especially our plu-

tocrats, and not our working-classes, who exhibit a vulgar
arrogance, puerile self-complacency, and wanton insolence
and effrontery towards their true superiors ; and with their
class this unhealthy sentiment will probably disappear.

But it is only when genius works for the general good that
it is entitled to consideration. The greatest genius under
heaven is only a nuisance, and ought unceremoniously to be
swept into oblivion, if he serves but his own individual vanity,
and holds aloof fro in the common life. The reward of the
superior person is his share of the common well-being.

212 TERROR. [1794.

Therefore also it is, that inimorlahty can be admitted only
of what is common to us all, — what unites us to each other,
not of what discriminates us from each other. The religion
of the past nourishes an arrogant, self-seeking, sneaking hope
of and striving after personal private blessings ; and this is
precisely what condemns it as essentially vicious, anti-social.
The religion of the future will teach us that we are, above
all, social beings, and know of no blessings which our fellows
cannot legitimately share. It will inculcate that the same
destiny, whatever it be, is awaiting us all.

The last reported words of Robespierre, spoken when he
was lying on a table in the anteroom of the Convention,
with broken jaws, waiting to be guillotined, indicate that he
was conscious that his " equality " was at an end. Under
the rule of the Jacobins the form of address was always ciio-
yen ("citizen") and citoyenne (" citizeness"), as it, in fact,
is in our days everywhere among French Socialists. But
when a bystander took pity on Robespierre and handed him
a glass of water, he thanked him by using the okl form, so
long in disuse : " Mcrci, Monsieur ! "

CHAPTER VII.

THE PRESENT TRANSITION STATE.
July 88, 1794, to our days.

" If a great change is to be made in human affairs, the minds of men will be
fitted to it, the general opinions and feelings will draw that way. Every fear,
every hofe, will favor it. Then they who persist in opposing this mighty cur-
rent in humafi affairs will appear to resist rather the decree of Providence itself
than the jnere designs of men." — Burke: Thoughts on the French Revolution.

Plutocrats again in Power. — iSth Brumaire. — " Tiiou hast been
Weighed AND FOUND Wanting." — Present Tendencies of Soci-
eties. — In Proportion as the Mental Preparation is Complete,
WILL THE Coming Revolution be Easy. — " God wills it."

SO the " episode," the interregnum, is at an end ; the
rule for the masses is over. The plutocrats return to
power ; they resume their suspended legitimate dominion, —
the dominion l>y tJie plutocrats for the fiiitocrats. Qa ira !
Indeed, "it goes," without interruption, until our days; yes,
and a little beyond.

It is perfectly in order that the proscribed Girondins, as
many as are yet alive, return to their vacant seats in the
Convention. They can now safely take charge of the helm
of state ; for France and the Revolution are secure, thanks
to the Jacobins, and to Danton especially. Only moderate
firmness is now reciuired.

However, the first exhibition they make of their firmness
is the so-called "White Terror," the terribly bloody revenge
they take on the Jacobins. But so it has always been in
France since that fatal massacre in 1791 on the Champ de

214 THE PRESENT TRANSITION STATE. [1794-

Mars. Whenever a new party gets the upper hand, ivhich-
evcr it is, ahvays the tiger in the Frenchman comes to the
surface. The first thing attended to is always revenge.

Next, the plutocrats, especially the speculators, indulge
in perfect economic orgies. Immediately they abolish the
maximum ; so glorious Free Competition reigns henceforth
untrammelled. What does it matter that famine once more
decimates the Parisians? A still more important

measure is the re-opening of the Exchange.

Their objective point is, all the time, land, land, of wliich,
as we saw, the State has become seized to an immense
amount. In previous chapters we left the speculators in
possession of a great lot of national estates, — about four
hundred million dollars worth, — for which, as a rule, lliey
had paid but the first instalment of twelve per cent, but
with a decree for the distribution of the communal lands
among the pooi\ and another, promising a milliard's worth
of land to the soldiers in their way. How shall they get
more land into their hands? "Ah, let us get up lot-

teries." Why not? Soon the hideous lottery is in open blast
in Paris, laying the foundation for some of the finest fortunes
of to-day. But the most popular manner of securing posses-
sion of land is to become a riz-pain-scl (rice-bread-salt), —
a contractor for one of the numerous armies, — and take
land in payment, generally by a roundabout process, by
which the nation is enormously swindled in various ways.
One of these ways, of course, is, to furnish poor articles at
extravagant prices ; another, to depreciate the assignais, as
hereafter to be told.

A new constitution, of course, they must have. That is
the one known as the Constitution of '95, — virtually that
of '91, with Montesquieu's pet idea of two chambers intro-
duced. But, in the new constitution, there is an article tliat
shows how anxious the plutocrats are to liave tlieir ])osses-

1886. ] PL UTOCRA TS A GA IN IN PO WER. 2 1 5

sions — their thefts rather — legahzed : it is section 374,
which reads as follows : —

" The French nation proclaims, as a guaranty of public
faith, that the legitimate holder of the national estates, what-
ever the origin of title, shall never be dispossessed."

When, then, French bourgeois prate of society resting on
property, they mean on scandals and robberies.

At last the Convention puts an end to its existence, after
having created an executive power in the Directory, whose
members consist of those exclusively who had voted for
Louis'' death ; for now this test becomes of capital impor-
tance to France. Shortly afterwards the French people — or,
rather, the French electors — get more and more re-action-
ary ; to such an extent, finally, that the majority of the lower
Chamber is royalist. Had Louis XVIII. at that time been
recalled, it might have been fatal to the Revolution ; the old
regime would certainly have been restored in many essential
features. But the fact that the Directory are all regicides
saves it, — saves the republic against the electors by com-
mitting, with the assistance of the young republican general
Hoche, the eoup d'etat of i8th Fructidor, year V. (4th of
September, 1 797) ; that is to say, by arresting fifty monarchic
conspirators, members of the Chamber, and sending them
to Guiana. This coup d'etat was as legitimate as the

insurrection of Aug. 10 ; for nobody, not even a peojile, has
a right to defy the decree of evolution, to re-act against the
current of evolution.

That the government of France, since the fall of Robe-
spierre, is in league with the speculators, is shown by the
depreciation of the assignats. It was they, as we have seen,
that had enabled France to support her numerous armies,
and hurl all her enemies back ; but that had been possible
only by issuing them in quantities, reasonable when com-
pared with the national estates that served as their basis.

2l6 THE PRESENT TRANSITION STATE. [1794-

and by prohibiting all speculation in thcni. I'p to July 2S,
1 794, there had been issued of paper money seven and a
half milliards, in denominations not exceeding five hundred
francs, and many of fifty, twenty-five, ten, and even two francs
and a half; and on that date the value of national estate
unsold was still very large. The Jacobin party had con-
sidered it a matter of honor to maintain the national credit,
and for that reason sought to bring the assignats ifito the
hands of small traders, artisans, and peasants. But with
the advent to power of the plutocrats quite another system
prevails : it is the evident intention of the government to
depreciate the paper money, shown by the insensate emis-
sions now ordered. Not less than thirty-eight milliards are
issued, in denominations of ten thousand, five thousand, and
two thousand francs, fabricated on their face for the account
of bankers and contractors, who accept of them at a rate
which they themselves, as masters of the money market,
regulate, in order, later on, to exchange them en masse for
land. Other contractors, who, instead of accepting the
assignats, had caused themselves to be inscribed in the
Great Ledger as creditors, later on claim and are allowed
land to as much as twenty times their inscriptions, as if the
depreciation in the paper money had affected their debt
also ; and, when any patriot remonstrates, there comes the
cool reply, " We must humor these contractors, if we wish
our armies to go on conquering."

Then the land-grabbers attack the decree for distributing
communal lands. They have a law passed forbidding the
communes to distribute these lands, unless, in every case, a
special law be passed authorizing them to proceed. That is
the last that is heard of tliat matter. Everywhere

they gorge themselves with lands, many paying not even the
thirtieth |)a!-t of their real value.

No womlcr there was consternation in their canij) when.

1886] EIGHTEENTIT nRU.IfA/RE. 21/

one (lay, they suddenly heard of tlie aceidcntal discovery of
a determined attempt to settle, once for all, with them, and
to introduce Communism by force into France. This so-
called " conspiracy of Babeuf," for which the latter and his
principal abetter suffered death, had every chance to suc-
ceed at the start ; but that also would have been doomed
to final failure, for it was another false interpretation of
" God's mysterious text." Babeuf 's plan contemplated
common possession of ei'ery thing, "common labor and com-
mon enjoyment," or ^'^/^(z/ enjoyment, irrespective of talent,
zeal, activity, or quality of labor, — a scheme certain to
create a dead level, a petrified civilization ; and, in order
to work such a system, a human nature very different from
what we know would evidently be required. But then, it
was precisely a part of the plan of Babeuf to change
human nature, as Robespierre had proposed to dc. His
disciple Buonarotti tells us that he designed, " instructed by
the lessons and experience of the great men of antiquity " (like
Robespierre), "to gwQiicw manners to the French people."
* * *

Shortly afterwards the plutocrats heard of the victories of
Bonaparte. What a splendid young man, who took the sans-
culotte armies to pillage in Italy and Egypt, and thereby
diverted their thoughts from the national estates at home,
promised them by that annoying decree ! Indeed, from that
tune it is never spoken of: the ribbon of the "Legion of
Honor " takes the place of land.

No wonder Bonaparte's coup d'etat of iSth Bruniaire
(Nov, 9, 1799) had an immense popularity. The pluto-
crats had really, for some time, been talking among them-
selves about what a skilful guardian he would make. There
was no one to dispute him the leadership, since that sincere
rei)ublican, the hero of iSth Fnutidor, young Gen. Hoche,
was dead.

21 8 THE PRESENT TRANSITION STATE. [1794-

Thesc plutocrats were more clear-headed than the histo-
rians who have asserted that this coup cVilat was a death-
blow to the Revolution. It never occurred to them to see in
that event the termination of the grand movement com-
menced, as they put it, July 14, 17S9 ; and they were riglu.

Many years afterward the nephew of Bonaparte wrote in
a pamphlet, Les Idees Napoleonienncs : " Without Napoleon
the Revolution would have been drowned in the CQunter-
Revolution. He rooted the Revolution in France, and
introduced its principal benefits throughout Europe. He
recalled the emigres, without repealing the latos which con-
fiscated their properties'' The nephew was right :
Bonaparte did root the Revolution in France. Danton had
crushed the counter-Revolution to the ground, but Bona-
parte finished the work by making it iinpossildc for the
ancient regime ever to return. Louis XVHI. in power in
I 799 would have been just as dangerous to the Revolution
as two years earlier.

For also under Bonaparte the plutocrats remained the
real social power. The first thing they tliought of, as in
every change of government, was the security of their booty.
Bonaparte quieted them. He wrote in tlie Imperial Con-
stitution of 1804, —

" Any law adopted by the Legislative Chamber may be
vetoed by any senator if it be contrary to the irrevocability
of all sales of tiie national estates."

