1 66 V. 1789. Moll. iii. centuries of previous oppression. The real motives of CHAP. their conduct are thus revealed by Dumont :-" Indeed they were so far committed in a contest with the crown and the aristocracy, that, instead of repining, they rejoiced 1 Bert. de in secret at atrocities which seemed necessary to complete 83, 84. the intimidation of their adversaries. They felt that they had put themselves in a situation where they must either fear the noblesse, or be feared by them. Thus, for decency's sake, they blamed openly and applauded privately; they conferred praises on the constituted authorities, and in secret gave encouragement to license. The usual consequence of violent usurpation is, to compel men to plunge deeper into the stream of revolution, and commit the Vie de greater crimes, to save themselves from the consequences 133, 134. of the lesser which they have already perpetrated."2 " Dumont, Mirabeau, ment of the of the no blesse. It soon appeared what objects the revolutionists had 26. in view in perpetrating or screening and palliating these Commenceexcesses. They led at once to the general EMIGRATION emigration OF THE NOBLESSE the cause of evils unnumbered to their country and to themselves, and which powerfully contributed to stamp its peculiar and fatal character on the French Revolution. The first emigration of the Royalist leaders began on the day when the King, having resolved on submission, repaired to Paris. The Comte d'Artois, the Prince of Condé, the Prince of Conti, the Marshal de July 17. Broglie, M. de Breteuil, and the whole obnoxious members of the ministry, seeing their plans of resistance overturned, and the army generally in revolt, set off secretly from Versailles, and arrived safe at Brussels. With profound affliction the Queen bade adieu to her faithful friend Madame de Polignac, with the sad presentiment, which was too fatally realised, that she should never see her more. The Prince of Bourbon and the Duc d'Enghien soon followed. Monsieur, afterwards Louis XVIII., who inclined to liberal opinions, and was not exposed to the same danger, remained for some time longer with the King, but was at length likewise constrained to leave the V. 1789. CHAP. country. The Duc de Luxembourg, though a moderate adherent of the new opinions, and the Marshal de Carrier, the friend of Necker, retired, the one into England, the other to Germany. M. d'Espréménil, the former idol of the people, M. de Cazalès, and the Abbé Maury, also withdrew; but they were arrested in Picardy, and brought back to the Assembly, who placed them under the shield of its inviolability.1 1 Lab. iii. Toul. i. 83. Moll. ii. 51, 62. 27. The insur Although, however, the emigration of these leaders of the Royalist party was a very disastrous thing for France, rection of by abandoning the sovereign without either counsels or the peasants renders the support in the midst of a rebellious people, yet the great emigration general. mass of the noblesse had not as yet left the country. It was the insurrection of the peasants, the burning of the chateaus, and the frightful cruelties exercised on the nobles in so many of the provinces of France, which rendered emigration general. It is not surprising that, when the landed proprietors saw such numbers of countryhouses sacked and burnt, and their unhappy inmates murdered or burnt alive, without any attempt being made by the National Assembly, the army, the national guard, or the constituted authorities, either to defend them or to punish their assassins, they should have given up the cause for lost and deemed that, as in a shipwreck at sea, the only hope that remained was to quit the vessel, and make, destitute of every thing, for the nearest shore. But however natural or unavoidable it might be, in the first moments of alarm at these infamous cruelties, yet was the emigration of the noblesse, and, still more, their continued residence abroad when the disorders had in a great degree subsided, a great fault, a most calamitous circumstance. It left the King destitute alike of moral and physical support, and deprived the nation of all leaders who could have taken advantage of the reaction in favour of order which ensued ere long, when the woful Toul. i. 95. consequences of democratic government had been practically experienced. 2 2 Lab. iii. 270, 271. V. 28. feudal rights bles. Aug. 4. The fatal effect of this universal discouragement and CHAP. general emigration of the noblesse was speedily felt in the measures of the Assembly; and it soon appeared that if 1789. the people require an executive to retain them in their Abandonduty, the legislature stands not less in need of its protec- ment of the tion to prevent it from being impelled to the destruction by the noof the national institutions. The dissolution of the royal authority was ere long followed by an unexampled proceeding on the part of the National Assembly. On the night of the 4th August, amidst general consternation at the accounts received from the provinces on the proceding day, the Viscount de Noailles gave the signal for innovation, by proposing that the burden of taxes