tendered to him so as to keep out the Jacobins。 。 。 。 。 It is
reasonably hoped that the largest number of the electors will not be
terrorists and that the majority of the Legislative Corps being all
right; the minority of the furious; who have only one more year of
office; will give way (in 1798) to men of probity not steeped in
crime。 。 。 。 In the country; the Jacobins have tried in vain:
people of means who employed a portion of the voters; obtained their
suffrages; every proprietor wishing to have order。 。 。 。 The
Moderates have agreed to vote for no matter what candidate; provided
he is not a Jacobin。 。 。 。 Out of two hundred and thirty electors
for the department; one hundred and fifty are honest and upright
people。 。 。 。 。 They adhered to the last Constitution as to their
sole palladium; only a very few of them dreaming of re…establishing
the ancient régime。〃 Their object is plain enough; they are for the
Constitution against the Revolution; for limited power against
discretionary power; for property against robbery; for upright men
against thieves。 … 〃Would you prevent; say the administrative
authorities of Aube;'48' a return to the disastrous laws of the
maximum; of monopolies; to the resurrection of paper…money? 。 。 。
Would you; as the price of a blameless life; be once more humiliated;
robbed; imprisoned; tortured by the vilest; most repulsive and most
shameless of tyrants? You have only one recourse: do not fail to go to
your primary assemblies and remain there。〃 The electors; warned by
their late personal and bloody souvenirs; rush to the polls in crowds
and vote according to their consciences; although the government
through the oaths it imposes; its official candidatures; its special
commissioners; its intimidation and its money; bears down with all its
weight on the resolutions they have taken。 Although the Jacobins at
Nevers; Macon and elsewhere; have forcibly expelled officers legally
elected from their bureaux; and stained the hall with their blood;'49'
〃out of 84 departments 66 elected a plurality of electors from among
the anti…republicans; eight being neither good nor bad; while only ten
remained loyal to the Jacobins。〃'50' … Appointed by such electors; we
can divine what the new Third will be。 〃Of the 250 Conventionalists
excluded by the draw scarcely five or six have been re…elected; there
are but eight departments in which the Jacobins have had any success。
〃…Immediately after the arrival of the new representatives; the roll
of the Legislative Corps having been checked off; it is found that
〃the Government has 70 out of 250 votes among the Ancients; and 200
out of 500 among the Council of the Young;〃 and soon less than 200 in
this Council;'51' 130 at the most; who will certainly be excluded at
the coming renewal of the chambers in elections which are becoming
more and more anti…Jacobin。 One year more; as the rulers themselves
admit; and not one Conventionalist; not one pure Jacobin; will sit in
the Legislative Corps。 Consequently; according to the
revolutionaries; the counter…revolution will have taken place in the
year VI。
This means that the Revolution is to end in the year VI。; and that the
pacific reign of law will be substituted for the brutal reign of
force。 In fact; the great majority of the representatives and almost
the entire French nation have no other end in view: they wish to rid
themselves of the social and civil régime to which they have been
subject since the 10th of August; 1792; and which; relaxed after
Thermidor 9; but renewed by the 13th of Vendémiaire; has lasted up to
the present time; through the enforcement of its most odious laws and
the maintenance of its most disreputable agents。 This is all。 … Not
twenty avowed or decided royalists could be found in the two
Councils。'52' There are scarcely more than five or six … Imbert…
Colomès; Pichegru; Willot; Delarne … who may be in correspondence with
Louis XVIII。 and disposed to raise the royal flag。 For the other
five hundred; the restoration of the legitimate King; or the
establishment of any royalty whatever; is only in the background; they
regard it only at a distance; as a possible accompaniment and remote
consequence of their present undertaking。 In any event; they would
accept only 〃the mitigated monarchy;〃'53' that which the Liberals of
1788 hoped for; that which Mounier demanded after the days of October
5 and 6; that advocated by Barnave after the return from Varennes;
that which Malouet; Gouverneur Morris; Mallet…Dupan and all good
observers and wise councillors of France; always recommended。 None of
them propose to proclaim divine right and return to aristocratic
feudalism; each proposes to abrogate revolutionary right and destroy
Jacobin feudalism。 The principle condemned by them is that which
sustains the theory of anarchy and despotism;
* the application of the Contrat Social;'54'