He did more: he granted, 1803, to the capitalists the
incorporation of the Bank of France, instead of making it
a national institution, — a power which the nepliew later on
extended till 1897.

The Constituent Assembly had made all mines national
property. Bonaparte reversed that policy, and ga\-e tliem,
1 8 10, into the private hands of the plutocrats, by payment to
the State of an insignificant royalty.

1886.J EIGHTEEXriI BRUM A IRE. 219

For ten years he gave them all Europe to plunder, and
monstrous armies to purvey.

He established for his motto, " La carricre oiivcrte aux
taleiis " (" All careers open to talent "), which is nothing but
the middle-class principle of free competition, " private en-
terprise."

But that was during the first years of his rule. Later on
he degenerated into a vulgar fortune-hunter. He wanted
to establish a dynasty j that is to say, he, like the \>\wVo-
crats, repudiated his own motto : both he and the plutocrats,
after securing an advantageous position, insisted on retaining
it for themselves and their posterity. Later on still,

he conceived the notion of throwing the plutocrats over-
board. We now know that he intended to abolish the con-
tract system for furnishing his armies ; this the plutocrats
found out, and decided to throw him overboard. It was
they who made the campaign against Russia so disastrous
by intentionally delaying the provisions for the armies.
When they heard of the defeat at AVaterloo, they caused
rentes to go up from 59 to 85.

They had, however, made sure of Louis XVHL before-
hand. They had stipulated that the new charter should
contain this provision : —

" All property shall be inviolable, no exception being made
as to the present holders of tJie former national estates P

But when his brother and successor seemed inclined to
do without them, the plutocrats threw him overboard also,
and put on the throne a man right after tlieir own heart.

If Danton, the patriot, had been spared to France, affairs
might have taken a very different turn.

Bonaparte — to whom patriotism was an unknown senti-
ment, who preferred himself to all humanity — would very
likely have been unnecessary and im])ossible ; France, in
that case, would not have been seduced by the " glory "

220 THE PRESENT TRAXSITION STA TE. [1794-

which he dangled before its eyes, nor would the immense
forces which the Revolution placed at the disposal of the
leader of France have been used to drench Europe in blood.

The revolutions of 1830 and 1S48 would then have been
avoided.

The Church and State would have remained separate in
France.

Paris would not have been demoralized by the nephew
into a city of mere pleasure, and that of the lowest and
vilest pleasures.

France might by this time have solved the social problem,
instead of being divided into two hostile camps ready to
tear each other to pieces.

Events in Great Britain, even, might have taken a very
different turn. The great Chartist party collapsed, because
the many small tradesmen and middle-class men that com-
posed it got scared by the revolution that so miexpectedly
broke out in Paris in 1848 ; and if that party had succeeded
in its demands, who can tell how much more advanced
Great Britain might now be ?

* * *

One of Danton's noblest disciples, Roussclin de Saint-Albin,
strenuously attempted, after the revolution in 1830, to infuse
his master's spirit into the victorious bourgeoisie. He held
aloft before their eyes their great mission to direct all social
activities for the benefit of the whole society. He even
tried to persuade Louis Philippe to forego the -civil list.
But the bourgeoisie would not hear any nonsense about its
" mission." On the contrary, corruption now became a
system with them, and Saint-Albin finally ceased his efforts
in 1838.

For the last time this must be insisted upon (if for no
other reason, simply in order to explain the hatred and
resentment which the French working-classes feel toward

I886.J FOUND WANTING. 221

them) : that the French bourgeoisie, the French plutocrats,
have been in e\-ery way the worst of any country. Not
alone have they been more neglectful of their duties than
any other middle classes, but they have continued tj ll.e
present day the fraudulent and swindling operations with
which they commenced their career. The reason

why Edouard Drumont's book, La France Jiiive {The
"yezi's of France), has been so popular, that about a hun-
dred editions were published in one year, is, that it is a
revelation of the financial rascalities of the French " Jews,"
whether Christian, Hebrew, or Infidel.

This " Jewish " talent of theirs has made them try to
impose on the nation in another matter, — that of taxation.
The plutocrats of all countries have tried, l)y the trickery of
indirect taxation, to escape their just share of the public
burdens ; but the French bourgeoisie have been much
smarter and bolder in that respect. Before the

Revolution, as we know, the clergy and nobles were ex-
empt from taxation, which fell with crushing force on the
rest of the nation, particularly the peasants. It is a com-
monplace to say that this was the principal grievance at
the time. But the Revolution has certainly not diminished
taxation — far from it. There is probably no nation to
whom taxes are so burdensome as to the French. The rich
middle classes have done all they could in order to enjoy
the former immunity of clergy and nobles, and have fancied
they could effect this, and throw the load especially on the
work-people of the cities, by an indirect tax called the octroi.

This is an impost levied on nearly all articles of consump-
tion and prime necessity on entering the cities and towns.
It was known during the ancient regime, abolished by
the Revolution, resurrected by the plutocrats in 1 79<S,
and has been continued ever since, except at very sliurt
intervals in revolutionary times, when the masses had

222 THE PRESENT TRANSITION STATE. [1794-

power. For Paris this impost amounts to seventy francs
($14) per head yearly. Every workingman who has a wife
and two chiklren to support, and who, I shall assume, has
an annual income of two thousand francs ($400), pays in
indirect taxes {exclusive of his share of the custom duties)
four hundred francs ($80) a year, or hventy per cent of his
income. A bourgeois, on the other hand, who from some
light work has the same income, and lives on that, and in
addition enjoys a similar revenue from land, without any
toil at all, pays, on this second revenue, taxes amounting
only to ninety francs ($18), ox four and a lialf per cent.

Yet the plutocrats have hugely deceived themselves, for
this "octroi" tax is the principal reason why the Parisian
workingmen are paid comparatively high wages. W'ere
the tax abolished, undoubtedly their wages would, under our
present system, go down corres})ondingly.

It is well to again observe that there never has been a
pooj'-iaza in France. Louise Michel, the anarchist woman,
some years ago went to London to agitate among the work-
ing classes. Her stay was ver}- short, probably because she
could not speak a word of English. But the story went,
that she left precipitately as soon as she was told that they
had a poor-law in England, such as it is.

It can be said of the plutocrats of all countries, that they
have been weighed in the balance and everywhere found
wanting. Nowhere have they paid the least attention to
their duties as rulers, but everywhere they have used the
opportunities which their rule gave them to farther their
])rivate interests exclusively. That is so well shown by that
eminently middle-class, or plutocrat, institution, the public
debts. During the Middle Ages, when the State was

in extraordinary need of funds, the rulers — the nobles and
clergy — often put their hands into their own pockets, and
gave the needful amount to the State is a present. Now the

1886.] FOUND WANTING. 223

public dol)t of I'"rance is immense ; indeed, threatening tlie
State with bankruptcy. This debt is all due to French citi-
zens, to persons of the middle classes. Whenever the State
needs more funds, either for a war or public works, these
middle classes are ever ready, ay, anxious, to put their
hands in their pockets, and loan their money to the State.
The ruling middle classes have so arranged matters that they
can make these loans at highly usurious rates ; for instance,
in 1 87 1 they handed over to the State eighty francs, and
received in return a bond for a hundred francs. Thus they
live luxuriously, and hope to go on living forever, on incomes
found for them by their poor fellow-citizens.

But it will not last forever. There is the handwriting on
the wall, — a handwriting people now commence to de-
cipher. The very forces that have brought this capitalist
system to its height are now seen at work tiudcrniiniug it.

The plutocrats were raised to supreme power because
they had a specific mission to fulfil. They have fulfilled it :
they have increased production and productivity immensely.
Though their motives have been the meanest and most
selfish, yet they have really raised society up on a higher
plane. It is by the wage- system and eouipetition that they
have been able to do this. But now, when society no longer
needs their activity, when productivity is increased suffi-
ciently for all social wants, precisely now tliis wage-system
and competition are becoming more harmful than useful.

And it comes about in this way : The plutocrats are our
capitalist classes, an industrial, commercial, and moneyed
aristocracy, which possesses all means of production ; the
work-people, on the other hand, — the great bulk of the com-
munity, — possess, as a rule, nothing but their naked labor,
their labor-power. In order to live, the latter are therefore
under the necessity of offering this labor-power to the
possessing classes on such terms as the state of the labor-

224 T^fl^ PRESEXr TRANSITION STATE. fi794-

market may allow them to ask, and of accepting employ-
ment on such terms as these classes consent to grant them.
These terms — in other words, the wages they receive — arc,
as statistics assure us, on an average about one-half of the
value which their labor really creates. The wage-system,
then, really means that the capitalist classes allow work-
l)cople to labor, say, five hours daily for themselves, on con-
dition that they will labor other five hours daily fo'r their
masters gratis. This, be it understood, does not

mean that the other half goes all into the pockets of tlie
employers — far from it ; it is distributed among land-own-
ers, capitalists, commission-merchants, and others, as well.
But this gratuitous, unpaid labor constitutes what properly
is called pi-ofits, — those profits on account of which exclu-
sively manufacturers and the other " gentlemen at large "
consent to produce and do business at all. It is this profit-
grinding element wliich is the economic foundation of our
present society, and of society in France since the Revolution.

So far, the wage-system is an injury solely to the work-
people.

But it is evident, that since the bulk of the community,
the work-people, receive in wages but half of what they
produce, they cannot, with tlieir best will, buy back what
they produce ; and the land-owners, employers, and capital-
ists, on the other hand, who pocket the other half, cannot,
with their best will, consume it all : hence that curious i)]ie-
nomenon called '■'■ over-pi-odiiction^' — a phenomenon which
the world has never witnessed until our days. It means, a.;
is well known, that there are large amounts of goods ac-
cumulated which they who have money do not want, and
which they who do want them cannot buy, for lack of
means. The above explains it all : it fiilly explains

why there are, on the one hand, vast amounts of goods
heaped up in the warehouses for which there is no effective

1886.1 foUaXd wanting. 225

demand, and vast amounts of capital lying idle, on the
other hand, — capital that should be used in buying up these
accumulated goods, but is not so used.

Then, in order to get rid of this " over-production " some-
how, it is, that the plutocrats of all countries are crying for
and hunting after foi'cign markets. Therefore it is, that
France has taken possession, first of Algiers, then of Tunis,
then of Madagascar and Tonkin. This cry and this chase
are in themselves signs that the present system is tottering.
These foreign markets, however, must, in the nature of
things, soon dry up, — are, in fact, drying up. Then this
capitalist system must fall.

Tills changes the wage-system from a workingman^ s ques-
tion into a social question. The wage-syston is, in other
words, becoming a social curse.

That is why people of all classes are beginning to con-
demn it. To cite but one instance : M. Ch. Gide, professor
of political economy at the University of Montpellier, opened
a Congress of French Co-operators at Lyons in 1886 with
an address on the theme : The wage-system is an inferior
condition of labor and sliould be abolished.

It would be equally easy to show that free competition,
private enterprise, which has done so much for the upbuild-
ing of this capitalist system, is now also hurrying it on to its
doom. By that miserable secrecy with which it surrounds
all production and enterprises, when success precisely de-
pends on what others produce and do, competition is, in
fact, the principal cause of the crises that periodically over-
whelm us.

