Part 13
Twelve years ago the Garde Meuble was one of the principal curiosities which attracted the attention of foreigners. The apartments were filled with ancient armoury, national and foreign, rare tapestries, after the cartoons and designs of Dürer, Lucas of Leyden, Julius Romano, Raphael, le Brun and Coypel; precious vases, presents from ambassadors, jewels, pearls, diamonds, and a multitude of other rich and valuable articles. In the month of September 1792, a band of thieves broke into the halls and carried off a great quantity of these riches, among other things the Pitt diamond, the largest belonging to the Crown. However, there are still some precious antiques remaining, such as the sword of Henry IV., the spontoon of Paul V., and the polished armour worn by Francis I. at the Battle of Pavia, with which on the day of the capture of the Bastille a cobbler of the Faubourg St. Antoine, then on guard, completely caparisoned himself, to the utter astonishment of the spectators. The exterior of this vast edifice has not suffered by the blows of the Revolution. It is not yet decided to what purpose the Government intend to convert it.
XXVI
THE CONSERVATORY OF ARTS AND MACHINES
THE ravages of the Revolution completely laid waste the whole of France intellectually, as well as morally, and the labours of eminent artists and inventors were either suspended or transferred to foreign countries.
The murderers of Lavoisier could scarcely be expected to patronise either arts or useful sciences.
In the short space of ten years more injury has been done to the useful arts in France than by all the Alarics and Omars of antiquity.
However, the Revolutionists had not proceeded very far in the route of devastation, when a few enlightened men, who perceived the extent of the mischief threatened to be entailed upon posterity, courageously opposed their further progress, and adopted the most provident precautions to stop the fury of the evil.
Through the indefatigable exertions of Bishop Grégoire the National Convention on October 11, 1794, decreed the establishment of a Conservatory of Arts, whose object was to collect machines, utensils, designs, descriptions and experiments, relating to the improvement of industry, so as to diffuse some knowledge of them throughout the Republic.
But it was one thing to decree and another to execute. By a studied remissness the law was suspended for three years. National edifices were granted by dint of favour to useless projectors, but the Conservatory of Arts could find no place to display its riches and means of instruction. At length a decree, passed on May 7, appropriated a portion of the former Abbey of St. Martin des Champs to this object, and the inadequate sum of 56,000 livres, or £2240 sterling, was voted for the reparations of the building, the purchase of the land and the indemnity accorded to the renter.
[Sidenote: CONSERVATOIRE D’ARTS]
Thus finally organised, the Conservatory of Arts presents a splendid accumulation of useful machines, always open for the inspection and improvement of the public. The machines, which Pajot d’Ozemberg gave to the ancient Academy of Sciences, and the greater part of the beautiful models which composed the celebrated gallery of mechanical arts belonging to the late Duke of Orleans, are now in this Conservatory. Also the 500 machines bequeathed to the Government by the celebrated Vaucouson, to whom the French nation is as much indebted as to Olivier des Serres and Bernard Palissy.
In addition to these collections there is an infinite number of machines relative to agricultural labours, such as draining, irrigation, preparation of oil, &c.
The Conservatory also contains machines for twisting tobacco, taken from on board an English vessel, as well as a very important chart of North America, executed by order of our Government. It has been greatly enriched by the “_discoveries_” of certain French savans, those learned robbers of the National Institute who followed the victorious march of the Republican armies in Holland and Italy. Whole waggon loads of instruments of science have been filched from their proprietors and transmitted to this National reservoir by those industrious, indefatigable and erudite thieves, Citizens Thonin, Fanjos, Leblond, Bertholet, Barthélémy, Monge, Moitte and De Wailly.
The object of the Conservatory is not only to secure to the public the knowledge of those inventions for which the Government has conferred rewards or granted patents, but also to become the common depot of all inventions. Thus it is for the useful arts what the Louvre is for sculpture or painting.
