Part 9

The royalist party is strongest in the country, and the republican in the town. The most numerous class of inhabitants in the latter, the little housekeepers, find their importance increased, and their vanity flattered, by becoming members of clubs and political societies, and being admitted into municipal posts and honours. Doubtless, even in this part of France, which has long been regarded with a jealous eye by the government, the royalists are not equal in number to their formidable antagonists: they will, however, I am confident, fly to arms, if ever a favourable opportunity of attacking their oppressors be presented to them. Whenever I find myself (which sometimes happens) in a little knot of these good people, almost all of whom have either fathers, brothers, sons, husbands, or other near relations emigrated; and when I listen to the downfall of the convention, and hear them, by the restoration of a king, restore themselves to their forfeited honours and estates; it brings to my remembrance what passed, seventeen years ago, among the loyalists of Maryland, where I was then, as now, a prisoner of war. I hear similar fallacious calculations made, unsupported expectancies indulged, and ardent resolutions adopted, to end, I fear, in similar disappointment. The paper-money, divisions and mistrusts of parties, my own situation at both periods, and other circumstances, render the parallel very striking to me. To dash, with rude hand, the cup of consolation from the lips of these unfortunate people, were the extreme of cruelty; but when they appeal to me, by asking whether armies of Englishmen and emigrants may not be expected to execute their airy speculations, I cannot become a partner of the deceit, by administering to the delirium. Whatever might once be the opening presented to us for the attacking of France in her vitals, by a co-operation with the armies of La Vendée, that season is passed, never to return. To commence, at this declining period of the contest, such a system, were almost to proclaim, that while we believed it possible to subjugate France by a coalition of exterior force, we disdained to profit by the arms of Frenchmen, in a cause which we called their own. Besides, if a publication, which is stuck up in all parts of the town, dated the 1st of _Floreal_, at Rennes, and signed by ten representatives, and twenty-two _Chouan_ chiefs, with Caumartin at their head, may be believed, the Vendeans have made their peace, and submitted to the republic, after having for more than two years caused the most powerful diversion in favour of her external enemies. But this my friends here intreat me to despise; and, when I point out to them its marks of authenticity, assure me, that Charette will never lay down his arms, but on the condition of royalty being re-instated; that he is only temporizing, and will soon break out stronger than ever. I listen in silence, and know not which way to turn my faith.----What shall I say of this extraordinary character, Charette! who, whatever be his future intentions, has hitherto, certainly, displayed extraordinary powers of mind, and Antæus-like arisen fresh from every fall. I am acquainted with two people who personally know him, and describe his talents, courage, and perseverance, in terms of enthusiastic admiration. The French do not scruple to affirm (but here I suspect their love of exaggeration, not unmixed with national vanity, to preponderate) that the war of La Vendée has cost to the republic more men than all her foreign conflicts united. If, instead of men, perplexity and vexation were substituted, the account would be more credible.

The proclamation which announces a conclusion of the war of La Vendée is not the only one, which strikes at this moment the public eye, in Quimper. His Prussian Majesty, Frederic William, our good and faithful ally, has, we are told, also made his peace with the republic. When I recollect his threatening bombastic language, and the mighty irruption made into Champagne, not quite three years ago, by this pigmy in the shoes of a giant, I can compare him to nothing but the month (April) I write in, which is said to come in like a lion and go out like a lamb. The French themselves cannot help adverting to his former menaces, and sneering at them, when compared with his present meekness and tender concern for the effusion of human blood. The preamble of the proclamation states, that, “in Pilnitz, a part of his Prussian Majesty’s dominions, the first partitioning treaty of the territory of France was executed. That now the republic has demonstrated to kings and ministers, that she is not only victorious but invincible, she will prove to them that she is generous, and willing to grant peace, upon terms consisting with her dignity, to all her enemies. And, that henceforth the stability of her government, not only to conclude, but to guarantee, treaties and alliances, ought not to be doubted, &c. &c.”----A peace with Spain, likewise, is reported to be in great forwardness; so that it is probable, before the end of this year, England alone will have the contest to maintain; and well, I trust, it will be maintained by our victorious fleet?