It is therefore as clear as any thing in the future well can
be, that this capitalist system, introduced in France by the
Revolution, will before long, unless forestalled, end in a
catastrophe and a crash.

But it ib certainly not our ruling classes, the plutocrats,

226 THE TRESENT TRANSITION STATE. [1794-

who will prevent the crash. Yet that is what is fondly

hoped by the Positivists, the disciples of Auguste Comte.
They see clearly enough that the present system is but a
transitional system, and that a new social order is inevitable ;
but they imagine, as has been said, that the plutocrats —
the great bankers, merchants, and manufacturers — will also,
under that new order, be the " chiefs of industry : " that
they will, indeed, have much more power and muclv more
wealth than now ; but they also fancy that these chiefs will
be sufficiently moralized by that time to apply their wealth
to social uses, to become truly fathers of their people, and
extirpate all misery and pauperism.

Our plutocrats be " moralized " ! There is absolutely not
a particle of evidence for any such change, not merely of
heart, but of their very nature. There was a time when this
might have been hoped for : that was when their itXiow -bour-
geois, the Jacobins, were exemplifying Fraternity. But now
quite another sentimenWias for a century petrified not merely
their hearts, but their heads, — the sentiment of Imiividiial-
ism. It has filled them with the delusion that they are born
into this world each for the sake of himself; twisted their
brains so that they verily think that a man is a kind of
monad, governed by independent laws inherent in himself,
and that therefore it is the only proper thing for the cheeky
to elbow aside the really able man, who, because able, is
modest. That sentiment has made them eminently success-
ful in working for their own benefit ; but just for that reason
they have become unfit, and every year renders them more
and more unfit, to work for the benefit of society.

The French bourgeoisie has practically proven this by the
way they have received certain proposals by Godin, of the
Familistcre of Guise. M. Godin is purely a capitalist by sen-
timent, but he resembles the Jacobins. He reasons exactly
as if he lived in 1 793, and was a member of tlie Moun-

i886.] PRESENT TENDENCIES. 22/

tain ; but, in addition, he sees clearly enough that a catas-
trophe is approaching, and is anxious that his fcllow-caijital-
ists should forestall it. He therefore proposes that the State
shall, on the death of proprietors, confiscate part of their
fortunes, — a small part of small fortunes, but an ever-in-
creasing proportion as they are larger, until it be one-half of
the large fortunes. In that way the ruling class might, un-
doubtedly, stave off the crash. If the State used these im-
mense sums that it in that way would become possessed of,
in abolishing pauperism and improving the lot of the poor,
it might do away with the worst effects of the wage-system
and competition, for these Godin does not dream of abol-
ishing. But he preaches in the wilderness. These fellow-
bourgeois of his think only of clutchi ig all they can, and
"after us the deluge ! "

* * *

But it is probable Evolution may forestall the catastrophe.
So it was, it will be remembered, in tlie French Revolution.
The middle classes were in supreme power before the crash,
— that is, before the fall of the feudal system occurred ; and
now, after having explained the French Revolution l)y an
hypothesis, this explanation, if it be the true one, ought in
its turn to help us to unravel the plot of the drama of the
future.

The outcome of the present transition state (brought about
in France by the Revolution) is, then, to be a new social
order, corresponding to, but on a far higher plane than, the
Middle Ages. It will be a social order of system, iniify, and
with co-operation in a mucli higher form than before. Are
things around us drifting towards such a social order?

We may, it seems to me, easily enough discern two lines
of unconscious tendencies in society around us, — tendencies
which, being the workings of evolution, are not voluntary, not
by choice, but thoroughly spontaneous, both of them.

228 THE PRESENT TRANSITION STATE. [1794-

One is a movement by individuals of all classes, by wage-
earners as well as by capitalists.

The other is manifested by an increased activity on the
part of society in its organized form ; by the State, in other
words.

Of the movements by individuals, the most significant
is that towards production on. a large scale. By " produc-
tion " should also be understood transportation and com-
merce, for they add value to the product, just as well as does
the labor of the operatives on raw materials. All that is
necessary here is to note this tendency, for all admit that
production everywhere — the most trivial as well as the most
important — is being concentrated in the hands of richer and
richer employers, of larger and larger corporations.

But there is one feature of this concentration that deserves
special mention because it is novel, and as yet, it seems, con-
fined to the United States, where the capitalist system is
more unfettered than anywhere else. It is what is called
the Trust. This is monopoly in its most concentrated form.
Suppose the presidents of all the incorporated companies in
a given branch of industry in the whole country assembled,
and one of their number in whom they all have perfect trust
— hence the name — selected to perform the function of
absolute manager, with power to determine, autocratically,
h(jw much each company is to produce, and consequently
its share in the proceeds, and you have the " trust." It
differs from a " pool " in this, that none of the parties can
withdraw. The individuality which the law confers on each
company by the Act of Incorporation is merged in the
" trust," over which the State has not the least control ; in-
deed, the whole arrangement is kept as perfect a secret, as
far as the public is concerned, as possible. Such a

secret " trust " has been in existence in the United States for
several years, and the public has been made to feel its

1886.1 PRESENT TENDENCIES. 229

tremendous power ; to wit, the Standard Oil Company. This
institution is exactly such an absolute union of innumerable
smaller incorporated oil companies. But lately, it is said,
the rubber industries of the country came together a short
time ago in New- York City and formed a similar " trust." It
is further said that the pork- packing industries and the cattle-
ranches out West are contemplating to do likewise. It is
easy to see, that, when these " trusts " become general, — and
that is only a question of very short time, — they will revolu-
tionize our present system, for they mean the destruction of
competition, which then will be utilized simply to crush their
weaker rivals, what precisely the Standard Oil Company has
been doing. Some of our newspapers, on getting wind of
these " trusts," have become alarmed, seeing in them terrible
future dangers to the State. And that, indeed, they would
be ; they would institute a new slavery, the most formidable
slavery that ever existed, — if evolution would stop there.
But it will not. That is why this movement is at bottom an
unconscious one : the capitalists engaged in it are, uncon-
sciously, the greatest revolutionists in the world.

Now, this concentration shows us what is going to be one
important feature of the new social order, — shows us tliat
pi-odiiction on the largest possible scale will be the only
practical mode of production in the future.

Next, we have in the English co-operative stores the most
successful efforts in the same direction on the part of work-
people. They are very suggestive experiments in voluntary
co-operation, resulting directly from this concentration of
production just spoken of, necessitating, as it does, huge
camps of operatives. These co-operative distributive soci-
eties have from eight to nine hundred thousand members,
and their annual sales already amount to nearly a hun-
dred and fifty million dollars. The noble founders of this
sort of co-oi)eratiou have, undoubtedly, wholly failed in

230 THE PRESENT TRANSITION STATE. [1794-

their original object, in the real object they aimed at, which
was to entirely revolutionize society by putting an end to
the wage-system ; for they have wholly failed in making
their followers interested in co-operative production, — the?
principal part of their scheme. One of these founders,
the venerable Lloyd Jones, died a short time ago of a broken
heart, from having to admit that nearly all tlie nine hundred
thousand " co-operators " entirely lack the co-operative
spirit, and are anxious only for becoming small capitalists.
The wonderful success of co-operative distribution is, never-
theless, exceedingly important as a phase of the general
movement, and points to

Distribution on the largest possible scale as the only
natural mode of distribution for the future.

Again : we should note the various attempts that have of
late been made, mainly in England, in co-operative farming
by agricultural laborers, and., on the other hand, the immense
" Bonanza " farms in our newer States and Territories. They
show us that agriculture is subject to the same development as
other industries : the latter, that machinery can be as much
utilized here as elsewhere ; and the former, that agriculturists,
though the most individualistic of all classes, are as fit to
co-operate as other workers. The English " Association
P\armers," as they call themselves, though generally work-
ing under abnormally unpromising conditions, seem to be
satisfied with their success so far, and their successful ex-
ample can hardly fail to have a great effect on their brethren
in other countries.

Our insurance companies may be looked upon as instinc-
tive attempts by the possessing classes in a chaotic, anarchic
state of society, such as is tlie one in which we are living, to
realize interdependence, with all its beneficent consequences.
Especially are our prosperous life-insurance companies most
significant and suggestive concerns, as showing how, even

(886.] PRESENT TENDENCIES. 23 1

in such an intlividualistic society as ours, robust, prudent,
and temperate middle-class men can be made to contribute,
of their own accord, to support the offspring and the de-
pendants of the weak, reckless, and dissolute, — for that is
what they virtually are made to do.

As such insurance companies for work-people the trades-
unions of Great Britain can be considered. They have
undoubtedly done labor a great service. It is they to whom
it is due that the working-hours have been reduced. So far
as it is true, what is alleged, that the worker's condition is
improved as to amount of wages compared with his condi-
tion fifty years ago (what is only true in regard to the elite
of the workingmen), it is also these trades-unions who have
effected that increase. But, having accomplished this, the
trades-unions have certainly got into a rut, and seem per-
fectly self-satisfied, — satisfied with what they have achieved,
and, what is worse, satisfied with their position as wage-serfs.
They seem to have lost vitality, and to only want to leave
things as they are. Yet, however selfish and narrow they
may be, they cannot help all the time being of service by
the very fact of being so closely associated ; they naturally
drill their members in association and co-operation. I have
a deep conviction that the trades-unions of Great Britain
and the United States ' will play an important part in the
social evolution, as already the " Syndical Chambers " of the
workers are doing in P>ance. In the latter country the Ma-
chinists' Unions are, with the aid of a loan by the Govern-
ment of $1,200,000, about to form a vast co-operative society
for producing machinery, used in the textile manufactures.

This, then, to sum up, is the outcome of the spontaneous,
unconscious activity of individuals in association or corpora-
tion : that they gather together the working-classes in huge

■ It is noteworthy that the trades-unions pf the United States have, of late, taken
a very active part in radical politics,

233 THE PRESENT TRANSITION STATE. [1794-

armies, and teach them interdependence, and especially
that they more and more absorb and make impossible all
inilustrial activity by isolated individuals.

I call these movements " unconscious " as well as spon-
taneous ; for, while the individuals in association and corpo-
ration are conscious enough as far as their immediate private,
personal interest is concerned, yet they are perfectly uncon-
scious all the time of their associated corporate actions and
their consequences.

Now we pass over to the other line of spontaneous, un-
conscious tendencies, — the activities of the State.

The State itself is a j^rofound fact of our spontaneous,
unconscious association. The State is the organized soci-
ety, the as yet imperfectly organized society. The tendencies
of which we now are going to speak are really efforts towards
organizing society more and more closely ; that is, towards
making the State more and more perfect.

There was a time when it was doubtful wliether the State
or the Church was going to be the form in which the spon-
taneous association of men was to be embodied. The
Power behind Evolution long ago decided in favor of the
State, and relegated the Church to the condition of a merely
voluntary association everywhere, practically speaking.