Upon the whole this Conservatoire d’Arts is one of the most beneficial and laudable establishments in France. It has a direct tendency to encourage industry and stimulate genius. Some persons who have not sufficiently examined the matter object to it on the plea, that by rendering handicrafts more simple by mechanical force, a multitude of workmen will be deprived of the means of subsistence.
Such arguments were used by the watermen of London when Westminster Bridge was built.
But the world possesses more scope for labour than it possesses hands, and the powers of mechanism by simplifying the process of manufacture also diminish the price of the article, bringing it thereby into general circulation and opening a more lucrative commerce to a nation by underselling the produce of foreign countries and so putting an end to all competition.
The true principle of public economy begins to be studied in every part of Europe, and we are making a slow but certain progress in improvement.
But if the rash spirit of innovation takes possession of the minds of those who govern mankind, if they will insist on bringing all things within a punctilious system of rules, they must not be surprised if their fondness for precision should terminate in a similar anarchy to that which has oppressed and ruined France.
XXVII
THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE
The decay of letters and philosophy during the progress of the French Revolution placed the French under the necessity of establishing some measures to restore the cultivation of science and literature. Thus the National Institute was eventually formed. The old Academies had been completely destroyed, their members banished, murdered, or dispersed.
[Sidenote: THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE]
The National Institute is designed to remedy this evil by once more collecting together the genius, talents and industry of France, and it belongs to the whole Republic and is fixed at Paris. It is composed of _one hundred and forty-four members resident in the capital_, and 144 Associates, taken from different parts of the Republic, together with 24 learned foreigners. Every preference in this arrangement is manifestly given to Paris, at the expense of the Departments.
The Departments, containing a majority of 30 to 1 compared with the metropolis, are never expected to produce more great men collectively than the latter. This is absurd, for every one knows that under the old Monarchy there were men scattered over the provinces often equal and in many instances far superior to the members of the Parisian Academies.
Montesquieu[1] was a member of the Academy of Bordeaux in 1716, and it was not till the year 1728 that he was admitted into the Académie Française. Indeed, an admittance into that famous society was often no evidence of supereminent merit. Genius had to contest against cabal, intrigue and Court favour; so that the _literati_ of Europe looked for great and estimable men in other Academies of France, such as Aix, Marseilles, Lyons, Bordeaux, &c.
The pre-eminence thus accorded to the Parisian _savans_, who are in general a gang of the vilest ruffians in the world, is a marked insult to the rest of the Republic, and proves that to rule France it is only necessary to be master at Paris. For the sake of this city, France, as well as foreign countries, has been laid under contribution and pillaged of whatever transportable monuments of art and genius they possessed. Had it been possible, the triumphal arch at Orange, the bridge of Gard, the amphitheatre at Nismes would have been removed here to gratify the fancy of the Parisian rabble of philosophers and legislators.
The law by which the learned men of a single city were placed on a level with those who people the whole of a vast country was made by the very men who afterwards became self-elected members of this _miscalled_ National Institute. It is no trivial matter to be one of the 144 resident in Paris. It leads to fame and fortune, to places and appointments, and it is the highest step on the ladder of philosophical ambition.
To return to the laws of the Institute, it is divided into three classes:
FIRST CLASS.--_Physical and Mathematical Sciences._
(1) Mathematics, (2) mechanical arts, (3) astronomy, (4) experimental physics, (5) chemistry, (6) natural history, (7) botany, (8) anatomy and zoology, (9) medicine and surgery, (10) rural economy and veterinary art.
SECOND CLASS.--_Moral and Political Sciences._
(1) Analysis of sensations and ideas, (2) morals or moral philosophy, (3) social science and legislation, (4) political economy, (5) history, (6) geography.
It will be observed that in this class there is no section for despised theology, which surely should have a foremost place therein.
THIRD CLASS.--_Literature and the Fine Arts._
(1) Grammar, (2) ancient languages, (3) poetry, (4) antiquities and monuments, (5) painting, (6) sculpture, (7) architecture, (8) music and declamation.