If then the coalition be on the point of its dissolution, and Charette has laid down his arms, either we must abandon the subjugation of France, or seek for other means to accomplish it, which, if they exist at all, are internal. Nothing can be more dazzling and imposing than the great success of the French against their foreign enemies, and the seeming ease with which the vast machine of the republican government moves; but this smooth exterior conceals a hollow and ulcerated inside. The numberless abuses subsisting in the multiplied public offices, which defy control or abolition; (what think you of its being asserted in the convention, that in the post-office department more than _thirty-nine thousand_ persons receive salaries?) the depreciation of _assignats_, which proceeds in a ratio continually increasing, a piece of money, which eight weeks since sold for 140 livres, now fetching 400; and, above all, the enormous public expenditure, which almost defies computation; are causes of the most serious alarm to the supporters of the revolution. The last of them, if not checked, must produce a national bankruptcy, and overturn this government, as it did the monarchy; but whether to give birth to a new form of democracy, or to the restoration of a king, who shall say!

By the report of the new financier, Johannot, made to the convention----

livres The national expence of the month of _Nivose_ last was 23,374,450 - or - £.18,522,632

The receipt of taxes in the same month was 57,168,733 - or - 2,501,132 ---------- ----------- Excess of expenditure, rejecting shillings and pence, and reckoning a livre at 10½_d._b 366,205,717 - or - £.16,021,500 ----------- ------------

In the succeeding month, _Pluviose_, the difference was still more enormous: it exceeded the receipt by 443,164,244 livres, or £.19,388,435. “The trappings of royalty” would poorly keep pace with this unprecedented profusion, which is hourly increasing, by the inevitable augmentation of salaries to all the public servants, both civil and military. The naval officers have had a considerable addition to their pay since I left Brest; and, as a signal to all beneath, the stipend of the members of the convention has been increased from eighteen to thirty-six livres a day.

I do not pretend to know the nature and extent of the present taxes; but I remember the favourite scheme of a heavy land-tax, in lieu of all others, was trumpeted forth at the commencement of the revolution, not that it dates its birth at so recent a period. Our principle of taxing consumption, they treated with great contempt; but I have reason to believe they will soon adopt it, as I have lately read a most spirited and ingenious attack on Cambon, and some of his predecessors, in which it is extolled. The most considerable of the present imposts is a duty of 20 _per cent._ on all lands and houses. This was calculated to produce 260 millions, and makes the annual value of landed property (including buildings) to be 1300 millions of livres. Let us suppose (dreadful supposition!) that a third part of this is sequestrated, and in the disposal of the government. Call this 440 millions; and farther, let us presume, that all these houses and lands will be sold at 25 years purchase (which, if the nature of a part of the property, and the fears of reclamation, particularly of the estates of the later emigrants, be considered, is perhaps too much) the amount will be 11 milliards. This is the calculation of the most sanguine of the French with whom I have conversed on the subject; and even this, terrifying as it is to compute or read, seems likely to be insufficient. Johannot reckons the national means at 15 milliards 226 millions, even after the allowances, which justice and humanity dictate, shall be deducted from them; and proposes to coin immediately 150 millions of copper, in order to afford support to the declining credit of _assignats_. I need not tell you, that I possess no _data_ to formally controvert this statement of the financier; but I beg leave to observe, that his whole report, which I have carefully read, is conceived in those sanguine and flattering terms, which appear to me to have sprung from a pre-concerted determination of exhibiting the favourable side of the picture, and keeping the people in good-humour. I have heard it publickly derided, and have been told that both its premises and conclusions are false. In addition to the allowance which he hints is to be made to the relations and creditors of emigrants, under certain restrictions, is to be placed a complete restitution of the properties of the Brissotine party, and all who suffered under the tyranny of Robespierre: at least such expectations have been holden out in the convention. He also states, that there are now eight milliards of _assignats_ in circulation, and that only three milliards more need be added to them. For the justness of this last declaration his word must be taken, as he does not tell us why he limits to this sum the future emission.----Query, How are the creditors of the old government to be considered, when the day of liquidation shall arrive? A lottery, it seems, is projected, of all the forfeited houses; and the scheme, at least here, appears to be relished.----There is yet another source of revenue, of a delicate nature, which I sometimes hear and read boasted of:----requisitions from the conquered countries; and confiscations of the church lands in the Austrian Netherlands.----How far these will be practicable to any great amount, I leave to you to determine. Remember, that the comparatively trifling levies, which have been already made upon the Belgians, are said to have rendered the French name odious in that country.