The first of these tendencies manifests itself in the

Post-office Department, with its important branched of
banking and expressing. This is, in all civilized countries,
the first industrial function the State has taken upon itself;
and it has performed that function so well, that none could Ije
found fool enough to vote it back to the hands of private
corporations. If two or tlirec companies performed the
service in the United States, does any one believe that he
could send a postal-card from New York to San Francisco
(juickly and safely for one cent?

I886.J PRESE.VT TIiXDEXClES. 233

We may note, in passing, that the side functions above
mentioned are suggestive germs of future important activities.

Next look at the National Telegraph Service. Is it not
suggestive that the country of Herbert Spencer, the home
of the "let-alone " doctrine, has been so vigorously pursuing
the contrary course in practice as to nationalize the tele-
graph system? The advantages thereby gained are easily
seen by comparing Great Britain with the United States,
where the telegraph is yet a private monopoly. E^ven before
the sixpenny telegrams were introduced, the former country
sent annually four times as many despatches at half the
price.

Consider now Public Education. There the United
States is undoubtedly yet ahead of England. Her common-
school system, spanning the whole course from primary
schools to the universities, is justly famous ; and the public
spirit, branding the rich families who keep their children
away from them as unpatriotic, is admirable. But as the
system, unfortunately, is not yet national, only a section of
the country enjoys its blessings. England, however, has
undoubtedly since 1870 made giant progress in this direction,
and will, it seems, soon surpass the United States by insti-
tuting National Board schools rivalling the latter's connnon
schools, and where children will get one meal a day at least.
Ah ! Spencer is right in looking on the institution of these
Board schools as the greatest blow to his individualistic phi-
losophy, for it means adopting the true principle, the corner-
stone of public responsibility, that the education of children
is of more concern to the community than to parents ; or, as
Danton said, that '' Children belong to the nation rather
than to parents."

The English Factory Acts denote another most interesting
step in social evolution. The joint emi)ire of the aristocracy
and plutocracy there ceased by tlie Reform Act of 1832,

234 TJ/E J'RESEA'T TKAAS/TW.V STATE. [1794-

whcn the latter acquired undivided, sui)reme power. They
could act pretty much as they pleased, and were not \ery
favorably disposed toward the working-classes, as the new
poor-law showed ; but when a real nobleman, Lord Shaftes-
bury, introduced his Factory Bills, though the plutocrats,
with the Quaker John Bright at their head, for a long time
fought successfully against them, yet they had at last to
give in, had to thwart their onm most cherished ideals, and
pass them, as well as the laws against overloading of ships.

Here our splendid Bureaus for the Statistics of Labor,
with which no other country has any thing to compare,
constitute a giant step toward the future organization of
labor.

As to the British Railioay System, it is noteworthy that Sir
Bernhard Samuelson, in a recent report of his to the Asso-
ciation of Chambers of Commerce of the United Kingdom,
concludes in favor of State monopoly of the railway traffic.

And our Interstate Commerce Act of 1887 goes a long
way toward actually bringing that about here in the United
States. I wonder if it was by a mere oversight that steam-
ships were not brought within the control of the Union, as
well as railroads.

The Municipalization of Land — that is to say, the com-
pulsory sale of land by landlords to municipalities — has been
for some years a pet idea with English Radicals, and will, un-
doubtedly, be one of the first measures to be passed as soon
as Irish home-rule has been granted ; and, when' accom-
plished, it very likely may be the greatest step, so far taken,
in social evolution. But I also hope, to be sure, that by that
time the private experiments in co-operative farming, which
has been spoken of, will have attained such importance, that,
upon the municipalization (or nationalization) of the land,
it will be handed over to large bodies of agricultural laborers,
to be by them cultivated co-operatively on a large scale.

1886.1 PRESEiVT TENDENCIES. 235

I have also called these activities " unconscious ; " for,
though "practical" politicians are conscious enough when
they concern themselves with the expediency of any of such
measures, yet they are absolutely ignorant, or at least care-
less, of the fact (with which Spencer also never tires of re-
proaching them) that, in every one of such measures they
pass, they are establishing principles, — principles -which, by
their irresistib'le momentum, are sure to lead to new types of
social organization.

Now, is it not easy to perceive that these activities of the
State tend very strongly to more and more curtail, contract,
abridge, the proprietary sphere of individuals, and develop
and strengthen the collective will? Certainly they do;
and that is what Spencer, in his pamphlet The Man vs.
The State, so much bewails. But that is just what, as we
saw in Chap. I., has been the constant tendency of our
civilization, that in which our civilization may be said to
consist. At first a given individual was exceedingly power-
ful, comparatively almighty ; by and by that power has been
taken from him and devolved on the State, ^^'hat, however,
is most important and suggestive is, that this tendency should
manifest itself so strongly and decidedly now, in the transi-
tion era in which we are living, when a permanent new social
order is upon us.

In the evolution of which the above are simply prominent
features (to which the reader can add such others as strike
him) everyone is a partaker ; every active individual, wit-
tingly or unwittingly, whether he likes it or no, contributes to
it, either as the member of some association or other, or, at
all events, as a contributor to the public opinion which directs
the State. These unconscious, spontaneous movements from
all parts of the social circumference, which collectively we
may call the "logic of events," will irresistibly lead us on,

236 THE PRESEXT TRANSITION STATE. [1794-

first to a certain point in the line of progress, — the Coiniug
Revolution, — and thereupon to the Neiu Social Order.

But this — that the affairs of men have once for all got an
impetus in this direction — is not all there is of evolution, or
even the most prominent feature of it, as Herbert Spencer
seems to think. He virtually says to his readers, " Let us
fold our hands : we cannot hurry society forward. It will of
itself come out all right in the distant future."

The point is, that human society does not develop quite
the same as, for instance, a plant. The evolution of man
needs the co-operation of men, takes place by the conscious
efforts of men. And it so happens that the Power

behind Evolution is now at work on certain minds among us.
As the French Revolution was made in the minds of Danton
and his contemporaries before 1 7S9, so the Coming Revolu-
tion is now being prepared among us.

This is a movement just as spontaneous as the others we
have spoken of. These minds are twisted in a certain direc-
tion, without any choice, any merit, on their part ; but, in
contradistinction to the others, they are conscious actors.
So soon as they are aware of the change that has occurred
in them, they consciously push on the car of ])rogress, often
under "great sufferings, often sick at heart from lack of
sympathy.

This conscious evolution does not comprise all active per-
sons, like the former movements. There are some
stui)id men in the world. They contribute nothing con-
sciously to the solution of the social problem, and it is wasted
labor to try to win them over. As Goethe says : Mit der
Dummhcit kdnip/en Gottcr selbst vergebens ("With stupidity
even the gods contend in vain").

Then, there are the selfish ones, — those wlio find their
advantage in the present anarchy, and olliers, like j)Oor
clerks, who hoije, some time or other, by some lucky chance,

1886.] THE MENTAL REVOLUTION. 237

to become tlieuiselves rich, so that they in turn may lord it
over others ; that latter class is especially numerous in the
United States.

Lastly, there is the vast indolent multitude of all classes
who never have taken the initiative, and never want to ; the
multitude that have blocked the way for so many noble re-
formers who, contemplating that heavy, inert mass before
them, and despairing how to move it, have finally died of
broken hearts. Let us never reckon on their co?isdous assist-
ance. Danton knew this. That is the reason why revolu-
tions are legitimate.

For the Power behind Evolution has a method of its own
in dealing with man's affairs. It irresistibly pushes us all, —
the stupid, the selfish, the indolent rauldtude, — unwittingly
and unwillingly, onward ; or, if you please, lifts us all up-
wards. At the same time, it raises up a comparatively few
to co-operate with itself, and througli whom it acts. These,
then, are the conscious actors in the evolution, a very small
class ; for while that Power needs men, absolutely cannot
get along without men, it requires but a very few.

Discontent is the means it makes use of to raise up and
educate its co-laborers ; an unselfish discontent, and there-
fore by no means synonymous with unhappiness. These feel
discontented with this age in which they and we are living,
as about the meanest age of all, with its organized inclem-
ency of man to man ; and yet they may feel very happy in
enjoying consciousness in flesh and blood just now when we
stand on the threshold of the most glorious of ages. This
discontent is to evolution what steam is to the engineer ; it
is the precursor of a structural change ; it is what the but-
terfly may be supposed to feel when it is going out of the
chrysalis state. It convinces us that we have arrived at the.
crisis.

It is the lack of this discontent. that is the great defect in

238 THE TRESENT TRANSITION STATE. [1794-

Spenccr ; // is the laani of this discontent that makes him
an iiuiolent optimist, with nothing specific to suggest /or men
to do. Our philanthropists, on the other hand, may

be said to have a surfeit of that feehng ; that is why they
always impatiently want to know, " What shall we do from
this didi^ forthtvith to change things?" They are right as to
heart, but wrong in their heads.

Those only who are filled with both discontent and right
convictions are fit to be true co-workers of the Power
behind Evolution ; they are Victor Hugo's " sagacious,
serene, and profound minds," who at length have truly de-
ciphered "God's mysterious text." They have in these
days the same important function to perform that Mon-
tesquieu, Diderot, and Rousseau had a century ago, — that
of putting ideas into the minds of the people; of accom-
plishing the intellectual, the mental revolution, /// the
drains of the active part of nations. But just in propor-
tion as the mental revolution is complete, will all danger
of a sanguinary crisis be averted, — that is one of the
lessons the French Revolution should have taught us.

Again : just like the mental revolution of last century
will the one now to be accomplished be brought about by
books ; they will play even a greater role now, because now
everybody reads.

Who, then, are the men with discontent and right con-
victions? and which are these books?

My readers who have followed me so far will have guessed
that I refer to the Collectivists ; not Anarchists, please ob-
serve, nor, if a distinction be made. Communists, but Col-
lectivists, — the thinkers who inspire themselves from the
French Collectivism of Saint-Simon and the Ccrnian Collec-
tivism of Karl Marx, and who, 1 think, will work out a third,
complete doctrine, Angh-Sjxon in its characteristics.

i886.] THE MENTAL REVOLUTION. 239

That which distinguishes the above writers from all other
social innovators is, that they emphasize, not that the new
social order ought to be and therefore will be, but that it
will be and therefore ought to be, realized.

Saint-Simonisni, as developed by Bazard and Enfantin,
who seem to me almost greater than the master they
acknowledge, owes its start directly to the impulse of the
French Revolution. I have already, in Chap. I., set out
Saint-Simon's fruitful conception of organic and critical
periods of history. Saint-Simonism, furthermore, insists on
the fact, that in the march of humanity the circle of asso-
ciation goes on enlarging unceasingly, until it will end in
universal association. That is to say, it insists that the
State will develop into an association exclusively of workers,
of useful members ; that as such it will assume the owner-
ship, the office of a trustee, of all capital, instead of, as now,
that capital being the private property of individual families ;
that then naturally all privileges founded on birth or wealth
will disappear, and that capacity will be the only quality
that will entitle persons to dispose of and use this capital.
And the principal merit of Saint-Simonism is, that it teaches
that this development, this change, will not be brought about
because human intelligence approves of it and resolves on it,
but that its raison d'etre is the Supreme Will, and that, as
it is being accomplished, so to say, of itself, the human
conscience will, little by little, conform itself to it, and bring
itself into harmony with it. Again : Saint-Simonism drew
attention (as I have done in the preceding pages) to the
instinctive tendencies of its time, which pointed to order and
a new organization, particularly to the office of the bankers,
these intermediaries between workers needing instruments
of labor, and the possessors of such instruments not know-
ing how to use them or caring to do so.