* a dictatorship established by coups détat; carried on arbitrarily
and supported by terror;
* the systematic and dogmatic persistence of assaults on persons;
property and consciences;
* the usurpation of a vicious; fanatical minority which has devastated
France for five years and; under the pretext of everywhere setting up
the rights of man; purposely maintaining a war to propagate its system
abroad。
That which they are really averse to is the Directory and its clique;
Barras with his court of gorged contractors and kept women; Reubell
with his family of extortioners; stamp of a parvenu and ways of a
tavern keeper; La Révellière…Lepaux with his hunchback vanity;
philosophic pretensions; sectarian intolerance and silly airs of a
pedantic dupe。 What they demand in the tribune;'55' is the
purification of the administration; the suppression of jobbery; an end
to persecution and; according as they are more or less excited or
circumspect; they demand legal sentences or simply the removal of
Jacobins in office; the immediate and entire suppression or partial
and careful reform of the laws against priests and worship; against
émigrés and the nobles。'56' Nobody has any idea of innovation with
respect to the distribution of public powers; or to the way of
appointing central or local authorities。 〃 I swear on my honor;〃
writes Mathieu Dumas; 〃that it has always been my intention to
maintain the Republican Constitution; persuaded as I am that; with a
temperate and equitable administration; it might give repose to
France; make liberty known and cherished; and repair in time the evils
of the Revolution。 I swear that no proposals; direct or indirect;
have ever been made to me to serve; either by my actions; speech or
silence; or cause to prevail in any near or remote manner; any other
interest than that of the Republic and the Constitution。〃 〃Among
the deputies;〃 says Camille Jordan; 〃several might prefer royalty; but
they did not conspire; regarding the Constitution as a deposit
entrusted to their honor 。 。 They kept their most cherished plans
subordinate to the national will; they comprehended that royalty could
not be re…established without blows and through the development of
this bill。〃 〃 Between ourselves;〃 says again Barbé…Marbois; 〃there
were disagreements as to the way of getting along with the Directory;
but none at all as to the maintenance of the Constitution。〃'57'
Almost up to the last moment they confined themselves strictly to
their legal rights; and when; towards the end; they were disposed to
set these aside; it was simply to defend themselves against the
uplifted saber above their heads。'58' It is incontestable that their
leaders are 〃the most estimable and the ablest men in the
Republic;〃'59' the only representatives of free suffrage; mature
opinions and long experience; the only ones at least in whose hands
the Republic; restored to order and justice; would have any chance of
becoming viable; in fact; the only liberals。 And this is the reason
why the merely nominal Republicans were bound to crush them。
In effect; under a government which disavows attacks on persons and on
public or private property; not only is the Jacobin theory impossible;
but Jacobin wrongs are condemned。 Now; the Jacobins; even if they
have abjured their principles; remember their acts。 They become
alarmed on the arrival of the first Third; in October; 1795: 〃The
Conventionalists;〃 writes one of the new deputies;'60' 〃look upon us
as men who will one day give them up to justice。〃 After the entry of
the second Third; in May; 1797; their fright increased; the regicides;
especially; feel that 〃their safety depends only on an exclusive and
absolute dominion。〃'61' One day; Treilhard; one of their notables;
alone with Mathieu Dumas; says to this old Feuillant and friend of
Lafayette; of well known loyalty and moderation: 〃You are very honest
and very able men; and I believe that you really desire to maintain
the government as it is; because neither for you nor for us is there
any sure way of substituting another for it。 But we Conventionalists
cannot allow you to go on; whether you mean it or not; you are
gradually leading us to our certain ruin; there is nothing in common
between us。〃 〃What guarantee do you then require?〃 〃Only one。
After that; we'll do all you want … we'll let you relax the springs …
give us this guarantee and we'll follow you blindly! 〃Well; what do
you mean by that?〃 …
〃Enter the tribune and declare that if you had been a member of the
Convention; you would have voted the death of Louis XVI。 as we did!〃
…
〃You demand an impossibility。 You would not do this in our place。
You sacrifice France to vain terrors。〃 …
〃No; the risk is not equal; our heads are at stake!〃
Their heads; perhaps; … but certainly their power; places; fortunes;
comforts and pleasures; all that in their eyes makes it worth while to
live。 …
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