When the National Institute was about to be established a law was enacted (3rd Brumaire, year 4) by which the Directory were authorised to provide salaries for each member, and the five members of the Executive Directory were empowered to nominate the first 48 members, who _thus_ elected had power to choose the remaining 144 Associates.
In nominating the first 48, the Directors first elected each other, then their friends, and those friends nominated other friends in Paris and the Departments.
Every class of the Institute assembles twice in each decade; the assemblies are private, but each member is allowed to introduce a visitor.
The secretaries of each class assemble once a year to prepare a report of its labours, which is presented to the Institute, and whose president then writes to the Minister of the Interior to know when it shall please his consular majesty to give admission to his sacred person in order that they may present it.
[Sidenote: RULES OF NATIONAL INSTITUTE]
When that gala day arrives, the members of the Institute appear with clean shirts, dressed in their grand uniform, and neatly shaved. The First Consul receives them, habited in all his paraphernalia, and as gorgeously attired as any Emperor or King in Europe. Every member of the Institute receives 1600 livres (£60 sterling) per annum. Every member has a silver medal with the head of Minerva on one side and his name on the other, which serves as his passport into every place in which the Institute is concerned. The First Consul, who is so fond of stage effect that he will not allow an assembly of grave philosophers to think and act without a uniform, was graciously pleased to command one for the members of the Institute. The State dress consists of a black satin coat, waistcoat, and breeches, embroidered throughout with branches of olive in deep green silk, not _à la Française_.
The undress costume is similar, but only embroidered at the collar and cuffs. This regulation was signed and countersigned by the First Consul and the Minister of the Interior.
On the 5th Frimaire, year 10, the Institute decreed that on the death of a member the president, the senior of the two secretaries of each class, as well as the members of the section to which the deceased belonged, were, unless prevented by some unavoidable cause, to assist at his funeral. The procession departs from the National Palace of the Louvre at _noon precisely_, in order that the moment it arrives at the late residence of the deceased the funeral ceremony may immediately be despatched.
Formerly a hole was dug in the earth and the philosopher’s carcase quickly deposited therein, but since it has become the fashion to be a Christian the old service for the dead is to be revived. The Conservatory of Music are to execute a solemn dirge, and black crape is to be worn upon the left arm. An historical memoir of the deceased is to be made in the course of the year by the secretaries and read at a public sitting of the Institute, when the family of the dead member are to be seated in a distinguished place. The precision with which all these ceremonies are minutely marked out leaves room for regret that it has not been mentioned at what signal from the president the assembly shall begin to cry.
I ought, perhaps, to give a list of the members of this Institute, with details of their characters previous to and since the Revolution, and their respective claims to literary pre-eminence. Such a narrative would be interesting, as the greater part of them have rendered themselves less conspicuous in the world of letters than in taking a very active part in some of the most bloody tragedies of the Republic.
For instance: Bonaparte, Carnot,[1] Mouge,[1] le Blond,[1] Berthelet,[1] Foucroy,[1] Revellière,[1] Lepoux,[1] Cambacères, Merlin,[1] Talleyrand,[1] Roederer,[1] François de Neufchâteau, Chenier,[1] Thonin,[1] Mouette,[1] have all been known for their assassinations, robberies and atrocious crimes. Foucroy was the cause, for instance, of the murder of the immortal Lavoisier. All these ruffians and others space prevents my naming, furnish abundant matter for inquiry and reflection, but it is impossible to include such a length of biographies in a letter; but before I leave Paris I intend to procure sufficient authentic documents by which upon my return (should I escape in safety from the tyrant’s grasp) I shall be then enabled to drag these philosophical murderers and thieves out of their National Palace, strip them of their silken disguises, and expose them in all their naked deformity to the execration of mankind.