But Samt-Simon and his disciples made the very natural

240 THE TRESENT TRANSITION STATE. [1794-

mistake of assuming that their time was the commencement
of the new social order. It is the great merit — and this
has been the great mission — of German Colkciivism, that it
has made clear and emphasized that this is a transition period.
For it is Karl Marx, the most prominent exponent of Ger-
man Socialism, who has shown us the workings of the wage-
system and competition, and how these, after having brouglit
the capitalist system to its present height, are now undermin-
ing it, and will before long lead it to a catastrophe and a
crash. After proving this to us, and especially to the

working-classes, Marx in effect continues, " Prepare your-
selves ; organize yourselves. The fruit is soon ripe ; capi-
talism must soon fall. Then at length you can secure to
yourselves the full reward of your labor." Marx, as

well as German Collectivism, is thus, like the German mind,
essentially critical. He has concerned himself almost ex-
clusively with the evolution toward destruction ; it is his
great achievement that he has proven this scientifically
and conclusively. He has never been successfully refuted,
and never can be. It is true that this capitalist system is
evolving toward a catastrophe and a crash, unless fore-
stalled.

But this is not the last word, — a critical philosophy never
can be, — and Marx never assumed it was. Tlie last word
must relate to the nature and outlines of tlie new social
order, and to that Marx devotes only a few lines in the
closing part of his Capital. Moreover, he assumes tlie
crash, and then suggests the new system, but as an empiri-
cal expedient that should be adopted, as a personal conceit
that may or may not come true. This gives rise to

the complaints, not so very unreasonable, by imiuirers, that
Collectivism lacks positive formulas, and fully accounts for
the fact that many Socialists, when they are pressed, often
do not know whether they are Communists or Collectivists,

i886.] THE MENTAL REVOLUTION. 241

and also e\[)laiiis the ro(]uetry of some with Anarchism, with
w'hich our agreement is really but superficial.

Well, it is not always in the nations that give rise to new
ideas that they reach their highest development. It seems
to me that Morley's "sacred torch which shifts from bearer
to bearer," after passing from France to Germany, is now
about to return to Anglo-Saxons ; that it is they, these prac-
tical folk who dislike to tear down before they know what
to build up, who will develop these positive formulas of
Collectivism in its larger outlines, though, of course, not in
its details, and supplement Marx by working out the more
important and wider circle of constructive evolution. This
will then constitute Anglo-Saxon Collectivism, and will finish
the mental preparation for the Coming Revolution,

The evolution of this capitahst system towards a catas-
trophe is a truth, but // is not the taliole truth. For, fortu-
nately, side by side with these destructive tendencies there
are everywhere around us constructive tendencies at work —
this is the other half of the truth. It is well to know that
a flower is decaying, but it is at least equally important to
note that at the same time the fruit is ripening. The capi-
talist system is being sapped in its foundations, true ; but
evolution is also, under our very eyes, laying the foundation,
shaping the outlines, of the social oj'der that is to replace it.
Verily, we may be said to be witnessing a race hetiueen
destructive and constructive tendencies, the result of which
may very well be, that the new system may forestall and
anticipate the catastrophe and the crash. Instead of

our new social order being an empirical expedient, Anglo-
Saxon Collectivism will thus show and emphasize that it is
being moulded and sha])ed no7o, and by the present society.

Let us return to and contrast our two lines of spontaneous,
unconscious activities, — constructive tendencies.

342 THE PRESENT TRANSITION STATE. [1794-

That on tlie jiart of individuals, we saw, was a constantly
growing concentration, more and more absorbing the eniuts
of isolated individuals ; making, in fact, the efforts of isolated
individuals impossible. The movement on the part

of the collectivity — that is, the nation — is also a constantly
growing centralization, more and more absorbing the sphere
of individuals.

Is it not easy to see that the time will surely come, when
these two opposing tendencies, forces, will come in contact?
Is it not already the fact, that, in all civilized countries, tlic
collectivity IS face to face with overgrown corporations,
whose interests are diametrically opposed to the interests of
the community at large ?

Can any one doubt the issue ?

Of course, private control will have to give ivay to public
control along the whole line." The function hitherto per-
formed by capitalists, that of being social paymasters, will
devolve on the State.

This will sufficiently indicate the general character of the
third organic Social Order awaiting us.

Capitalists will give way to society, organized society, — the
NATION. Evolution will end in the supremacy of the collective
7vill, and that will be embodied, not in the commune, the
county, as some maintain, Init in the nation, if United Italy,
United Germany, and our own Union have a meaning.^ The
State, the Nation, the Fatherland, is an indispensable step
of evolution toward Humanity. Ownership of the

means of i)roduction by individuals will be replaced by
ownership and supreme control oi the means of jjroduction
by the collectivity. Then social functions will, for the first
time, be properly, adequately performed, which they cannot

' The expropriation of but one capitalist class, — as that of the land-owners, —
except as a first step, would not coiislitiitc a social revolution, but downright robbery.

2 The movement for Irish home-rule is no exception, for it will effect a rc<il union
of the three kingdoms.

i886.] THE MENTAL REVOLUTION. 243

be as long as they are regarded from the standpoint of the
producer, and not from that of the consumer, — society.
That the latter shall be provided for ; that, for instance,
meat shall be supplied, is the essential ; that the butclier shall
have his pay is secondary. That is why one of the liberal
professions, say a physician, has always been honored above
a trader, — because he is ready to perform his function
without making the fee his object \ and so in the new social
order every one's daily business will be freed from its present
pettiness, and elevated to the dignity of a public function.

This outcome is the evident decree of evolution ; this is
the enduring social order which all previous eras have been,
and this transition order in particular is, preparing for. Our
plutocrats have been invested with supreme power expressly
to be instrumental in making ready for its advent.

With it we shall have reached the last step in our progress
in co-operation. From slavery, through serfdom and wage-
dom, we shall attain to iwluniary co-operation of all, —
SOCUL CO-OPERATION, having for our motto, " Leisure for all,
idleness for none^

Note, however, that control of all means of production by
the collectivity does not imply that the government is to (\o
all the nation's business. There will be a centralization of
poxver, but not of functions, except, say, these three : that
of being general statistician, general manager, and gen-
eral arbitrator. These the collectivity will take upon itself,
leaving all the rest to perfectly free associations of workers.

There will hardly be a " government " at all, l)ut there
will be a vigorous administration of affairs ; that is to say,
government over things, instead of over men. It will be
vigorous, because it will be administered by the competent,
skilful, and wise. Here, of course, the stereotypic (juestion
will be put : " Ah, but how will you secure the competent,
skilful, and wise?" The answer is: l>y true democracy ;

244 THE PRESENT TRANSITION STA TE. [1794-

that is to say, the competent, skilful, and wise will inevitably
gravitate toward the leadership of affairs when they are
selected from below by free citizens, independent of all indi-
viduals, and that is the only way of securing them.

How otherwise we imagine the New Social Order, can be
learned, by those who are interested, from the former work
by me, already mentioned, The Co-operative Covimonwealth,
which may be said to treat of the statics of Collectivism, as
this volume has concerned itself with its dynamics.
* * *

Which nation will, first of all, realize Collectivism ?

It has lately made giant progress in all European countries,
as well as in Great Britain and the United States, both as
to number and character of disciples, and, especially, by all
accepting the doctrine of Marx. There can be no doul)t
that before long serious attempts will be made on the Con-
tinent to bring it in by force. I am in this not thinking of
Russia, for her coming crisis will be her " French Revolu-
tion," in which connection it is interesting to note that the
Russian plutocracy have, during the last thirty years, remark-
ably increased in wealth, compared with the rest of the nation.
No ; the first country to suggest itself is, of course, France.

The Paris Commune of 1871 was a perfectly spontaneous
movement, coming absolutely unexpected on the leaders of
the working-classes. The bourgeoisie, in their usual hatred
of the masses, determined, at the fall of the Comiximie, to
tear out this revolutionary spirit by the roots, and went to
work, in the words of the clerical writer of The yews of
France, " with a disregartl of human life never before wit-
nessed." They murdered in cold blood thirty-five thousand
of the flower of Parisian manhood, and deported as many
more. For five years the work-people gave no sign of
political life. At last, in 1876, by the generosity of the Jew
Cremieux, tiie trades-unions of France were enabled to hold

i886.| GROU'TII OF COLLECT/ l7SHr. 245

a congress in Lyons, at which they declared that they had
nothing to do with Sociahsni in any form.

But in that year two men returned from exile, who, almost
in the twinkling of an eye, were entirely to change the aspect
of things. They were Benoit Malon and Jules Guesdc.
Thanks to their agitation, at the second congress of the
trades-unions at Paris, in 1877, there were eight votes in
favor of a Collectivist resolution ; and in 1879, at the third
(very largely attended) congress of trades-unions and work-
ingmen's "circles " at Marseilles, a purely Collectivist reso-
lution, in the spirit of Marx, was passed by a two-thirds
majority. Since that time no large gathering of French
workmen has ever taken place that has not resolved in fi.ivor
of Collectivism. Even the last Trades-Union Congress, held
in 1 886 in Paris, under the auspices of the government, which
granted railroad passes and five thousand francs, closed by
declaring itself, to the great scandal of the bourgeois press,
CoUectivists. Everywhere in the industrial centres the elite
of the workmen are CoUectivists. They have in many cities,
Paris included, Collectivist aldermen, and seven working-
men members of the Chamber of Deputies. In Paris in
1886, on the resignation of Rochefort, the Collectivist can-
didate received a hundred thousand votes ; while his oppo-
nent, representing the whole opposition, clerical, monarchist,
and republican, received but a hundred and thirty-five thou-
sand votes. But it is only work-people that adopt
Collectivism in France. The educated classes and trades-
people hold aloof, and will have nothing to do with it.

Nothing, therefore, more likely than to hear of a revolu-
tionary movement in France during either of the approaching
centennial years of the great Revolution. In spite of the
crushing opposition to overcome, it is far from unlikely to
succeed at first, especially at Paris. Tiie Parisian />oi/rgcoisic
is notoriously, since the Commune, more cowardly than ever,

246 THE PRESENT TRANSITIOX STATE. [1794-

and may be reckoned on to give up their city without a blow
to the revolutionary element. But the danger of a success-
ful counter-revolution is there so great that there is but little
hope of lasting success ; for there is no doubt that the
French bourgeoisie will prove itself just as unpatriotic as tlie
nobility of a century ago, and call on Germany to interfere.
And if, on the other hand, the revolution commences in Ger-
many, there is the double danger of interference from France
and Russia. And then, the terribly bitter and revengeful
sentiments we have noted in the French working-classes, how-
ever excusable, constitute but a poor foundation on which
to erect a new social order. We can therefore rely,

for the first realization of Collectivism, only on Great Britain
and tlic United States. In both countries there is no crush-
ing opposition to overcome, in the first place, — only public
opinion, — and there is no foreign interference to fear. Great
Britain, moreover, as we have seen, has been the leader in tlie
great changes ever since the Reformation. Noblesse oblige !
It becomes her or us to lead in the Coming Revolution.