But little facts sometimes impress conviction on the mind, when a laboured detail has failed.----Until lately there were not any _assignats_ in circulation of more than two thousand livres each in value; but, on the petition of the army contractors, _assignats_ of ten thousand livres each have been fabricated, “in order to lessen the _expence of carriage_, which is become enormous.”----One of the Paris papers, two months ago, assigned as a reason for raising its price, the increasing value of paper, which was then 80 livres a ream. “How,” asks the editor, “can it be otherwise, when government, by contract, is every day supplied with six thousand reams for its consumption in printing off _assignats_!!”

All _assignats_ of the value of more than 100 livres, bearing the effigy of Louis XVI. were proscribed some time since, except in the purchasing of national domains. This was one of the last piratical manœuvres of Cambon, and was every way worthy of the financier or Robespierre. However it somewhat contributed to lessen the immense load of circulating paper.

When I sum up the component parts of this stupendous system, and contemplate it in the aggregate, I must confess myself to be staggered, and almost ready to pronounce against the ability of this wonderful people to continue the contest in which they are engaged. But, after revolving the subject in every point of view in which it presents itself to my mind, I am decidedly of opinion, that not even a national insolvency would produce the effect, which some of the powers combined against them sought in its commencement. The dismemberment of France cannot be accomplished, without the extermination of its inhabitants, even though Mr. Playfair write a second profound disquisition to demonstrate its necessity and practicability; and how far a “_bellum internecinum_,” against twenty-four millions of people is either in its principle to be desired, or in its accomplishment to be expected, may at least exercise the casuistry of humble searchers of truth, like you and me.

That the French wish for peace, cannot be doubted by those who are in a habit of reading their daily chronicles, and listening to their sentiments; but even this event, desirable as they feel it to be, they will not purchase at the expence of the integrity of the empire, or by suffering any power, or combination of powers, on earth, to dictate to them what shall be their form of government, or even to interfere in the most inconsiderable point about their internal regulations. Such, upon my honour, I believe to be the unalterable determination of a large majority of the French nation. A peace with us they especially covet. I shall not now stay to examine what are the impediments on our side to its completion. We are accused of wishing to monopolize the trade of Europe to both the Indies. According to the latest accounts I have read from one of them, notwithstanding our rapid conquests in the beginning, the tide of victory seems to be so far balanced, as to render the event dubious; and even if we finally succeed in that quarter, it may become a question, whether “_le jeu vaut la chandelle_.” The yellow fever, and the resistance of a million of men, suddenly awakened to a perception of their rights, are antagonists not to be despised. “Emancipate the negroes, and the commercial ascendancy of England is for ever destroyed,” said Danton. My opinion is very different; and I am persuaded, that if the Charibean islands were at this moment independant states, our shipping would not be less numerous (for our immense capital would flow into other channels) nor would sugar, rum, coffee, and Barbadoes water, be less attainable to administer to our luxury. If the opulence of England be founded on the basis of African slavery; if the productions of the tropics can be dispensed to us only by the blood and tears of the negro, I do not hesitate to exclaim----“Perish our commerce;” let our humanity live!

By the way, I am often asked, why we joined against them in a confederacy, whose aims (they say) were as irreconcileable to each other, as to justice. This query I have so little satisfaction in answering, that, for the sake of argument, and to prevent being totally overborne, I retort it upon them, and accuse them of being the aggressors: a contest in which nothing is gained or lost, for both affirm, and both deny.

It is, nevertheless, certain in the mean time, that a hatred of us, as a nation, is universally diffused among the favourers of the revolution. When declaiming on this head, their extravagance is sometimes not unentertaining. They have collected, and believed, without examination of their absurdity, a number of wild and ridiculous tales about us: such as that there existed a scheme to set the Duke of York upon the throne of France; that Marat and Robespierre were in the pay of Mr. Pitt, and acted by his directions, &c. &c. They stun one, indeed, with repetitions of the name of Mr. Pitt, and execrations of his politics, which, I often tell them, is the highest compliment they can pay him. “His father,” said an orator in the convention, “infused into him, in his infancy, his hatred of France, and, like Hamilcar of old, swore him to eternal enmity against the French name.” But, perhaps, another great man, whose share in provoking the war, and sounding the knell of peace, has not been inconsiderable, may feel disappointed on being told, that his name in this part of France is never mentioned, and is even unknown. The splendid pebble, with which Mr. Burke, after the first revolution, endeavoured to perturb the lake of French tranquillity, has not yet spread its undulations to this distant shore.----To descend from Mr. Burke to his vaunted antagonist Tom Paine, I was, on coming into France, curious to learn what had become of this wandering demagogue, whom the delirium of the moment had rendered conspicuous. For a long time I could get no intelligence of him: to some his name was new; and others, with difficulty recollecting it, said he was guillotined. My enquiries remained unsatisfied, until I chanced to read in a news-paper a decree of the convention for his release from arrest, with other deputies of the party of Brissot. From this time, until a few days since, I had ceased to think about a being, whose name was never mentioned when a news-paper again presented it to me, in a report of Courtois to the convention, dignified by the title of “founder of liberty in the two worlds.” Notwithstanding this consolatory panegyric, I am of opinion that Mr. Paine is not destined to shine on the theatre of French politics. But whither shall he retire to better his fortune, and re-lume his fame? America would _now_ prove a sterile and unproductive soil for the transplantation of such a genius; while ungrateful Europe (the French dominions excepted) shutting every avenue against him, bids him wander, like a second Cain, without an asylum, or a resting-place.