In vain do they flatter themselves that by the arts of a meretricious rhetoric they elude the vigilant pursuit of injured innocence and affronted justice, in vain do they suppose that they shall court foreign applause by associating with the learned of other countries. It is a disgrace and a dishonour to be favoured by the National Institute where a band of sanguinary ruffians pollute the halls consecrated to learning, science and wisdom. Whoever lives under a government where religion, morals and public freedom are revered, ought to reject their silver medal and _procès verbal_, as he would cast away from him food contaminated with poison.
If it be an honour to be elected a member of a society, learned, indeed, but fundamentally vicious and depraved, why not petition to be admitted to the Palace of Pandemonium?
The devils in hell are fully as knowing as the members of the Institute, and, for ought I know, not done greater evil to mankind. They are the fittest colleagues for such men, and not the upright and pensive cultivators of science and literature.
XXVIII
THE CENTRAL MUSÉE DES ARTS. THE GALLERY OF THE LOUVRE.
[Sidenote: MUSEUM OF THE LOUVRE]
When the French Republicans first took up arms, they protested to the world that they fought not for conquest, but to spread their beneficent doctrines of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity, and that wherever their victorious standards were spread, the liberty and property of nations should be respected. Their first campaigns were directed against their warlike neighbours who hovered round their frontiers; and when they succeeded in repelling the veteran troops of the continental Powers, they began a career of robbery, pillage, rapine and destruction, which has no parallel in the history of disciplined nations, nor even in that of predatory hordes of barbarians.
The principle on which the robberies of the French have been conducted has been to _aggrandise_ France by the utter _impoverishment_ of other countries.
After having demolished the monuments of the genius and industry of their own countrymen, they went forth to ransack other countries, and destroyed all they could not carry away with them. Whatever had been raised by the talents, the piety or the care of the lovers of science, arts and literature, became the object of their vandalism or their peculation. Their policy had no element but to divide in order to conquer, and so arrive at universal domination by universal confusion. Occupied constantly on the destruction of Europe in detail, they trampled under their feet Monarchies and Republics alike.
Every time I have paced along the galleries of the Louvre sentiments of hatred and indignation took possession of my breast. Amidst all the blaze of artistic beauty I never entered nor left without feelings of disgust.
I confess I received no gratification from all the Raphaels, Titians, and Correggios I saw there.
In their _proper places_ I could have gazed with transport upon these masterpieces, but I cannot look with pleasure on productions thus violently torn from their lawful owners.
Of all the countries which have been undone by French havock Italy has suffered the most, and its miseries are least known to the world. The French have literally exhausted upon that country the fecundity of rapine, cheating and fury. They have rendered themselves masters of its correspondence, and all we know now of the existence of that desolated country is through the frequent eruptions of a tyranny without remorse, of a powerless despair and of the accumulations of spoil which decorates the public exhibitions of Paris. The contributions of the French were nothing less than a general sack, the encyclopædia of their thefts forms a monument of curiosity.
[Sidenote: STOLEN PICTURES]
The barbarians who formerly overran Italy despised art, and neglected to take possession of such treasures. The fanatical Mussulman destroyed them as monuments of idolatry. But in our times Academicians, poets, orators, philosophers, members of the National Institute, have crossed the Alps to strip Italy of her talents, to force from her the labours of her children, the most sacred illustration of a people, a property which the laws of war among civilised nations has hitherto held to be inviolable until the present epoch, when a gang of savage sophists have replunged Italy into a darkness worse than any of the early ages of Europe.
Those who are ignorant of the methods by which a thief has realised an immense fortune may be forgiven for their admiration of his wealth and treasures, but the man who is acquainted with the villainy employed in such an accumulation is inexcusable should he lavish praises on objects in that thief’s possession. Therefore, with the knowledge that none of these pictures belong to France, and that they are all stolen goods acquired by fraud, injustice and murder, I could not coolly fix my eyes upon them nor repeat ecstacies of vulgar adulation.
No sooner have you entered the Gallery than you are presented with a catalogue of these paintings, in which the robbers do not blush to avow their robberies. The facetious rascals of the National Institute talk and write of the knavery with as much _sangfroid_ as they take a pinch of snuff.