That Collectivism has made wonderful progress in Great
Britain during the last ten years, is evident to all. Poets,
artists, fellows of colleges, ministers both of the Church of
England and the Church of Scotland, besides a great num-
ber of educated men, openly work for the cause, and many
more secretly. In Great Britain, then, in contradistinction
to France, it is the brain-workers that lead, and the muscle-
workers that follow, — a fact of great importance. And the
latter really have commenced to follow. That was shown
in a remarkable manner by the great demonstration in
Hyde Park on Easter Monday, 1887, composed admittedly
of the very best sort of people. They crowded by prefer-
ence round the two Socialist platforms, which literally were
surrounded by an ocean of uplifted, attentive, and enthusias-
tic faces. These people might possibly have been attracted

1886.] ''GOD WILLS IT/'' 247

in such numbers by mere curiosity, but tiicy would not
have api)lauded 7uhat they did not like to hear. London
Radical crowds are not hypocritic. On the same

roaster Monday, Collectivist missionaries from London held
a meeting, that grew to be of enormous size, in the collicr\'
district of Northumberland, to which large numbers of miners,
said by all to be among the most respected men of the vari-
ous districts, marched in procession from villages, some six
to eight miles distant. And the same is the case wherever
one goes in England or Scotland — even more in Scotland
than in England. In London, in a hundred halls, Sunday
after Sunday, audiences listen to lectures mostly on Socialism
in some shape or other.

\w Paisley (Scotland) the provost introduces the poet
William Morris in a sympathetic speech, and takes the
chair. In Glasgow Edward Caird, professor of moral
philosophy, does the same to this writer. In London a
member of Parliament, Cunningham Graham, presides, and
regrets he is " not yet " a Socialist. In England there are
two large Christian Socialist societies, — one in London,
that publishes an excellent monthly journal, — and another
in Clifton, Bristol, that issues occasional pamphlets, which
John Ruskin declares to be the best pamphlets on economic
subjects in English. In Edinburgh there is a large stu-
dents' Socialist society, and in all the British universities
classes have been formed for the study of Socialism, and
ministers deliver everywhere Socialist sermons.

In the United States and Great Britain it is, of course, by
political methods that Collectivism will be realized. It
certainly will not take many years to make it in the latter
country an issue of practical politics.

The present alliance between the Gladstonians and the
Irish party is a most promising fact. Indeed, they now may
be said to form one thortniglily deinocnitic party, since the

248 THE PRESENT TRANSITION STA TE. [1794-

Whigs and Chamberlain are, fortunately, eliminated, as they
had to be some time or other. Home-rule, soon to be
granted to Ireland, will cause a real union between that
island, hitherto a ball and chain on England's limbs, and
Great Britain, and make the two democracies walk forever
after hand in hand. Then all the tremendous social ques-
tions that now for so long have been waiting for a solution
will come to the front. Great Britain is the only > country
where Collectivists are so fortunately situated that tlicy can
accomplish the Coming Revolution constitutionally.

Considering the speed with which we are now progressing,
it is by no means presumptuous to predict that by the close
of another generation Collectivists may succeed in electing
a majority of the House of Commons ; and that, according
to the British Constitution, as it has in practice been worked
out, would be all that would be required. They could then
constitutionally demand the reahzation of Collectivism ; and
if the plutocrats should refuse or threaten or attempt vio-
lence, the CoUectivist majority would have the immense ad-
vantage of having the British bias for legality on their side,
and could summon, with all promise of success, the working-
classes to rise behind them and enforce their demand, what
these would hardly do in any other contingency.

In this connection it is very regrettable that the great
poet ^Villiam Morris, who has done so much for Collectivism
in Great Britain, despises political action and " parliamentary
half-measures ; " that is to say, he is not as clear-sighted as
Herbert Spencer, who, from fear of our cause, warns Parlia-
ment that in every one of their " half-measures " they are
eslaljlishing principles which by their momentum are sure to
lead to Collectivism. And to think that Morris could by
this time be in Parliament, with a little group around him,
if not of Collectivists, at least of advanced Radicals, forcing
affairs still more in a Colk'ctivist direction ! Instead of that,

1886.] "GOD WILLS IT!'' 249

he has the truly Utopian idea of a universal strike ; i.e., that
one fine day all the workers will fold their arms, and refuse
to do a stroke of work until they get Collectivism.

In the United States we are not nearly as well situated.
Here the Constitution must first be changed, which re(iuires
a three-fourths majority of all the States. That almost neces-
sarily drives us Collectivists into unconstitutional, at least
extra-constitutional, ways. However, as soon as half of the
effective majority in America once wills Collectivism, no
doubt they will find a way, as the anti -slavery Republican
party did when they first drove a dozen States out of the
Union, and then admitted them — on condition of sanctioning
the abolition of slavery.

But meanwhile, until Collectivism becomes an issue of
practical politics, whether in Great Britain or the United
States, it is our business to win over the small minority, the
choice band of spirits who in the near future will effect
the mental revolution, — the business of us whom the Power
behind Evolution has raised up as pioneers, unable to think
and act otherwise than as we do, though often, in our long-
ing for sympathy, deeply feeling our isolation. There are
plenty of thoughtful, generous youths, both men and women,
all around us, who need only fully to understand our philoso-
phy to be converted to it. That has already been done to
some extent in England and Scotland, as we have seen,
during the last five years ; but here in America we have as
yet hardly had our first real success.

That Collectivism, so far, has made so little progress among
Anglo-Saxons, there are several things to account for ; first,
this : that hitherto only the critical method has been em-
ployed in expounding Socialism, — a method very effective
with the German or French mind, but leaving no impres-
sion at all on the Anglo-Saxon mind. The Anglo-Saxon

250 THE PRESENT TRANSITION STATE. [1794-

who hitherto happened to study Collectivism, met only with
teachings of evolution towards destruction ; and such teach-
ings roused no enthusiasm in him, created in him no senti-
ment of duty. He might be convinced that a catastrophe
and crash were impending; but "the crash," he would say,
" will come soon enough, when it does come, without my
help." On the other hand, once convince our young men
and women that Collectivism is the evident decree of' evolu-
tion ; that the work to do is constructive rather than destruc-
tive, and that they have it in their power materially to hasten
its advent, and anticipate, forestall, the catastrophe, and we
shall rouse in them a solemn feeling of duty ; they will feel
a call to co-operate with the Power behind Evolution.

Again : the doctrine that Collectivism is a class movcmc7it
has certainly been misunderstood. It has been interpreted
to mean, that it is a movement of those who work with their
hands against all others. Yet it means only this (but also
this decidedly) : that it is a movement of all the workers,
whether with hands or with brains, against those who
monopolize the means of labor. Thus, in " workers " are
included all physicians, all teachers, all men of science, as
far as they are not capitalists. And while, undoubtedly. Col-
lectivism will, in the first place, benefit work-people in the
narrower sense, — level them up, — it is by no means they
who are exclusively interested, or the only ones upon whom
we call. No great social movement ever succeeded before
educated men took hold of it ; and Collectivism especially,
as we have seen, is an outcome of the development of the
whole social body. It is also worth noting, that, with hardly
an exception, the leading Collectivists in every country have
not come from, and do not come from, the manual workers.
Anglo-Saxon Collectivism in particular will therefore address
itself, I am sure, to thoughtful, generous minds of all classes,
and its leaders be a band of choice spirits from all classes.

1886.] ''GOD WILLS IT!'' 25 I

Young men and women ! it is impossible that you can look
at the lives that are led around you, or contemplate your
own lives, and not be filled with a noble discontent. Then
reflect that you are on the threshold of the Golden Age for
mankind, and that it is your high privilege to hasten its
advent. Think how blessed your old age will be, if you fill
your existence with high efforts, for this, indeed, constitutes
the only true life ; if the ideal is the bond that joins your
friends to you, for this, indeed, constitutes the only true
friendship !

This brotherhood of conscious co-operaors with the Power
behind Evolution need not be large ; a mental revolution,
like all great successful revolutions, is made, not by numbers,
but by wills. The effective majority of any nation — that is,
the number of those who lead its march, and time its prog-
ress — itself is comparatively small ; all that has to be done
is, to tui-n the brains of that " effective majority," as the
anti-slavery men did the brains of the leaders of the Repub-
lican party, and the Home-Rulers those of the Gladstonians,
and the revolution is virtually accomplished. What we
shall have to struggle with and to conquer is sluggishness,
ingrown habits, traditional views, and mistaken notions, more
than pure selfishness. One of the most effective

weapons for that struggle will be the press, — to a great
extent the already established press. And one way for the
brotherhood to utilize the latter may be the organization
of private societies, in constant communication and ex-
change with each other, for the purpose of writing short
and pithy letters on topics of the day, and having one such
letter each and every day published now in one, now in
another, of the local newspapers. My experience teaches
me that not even the most inimical journal will refuse a well-
written letter ; at all events, as long as it is unaware of its
being the fruit of a " conspiracy." Another way to utilize

252 THE PRESENT TRANSITION STA TE. [1794-1886.]

the established press might be the method adopted by Bris-
bane in the forties in New York City in his agitation for
Fourierism, — the renting of a cohunn of some popular
journal, and filling it periodically with CoUectivist matter.

There is one thing that will give these Anglo-Saxon Col-
lectivists a peculiar force, and serve them as a wonderful
stimulus, and that is — faith. Thoughtful Anglo-Saxons,
however unorthodox, still refuse to give up the idea of
Providence. When they become convinced that our pres-
ent stage of civilization is a necessary result of the force of
things, that men are Collectivists because their minds have
by necessity been twisted in this direction, and that a Col-
lectivist Order is the unavoidable outcome of evolution, they
will more than ever see the hand of Providence in human
affairs. They will know nothing of a blind Fate behind
Evolution, but place there a Will, an Intelligence, a helpful
Presence. That will not prevent them from heartily co-oper-
ating with those who, like Danton, are doing the will of that
Presence, even if doubting its existence : they will only claim
they are more clear-seeing. But their faith will lend to their
convictions a peculiar strength, since it enables them to give
to those who inquire of them, "What is it you propose?"
this answer : —

" We do not propose any thing. It is the Power behind
Evolution that proposes this change, and therefore it must
be accomplished, at the risk of social heart-burnings, at the
risk even of setting class against class, at the start."

Collectivists can properly adopt the motto of the French
revolutionists of last century, and in their turn sing " (^a
ira/" (" It will go!"), for, after all, it is but the revolu-
tionary equivalent of that old cry of the Crusaders, —

" God wills rr ! "

RECENT FRENCH WORKS ON DANTON.