To return to my subject.----The present period is certainly an interesting one in the history of the revolution. The convention is not popular, and every day loses ground in the affection of the people. You can form no adequate idea of the closeness with which its proceedings are scrutinized, and the asperity with which they are attacked, in the news-papers, and in private circles. Since I have resided among the French, freedom of opinion and speech has made an extraordinary progress. Heads which, six months ago would have “’bided but the whetting of the axe,” now declaim unintimidated, and unrestrained. Has the proposition of Merlin de Thionville, for the dissolution of the convention, and the election of a national assembly, yet reached you? It was strongly defended, and strongly reprobated. For the present, Merlin has been prevailed upon to withdraw his motion; but, I think, it will be resumed soon: the royalists eagerly long for it, and predict, from the moment it shall be decreed, the restoration of monarchy, provided the election be free and general; but this is not expected, as a proposal, in case it must be adopted, has been already started, to oblige the people to elect a majority of the present legislators. In the mean time the new constitution is loudly clamoured for by the republicans. Sieyes, who is at length emerged from behind the curtain which had so long concealed him, and others, are said to be preparing it; and a very beautiful metaphysical theory of impracticability, I doubt not, it will prove. Let this be as it may, I dread an agitation of these questions, and become doubly desirous to get out of France before they are started; for, during the time of the election, we shall at least be locked up and half starved, if no worse befal us.

But another question, which involves more important consequences than at first appear, _viz._ Whether the leaders of the ancient committee of public safety, Barrere, Collot d’Herbois, and Billaud de Varennes (Vadier having escaped) shall be tried, or not? has during the last six weeks almost absorbed every other consideration. It was, in fact, an experiment of the strength of the two parties, the moderates and terrorists, which divide the convention. The latter are generally supposed to be completely overthrown; but, in my opinion, the middle step, of inflicting, without a trial, the punishment of exile (some say to Cayenne, others to an island on the coast of Brittany) upon culprits whose crimes exceed credibility, is not only unjust, but evinces something like a compromise. The royalists, the Brissotines, and all others who have been lately freed from confinement, greatly dreaded the escape of these monsters, in the consequent triumph of their party. Poor Madame Kérvélligan, while it was pending, did us the honour, with some more ladies, to dine with us. You cannot picture to yourself terror like her’s, lest the moderates should be defeated. She took from her pocket a paper, and read to us from it, with great encomiums, the speeches in the convention of Legendre, Isnard, and others who had declaimed against the _prevenus_; while she was enraged in an equal degree against those who had defended them, and resisted the return of the proscribed deputies (her husband is of the number) into the bosom of the convention, until they should be purified by trial. Lecointre of Versailles was not spared upon this occasion. Mr. Kérvélligan is now in Paris; and who can wonder at her perturbation? Of the seventeen months which he lay concealed, she was shut up eleven a close prisoner in the château of Brest. If she do not hear from him by every post, she is miserable; not knowing, in the present temper of the times, who may be spared in a popular commotion. She and others declared to me, while the struggle lasted, that so exasperated were the two parties against each other, that they should not be surprized to hear, that they had had recourse to arms, and butchered one another in the senate-house. The days and nights of the 12th and 13th of _Germinal_ were particularly terrible. The convention during the whole of them remained at its post, most of the members being armed with pistols to prevent assassination. In this commotion, of which part of a narrative, written by one who was on the spot, has been read to me, the cry of “_Vive Louis dix-sept!_” was once or twice heard, but it was faintly uttered, whilst “_Vive la republique_, and give us a constitution!” resounded on every side.