The paintings are styled “Tableaux conquis en Italie, recueillis dans la Lombardie, à Bologne, Cento, Modêne, Parme, Plaisance, Rome, Venise, Vérone, Florence, Turin.”
With this register of pillage in your hand, you enter the Gallery containing the spoils of nations, and nearly every picture bears at the bottom an inscription declaring it to be a stolen article. Scarcely a page of the catalogue but contains such proclamations of theft as these: “Ces deux tableaux viennent de la Cathédrale de Plaisance, où ils pendoient aux deux coins du Sanctuaire. Ce tableau est tiré de la galerie de Turin. Ce tableau vient du Palais Pitti. Ce tableau est tiré du Palais Pontifical de Monte Cavallo à Rome. Ce tableau vient du Cabinet du ci-devant Roi de Sardaigne à Turin. Ce tableau, un des meilleurs qu’a produit Paolo Veronese, est tiré de l’église des Réligieuses de St. Zacharin à Venise. Ce tableau vient du maître autel de l’église de San Giorgio à Venise. Ce tableau est tiré de l’église de Santa Maria del Orto à Venise. Ce précieux et magnifique tableau que les artistes regardent comme un des chefs d’œuvres de Titian, le martyre de St. Pierre, vient de l’église San Giovanni e Paolo à Venise. Ce portrait vient du Palais du Prince Breschi à Rome.”
There is no end to this catalogue of iniquity, it fills at present three volumes, but much more will be added. I question if the Newgate Calendar for the last 100 years contains altogether a hundredth part of the impudent dexterity in the art of filching which the rogues of the National Institute present to us in these three little syllabuses of Republican iniquity.
Englishmen, happily shut out from the view of the sack of the continent by that sea which guards our honest little island, have no adequate idea of the indignant feelings of the wretched inhabitants of the wronged countries which the French armies have plundered. I have visited this gallery of paintings in company with some Italians of distinction; I perceived in their countenances a deep and fixed look of unutterable anguish and regret. Such a look that only the artists of Italy whose expatriated portraits hung around us could delineate.
May Heaven preserve our country from ever experiencing a similar stroke of humiliation and abasement! How should we Britons feel if one day in a later catalogue we read among these: “Notices sur plusieurs précieux tableaux recueillis par les Philosophes de l’Institut pour multiplier les jouissances du public. Ce tableau peint sur toile est tiré de l’autel de l’église cathédrale de Westminster. Ce vitre vient de King’s College à Cambridge. Ce tableau est tiré du Cabinet du ci-devant Roi d’Angleterre à Windsor. Ce tableau de Shakespeare vient de la bibliothèque de la librairie à Cambridge. Ce tableau de la mort du General Wolfe est tiré du cabinet de la ci-devant Reine d’Angleterre à Buckingham House. Cette statue vient du Cabinet de Milord Lansdowne. Ce tableau peint par Claude vient du cabinet de Milord Gwydir.”
Having expressed with candour what my sentiments have ever been when I visited the gallery of paintings in the Louvre, I now proceed to fulfil the important duty of an historian.
[Sidenote: MRS. COSWAY]
Mrs. Cosway, whose taste and skill are well known, is now occupied in copying all the paintings in the Gallery on a small scale, intending to execute later an enlarged account of them, together with the biography of their respective masters. She has already executed several compartments; and not all the fascinations of society nor the gaieties of the capital can allure her from the daily pursuit of the labour of her choice. I tell her the Gallery of the Louvre is her drawing-room, for when she is at work all the English gather around her. However, she loses no time, for she enters in conversation and paints also, and it is difficult to affirm in which she most excels.
The object of Mrs. Cosway is to represent, by etchings, all the pictures precisely as they are fixed in the Gallery. The Hon. Mr. E---- is struck with the undertaking, and he has appropriated a particular part of his house at H---- for the display of her works.