Notes de Topifio-Lebriin, a juror of the Revolutionary Tribunal
of Paris, on the trial of Danton and of Fouquier-Tinville, published
by J.-F.-F. Chardoillet; pamphlet, 8vo. Paris, J. Baudet, 1875.

PriiicipaKX ei'encvieiits pour et contrc la Rhiohction et pridictioit de
Danton an tribunal revolutionnaire, accomplie, by Vilain d'Aubigny ;
pamphlet, 8vo. Paris, the year III.

Vinalite de Danton, by Eugene Despois ; " Revue de Paris," issue
of July I, 1857.

Ilistoire de la Revobition fran^aise, by NICOLAS VlLLAUM^ ; 4 vols.;
Svo. Paris, 1850.

Danton, documents authentiques pour servir a Vhistoire de la Revolu-
tion fran^aise, by Alfred Bougeart; i vol., Svo. Paris, 1861.

Danton, memoire sur sa vie privee, avec pikes justijicatives, by Dr.
Roiunet; I vol., Svo. Paris, 1884.

Danton et Victor Hugo : attx 100,000 Iccteurs de " Quati-e-vingt-
Treise," by " un Vieux Cordelier ;" pamphlet, i2mo. Paris, 1877.

Le prods dcs Dantonistes, d'apres les documents, precede d'une in-
troduction historique, by Dr. RoBlNET; i8mo. Paris, 1879.

(Euvres de Danton, recueillies et annotes by A. Vermorel; i2mo.
Paris, 1866.

Les Eleutheromanes,\>^ DiDEROT (Danton and the Encyclopedisles) ;
I vol., 32mo. Paris, Ghio, 1884.

Da}tton,hY Georges Lennox; i vol., i2mo. Sandoz and Fisch-
bacher, Paris, 1878. [A popular history, but no new facts.]

Ca?nille Desmoulins, Lucile Desmoulins, Etude sur les Dantonistes
d^apris des documents 7iouveaux et inedits, by J. Claretie ; Svo.
Paris, Plon, 1875.

Danton et la politique contefnporaitie, byANTONiN DuBOST; i vol.,
l2mo. Charpentier, Paris, 1880.

253

254 F:ECENT FRENCH WORKS ON D ANTON.

Danton et les massacres dc scptcnibre, by Antonin Dubost; pam-
phlet, 8vo. Paris, Charavay, 1S85.

N^otes siir Vcloqiience de Danton, by F. A. AuLARD, Professor of
Rhetoric ; 8vo. Paris, Charavay, 1882.

Les gra7ids Fran^ais, Danton ; by F. A. AULARD; pamphlet, i2mo.
Paris, Picard-Bernheim.

La philosophie positive, by AUGUSTE CoMTE, tom. vi. Paris, Bache-
lier, 1842.

La politique positive, by AuGUSTE COMTE, tom. iii., dynamique so-
ciale. Dunod, 1854.

La Revolution fran^aise, iy8g-i8ij, by M. Pierre Laffitte ; i vol.
32mo. Paris, 1868.
Consult also :

Lundis Nevohitionnaires, by Georges Avenel ; 8vo. Paris, Ernest
Leroux, 1875.

La Revobition fran^aise, a monthly review edited by August
DiDE, senator; started in 18S0.

NDEX.

Abolition of slavery by the
Jacobins, 171.

Absolute government instituted, 129.

Administration of things, 243.

Aiguillon, Duke d', 43.

Alison, Sir Archibald, 7.

Amalgamation of regulars and volun-
teers, 133.

Anarchists, successors of the Hebert-
ists, 177, 178, 179; Anarchism, co-
quetting with, 241.

Anglomania, 20; 31.

Anglo-Saxon Collectivism, 241, 250.

Antiquity, why the love of the revo-
lutionists for, 23.

April 5, 1794, 193.

Assembly, National. See National
Assembly.

Assignats, 71 ; 151; 155; 215.

Association-Farming, 230.

Association, growing, 239.

Atheism a fruit of generosity, 23,204.

Aug, 4, 1789,42.

Aug. 10, 1792, 73 ; anniversary of.

Authority, rightful, 12.

BaBEUF'S conspiracy, 217.

Bailly, 34; 41 ; 62 ; 180.

Bank of France founded, 218.

Barentin, 28.

Bastille, 27; 41; anniversary of, 49,

50.
Beccaria, 29.

Rillaud-Varennes, 92; 93; 176; 179;

iSo; guilty of Danton's irvrder,

1 89 ; repents, 19, 51.
Blanc, Louis, 12; 30; 156; 198.
Board-schools, 233.
Bonaparte, 76 ; roots the Revolution,

217.
Bouchotte, 133 ; circular about wooden

shoes, 134.
Bourgeoisie, deeds of the French, 63;

the worst of any, 221, 244, 245.
Bourse closed, 161 ; re-opened, 214.
Bright, John, 234.
Brisbane, 251.
Brumaire 18, 217.
Brunswick's manifesto, 71.
Bureaus of Statistics of Labor, 156;

234-
Burke, Thomas, 213.
Butterflies, evolution in, 237.

^A IRA, 6, 36, 42, 76, 213.

Cahiers, 32.

Caird, Professor, 247.

Calendar, the new, 172.

Cambaceres, 169, 170, 171.

Cambon, 97, 150.

Capacity, 239.

Careers open to talent, 219.

Carlyle, 9; 12 ; 13; 63; 66; 147; 210.

Carmagnole, the, 130.

Carnot the revolutionary Von Moltke.

133. 134, 191-

Catastrophe, 225, 240, 241.

^55

>S6

INDEX.

Centre, the, 94.

Chamberlain, 248.

Champ de Mars, massacre on, 62.

Charles I., 15, 16, 37.

Charpentier, Mademoiselle, 27.

Chartist party, why it failed, 220.

Chaumette, 57, 181.

Children concerning the collectivity

more than the parents, 166, 233.
Chinese fable, 54.

Choice spirits from all classes, 249, 250.
Christianity, 10; anti-social, 212.
Church property, 53.
Church vs. the State, 232.
Citizens, "active" and "passive," 56.
Class movement, how far Collectivism

is a, 250.
Cloots, Baron de, 57, 58, 93, 95.
Club of Cordeliers, 28 ; 56 ; 66 ; of

Jacobins, 58.
Code, 169.
Colbert, 30.

Collectivists, 238, 244, 245, 246.
Collectivity, 242.
Committee on Clemency, 184 ; of

Public Welfare instituted, 114; 131 ;

143, 144 ; giving power back to Con-
vention, 209.
Commonwealth of mankind, 211.
Commune of Paris, 62 ; 244.
Communism a failure, 217.
Competent, 147 ; 243.
Competition, 156; 223, 225.
Comte, Auguste, 3; 216.
Condorcet, appreciation of Danton,

78; 143; 145; 150 ; appreciation of

Robespierre, 207.
Confidence of the people, 48, 49.
Conspiracy by King and Queen, 71.
Constituent Assembly. See National

Assembly.
Constitution, British, 20; 39; 54;

French, of '91, 54; of '93, 143; of

'95, 214.

Constitutional Convention of United
States, 54.

Contractors, no; 114; 214.

Convention, the National, under Gi-
rondin rule, 96 ; 100 ; under Jacobirr
rule, and influenced by Danton, 126,
132, 136, 140; 142, 143. '46, 148.
149. 150. 15I) »55> 157. 162, 163,
166, 167, 168, 169, 171, 172, 173,
175 ; under Jacobin rule, an4 influ-
enced by Hebert and Robespierre,
179, iSo, 192, 20S, 2og ; once more
under plutocratic rule, 214; dis-
solves, 215.

Co-operation, growth in, 14; social,

243-
Co-operative Commonwealth, 4, 244.
Co-operative farming, 230.
Co-operative stores, 229.
Cordelier., the Old, 185.
Counter-Revolution, 37; 39; 40; 156,

157-

Countess of Lichtcnau, S7.

Country, our, a link joining us to
humanity, 124.

Crash, of feudal system, 42 ; of pres-
ent system, 225, 240, 250.

Cremieux, 244.

Crisis, 225.

Critical periods, 14.

Cruelty in Parisians, 90, 180, iS6-

Dans le Neant, 204.

Danton, Georges Jacques, the atlas
of the Revolution, 4 ; his kind to
br encouraged, 6 ; his youth, 25,
2 ' , 27, 28, 29 ; enters the Revolu-
tion Oct. 6, 1789, 48; as agitator,
56; keeps the King by force from
St. Cloud, 59 ; as the first republi-
can, 60 ; goes to England, 63 ; the
leader of Aug. 10, 73 ; addresses
the Marseillais, 76 ; becomes minis-
ter, 78 ; organizes opposition to in-

INDEX.

257

vasion, Si ; domiciliary visits, 82 ;
infusing self-confidence, 85 ; bribes
the Countess of Lichtenau, 87;
France out of danger, SS ; guiltless
of September massacre, 89 ; de-
spises Marat, 93 ; a member of
Convention, 94; goes to Belgium
first time, 96 ; goes to Belgium sec-
ond time, loi ; addresses Convention
on crisis in Belgium, 104 ; on in-
vading Holland, 105 ; on Revolution-
ary Tribunal, 107 ; goes to Belgium
the third time, 112; address on
Committee of Public Welfare, 114;
" do not mutilate the Convention,"
117 ; directs the insurrection of May
31, 118; as a statesman, 119; re-
verses the war policy, 121 ; combats
Federalism, 123; his own policy,
125 ; eulogizes Paris, 126; institutes
the Absolute Government, 123; the
levy en masse, 131 ; his resignation,
136; as a politico-economist, 150;
a uniform maximum, 153 ; liberates
debtors, 157; land for maimed sol-
diers, 160; the Law of Forty Sous,
161, 202; on education, 164; in
favor of compulsory education, 166 ;
on the clergy, 169 ; on woman's
right to property, 171 ; abolition of
slavery, 171 ; opportunism, 173 ; his
hopes, 176 ; as to the " Law of Sus-
pects," 179 ; hatred of Hebert, 180 ;
leave of absence, 181 ; at his home,
182; pity, 183; last address, 186;
sayings, 191; trial, 192; on the
cart, 193; on the scaffold, 194; dis-
interested, 196 ; if married to Mad-
ame Roland, 200 ; as a rhetorician,
200 ; on religion, 204 ; his work fin-
ished by Bonaparte, 218 ; what might
have been, 219, 220.

Danton, Madame, 76; 103; 200.

Darkness and Dawn, 66.

David, bust of Marat, 127.
Decadies, 172.
Democracy, 114; true, 243.
Desmouhns, Camille, 57 ; 93 ; demands

clemency, 183; 185, 194.
Desmoulins, Lucile, 74; 194; 206.
Diderot, 21 ; 22 ; his atheism, 23,

204.
Directory, all regicides, 215.
Discontent, 237; 251.
Distribution in the future, 230.
Domiciliary visits, 82.
Drama of history, 13; 14; 15; 242;

243-
Drumont, Edouard, 221 ; 244.
Dumouriez, 71 ; 81 ; SS ; 96; 103 ; 105 ;

112 ; his excuse, 113.
Duport, Adrian, 91.
Duty, I ; 250.

EdGEWORTH, Abbe, 97.

Educated minds, 250.

Education, introduced by Jacobins,
164; as a step of evolution, 233.

Egalite, Philip, 60, 93, 180.

Eliot, George, 205.

Encyclopjedia, 21, 22, 23, 29.

Emerson, 9.

Emigration, 42.

Episode, 213.

Equality, before the law, 53 ; Robes-
pierre's shibboleth, 210; true, 211.

Evolution, in history, 13 ; to be obeyed,
215; destructive, 240; construc-
tive, 241.

Exchange, closed, 161 ; re-opened,
214.

Fabre D'EGLANTINE, 57, 93,

171, 187.
Factory Acts, 233.
Faith, 252.
Famine, 214.
Federalism, 123.

■58

INDEX.

P'estival, of the Federation, 49, 50 ;

of Aug. 10, 131 ; of "the Supreme

Being," 208.
Foreign markets, 225.
Fox, 107.

Fraternity, 12, 141, 157.
Free competition, 52; untrammelled,

214.
Freedom, 7.
French language made universal by

Jacobins, 166.
Freron, 57.
Friendship, true, 251.
Fructidor, 215.

GaRAT, 116; iiS; 180.

Garrison, 43.

Gazette de France, 98.

Genius, 211.

George, Henry, 175.

German Collectivism, 240.

Gide, Professor Charles, 225.

Girondins, 70; 94; 115; first " muti-
lating " the Convention, 117; sus-
pended, 118; 127; 144; 146; 148,
177, 178 ; 180 ; return to power,
213.

Gladstone, 10, 247.

God, 204.

"God's mysterious text," 142, 175.

" God wills it," 252.

Godin, 160, 175.

Golden Age, the, 251.

Graham, Cunningham, 248.

Great Ledger, the, 163.

Guaranties, constitutional, of robberies,
215, 218, 219.

Guesde, Jules, 245.

Guilds, 22 ; abolished, 30, 44.

Handwriting on the waii,
223.

Hatred of French working classes for
bourgeoisie, 69 ; 1 74 ; 220 ; 246.

Hebert, his kind to be repressed, 6:57;
59; 68; 121; 169; 170; Hebertism,
176, 177, 178, 179, iSo, 181; 1S5;
186.

Hebrew example, iS.

Herault de Sechelles, 93; 118; 131;

139; 187; 193; 194-
Herbert, Auberon, 178.
Hero-worship, 210.
History, what it is, 11. \

Hoche, Gen., 215; 217.
Hugo, Victor, i ; 140; 142; his novel

Ninety-Three, 196; 238.
Humanity, 124; 144.
Hyde Park demonstration, 246.
Hypothesis, 3; 4.
Hysterics, 72 ; "jt,; 89.

Immortality, 205.

Incorruptible, the, 206.
Individualism, 44 ; 226.
Insurance companies, 230.
Interest legalized, 52.
Interstate Commerce Act, 234.
Invasion, "Ji, 88.

Jacobin club, 58; convention.

See National Convention.
James, Henry, sen., 12.
Jews of France, 221, 244.
Johnson, Dr., 211.
Jones, Lloyd, 230.
June 17, 17S9, 34.
June 2, 1793, "8.

July 14, 17S9, 41 ; anniversary of, 49.
July 28, 1794, 209.

King, a, is he necessary, 60.
Krapotkin, Pierre, 181.

Lafayette, 62, 79, 197, 199.

Land, land, 214.
Lavoisier, 210.
Law, 12.

INDEX.

259

Leaders, 73, 74; 138. See also 211.

Ledger, the Great, 163.

Legendre, 57, 192.

Legion of Honor, 217.

Legislative Body, 70, 91, 93.

Leisure for all, 243.

Lepelletier, 99 ; loi ; 164.

Liberty, 7, 8,9, 12, 45; Desmoulins

on, 184.
Life, the true, 251.
Lindet, Robert, 191.
Locke, 1 8, 24.
Lotteries, 214.
Louis XVL, 26 ; 30 ; 41 ; 47 ; 59 ; 60,

63 ; conspiracy by, 71, ']'] ; executed,

97.
Louis XVin., 215, 218.
Louis Philippe, 219, 220.

Maimed soldiers, i6o.

Mallet du Pan, 72.
Mallock, William H., 271.
Malon, Benoit, 245.
Malouet, 46.
Mandat, 75, 76.

Marat, his kind to be repressed, 6157;
63 ; 78 ; 88 ; his portrait by himself,

92,93; "3i 117; 127-

Marcy, 71.

Marseillais, 74.

Marx, Karl, 240; 244.

Massacre, on Champ de Mars, 62 ;
September, 89.

Maximum, 151.

May 31, 1793, US-
May 5, 1789, 33.

Mazzini, 9, 12.

Metrical system, 171.

Middle classes generally, 63 ; 64 ; 65
174.

Middle classes of Great Britain, 38;
of France, 31 ; 35, 36, 45; indict-
ment against, 63 ; their crimes, 67 ;
hating the working-classes, 69.

Michel, Louise, 226.

Milliard, a, for soldiers, 163.

Mines, 218.

Mirabeau, new letter of, 31 ; 34 ; 35 ;

42; 53; 59; 77; 127; 19S; 199.
Modesty of the people, 40, 141.
Momoro, 57.

Montesquieu, 19, 20, 54, 214.
" Moralizing " our plutocrats, 216.
Morley, John, 2, 7, 10.
Morris, William, 205, 248.
Most, John, 177, 1 78.
Municipalization of land, 234.

Napoleonic ideas, 218.

Narrower fanatics, 176.

Nation, 242.

National Assembly, 34, 35, 51, 63.

National estates, 66, 67, 214.

" Neant, dans le," 204.

New Social Order, 236 ; 242 ; 244.

" Nothingness," 204.

Nov. 9, 1799,217.

Oct. 6, 1789, 48.
Octroi, 21.
Opportunism, 173.
Organic periods, 13, 14, 15.
Organization, 251.
Over-production, 224.

Paine, Thomas, 88, 93, 192.

Paris, 48.

Paris, the Dantonist, 191, 192.

Parliamentary system, 55.

Peasants benefited, 45.

Peltier, 82 ; 157.

Philanthropists, 238.

Plutocrats, grasp supreme power, 35 ;

suspended, 119; return to power,

213 ; 219.
Political power needful, 35.
Polytechnic School, 167.

26o

INDEX.

Poor-law, framed by the Jacobins,
157 ; except that, none in France,
222.

Positivist, 3 ; 226.

Post-office, 232.

Power behind Evolution, 11; 142;
205 ; 232 ; 237 ; 238 ; 249 ; 250 ; 252.

Prairial, law of, 208.

Press, the use of the, 251.

Private enterprise, 174.

Production in the future, 229.

Property, sanction of, 54, 149.

Public debts, 222, 223.

Pym, John, 16.

Queen, the, 36 ; 40 ; 42; 71 ; 180.
Quinet, Edgar, 2, 8, 45.

Race between constructive and
destructive tendencies, 241.

Railway system, control of, by tlie
State, 234.

Revenge, 214.

Revolution, the, 10, 14, 19, 40 ; the
Coming, 17, 19, 129, 236; constitu-
tionally accomplished, 248 ; the
English, 15, 16, 18 ; 38 ; the French,
a failure or success, 7, 8, 9, 10; 15,
29 ; born, 34 ; the mental, 25 ; 238.

Revolutionary government. See Ab-
solute Govertimcnt.

Revolutionary Tribunal, 107.

Ricordain, 26.

Riz-pain-sel, 214.

Robert, 57; 62; 93; 122; Madame,

74-

Robespierre, Maximilian, his kind to
be repressed, 6; royalist, 61; 78;
93 ; 113 ; 164 ; 185 ; 188 ; 190 ; 205,
206 ; appreciation by Condorcet,
207; 208; his " Equality," 210.

Robinc't, Dr., 3, 196.

Rochcfort, 245.

Rogers, Professor Thorold, 66.

Roland, 85, 91 ; Madame, 28 ; " Queen
of France," 80; 117; 180 •, iSi ;
1S2 ; 197 ; 200.

Rouget de Lisle, 145.

Rousseau, 23, 24, 25.

Rousselin de Saint-Albin, 200 ; 220.

Ruhl, 186; 187; 191.

Russia, campaign against, 219-, plu-
tocracy of, 244.

SaINT-SIMON the historian, 31;

the Collectivist, 13, 157; Saint-

Simonism, 239.
Saint-Just, 191 ; 210.
Sans-culotte, 57; armies, 217.
Santerre, 76.
Secrecy, 156.
Selfishness of our plutocrats, 65, 66,

222, 223, 226.
Senate, United States, 55.
Shaftesbury, Lord, 234.
Sieyes, 16, 34, 46, 47.
" Silences, Eternal," 12.
Smyth, Professor William, 7.
Social Contract, 28.
Social co-operation, 243.
Socialism, 246, 247.
Speculators, 162 ; their orgies, 214.
Spencer, Herbert, 13 ; 178 ; 235 ; 236 ;

238; 248.
Spirit of Laws, 19, 20.
Standard Oil Company, 22S, 229.
State, 232.

States-Geneial, 31, 32, 33.
Stationary condition of tlic race, or

nearly so, the rule, 13.
Statute of Philip and Mary, 16.
Sundays, no, 177.
Supreme Spirit (Supreme Will), 12,

239, 252.
Suspects, 176, 179.
Suspicion, 77, 113; Danton trying to

allay, 108.
1 Swiss, massacre of, 77.

INDEX.

261

Sympathy, longing for, 236, 249.
Syndical Chambers in France, 23.

Tableau of maximum, 155.

Telegraph system, i^Z-

Tendencies in society, unconscious,

229, 232, 241 ; conscious, 236.
Terror, Red, 17,39,40, 176; White,

214.
Tithes abolished, 46, 47.
Trades-unions, 231.
Transition state, 15, 20; 213.
Trusts, 228.
Tuileries, storming of, 76, "]"] ; the

Convention holding its sessions in,

126.
Turgot, 30.

Unfitness of our plutocrats for

social rule, 226.
Unity of the State, 53, 124.

Valmy, %^.

Vendeans, 79 ; Danton pleading for.

Voltaire, 21.
Volunteers, 109.

Wage-system as viewed by the

Jacobins, 149 ; first upbuilding and

then undermining our social system,

223, 225.
War, American, 31 ; of propaganda,

94; policy reversed, 121, 122.
Wealth of Nations, 29, 30.
Weights and measures, made uniform

by National Assembly, 52; metrical

system introduced by the National

Convention, 171.
Westermann, 74, 76.
What might have been, 219.
Whigs the allies of Danton, 107, 120.
Wicliffe, 18.
Women's (married) right of property,

171.
Wooden shoes, circular recommend-

i"g, 134-

Young men and women, i ; 251.
Young, a pity that all the revolution-
ary actors were, 209.

AUG 1987

DATE DUE

Gronlund, Laurence, .

1899.
Ca ii^a-'

■mM-fdm