should fall equally on all classes; that the feudal rights should be declared liable to redemption, and personal servitude be simply abolished. The Duc d'Aiguillon, in an eloquent speech, seconded the proposal. This, though a great concession, founded alike in justice and expedience, was far from satisfying the popular party. A painful picture of the oppression of feudal rights was drawn, and the generosity of the nobles piqued to consent to their voluntary surrender. All parties began, contrary to all expectation, to vie with each other in proposing the abolition of abuses; the contagion became universal; in a few hours the whole feudal rights were abandoned. The Duc de Châtelet proposed that the right of buying up tithes should be allowed, and that they should be commuted into a payment in money; the Bishop of Nancy, the general redemption of ecclesiastical property; the Bishop of Chartres, the suppression of the exclusive right of the chase. The more important rights of feudal jurisdiction in matters of crime, of the disposal of offices for gain, of Hist. Parl. pecuniary immunities, of inequality of taxes, of plurality Moniteur, of benefices, of casual emolument to the clergy, of annats 1789, p.142. Mig. i. 71. to the court of Rome, were successively abandoned: finally, Lac. vii. the incorporations and separate states sacrificed their 129, 131. privileges; the Bretons, the Burgundians, the Langue 1 ii. 225, 242. Aug. 4, 5, 140. Th. i. V. 1789. 29. Speech of the Duc d'Aiguillon. CHAP. docians, renounced the rights which had withstood the assaults of Richelieu and Louvois. All the monuments of freedom which the patriotism of former times had erected were swept away, and the liberty established in its stead was founded on an imaginary and untried basis. On this occasion the most remarkable speech was that made by the Duc d'Aiguillon, which gives a picture of the views that dictated these immense and sudden concessions, and shows how large a share the horrors of which the country was at that moment the theatre had in producing them. "There is no one," said he, "who must not groan over the scenes of horror which France at this moment exhibits. The effervescence of the people, who have conquered freedom when guilty ministers sought to ravish it from them, has now become an obstacle to freedom, at a time when the views of government are again in harmony with the wishes of the nation. It is not merely the brigands who, with arms in their hands, wish to enrich themselves in the midst of the public calamities; in many provinces the entire mass of the peasantry have formed themselves into a league to destroy the chateaus, ravage the lands, and, above all, get possession of the charter-chests where the feudal titles are deposited. They seek to shake off a yoke which for centuries has weighed upon them; and we must admit that, though that insurrection is culpable, (what violent aggression is not so?) yet it finds much excuse in the vexations which have produced it. The proprietors of fiefs, or of seignorial rights, it is true, have seldom themselves perpetrated the injustice of which their vassals complain, but their stewards and agents have done so; and the unhappy labourer, subjected to the barbarous yoke of the feudal laws which still subsist in France, groans under the constraint of which he is the victim. These rights, it must be admitted, are property, and all property is sacred; but they are burdensome to the people, and all are agreed as to the continual vexations CHAP. V. 1789. which they produce. In this enlightened age, when a sound philosophy has resumed its empire; at this fortunate moment, when, united for the public good, and free from all personal interest, we are called upon to labour for the regeneration of the state, it appears to me that, before proceeding to the construction of a constitution, so ardently desired by the nation, we should prove to all the citizens that our wish is even to anticipate their desires, and to establish, as quickly as possible, that equality of rights which should ever prevail among men, and can alone secure their liberty. I doubt not that the proprietors of fiefs, the lords of estates, will be the first to agree to the renunciation of their rights on reasonable indemnity. They have already renounced their pecuniary exemptions; we cannot expect them to renounce gratuitously their feudal rights-but we may expect them to consent to the purchase of their seignorial rights by their ii. 225, 227. vassals, at a price to be fixed on a moderate scale by the Assembly."1 1 Hist. Parl. 30. transports Such was the enthusiasm produced by these words, and by the graphic descriptions of feudal oppression Universal which followed from succeeding orators, that the Assembly, of this meetwho were in the excited state of an evening meeting, ing. went on abandoning and voting away one right after another, till there seemed no end to their extravagance. 66 Every one," says an eyewitness, Dumont, "hastened forward to lay a sacrifice on the altar of the country, by denuding himself or some one else. There was not a moment left for reflection; a sort of sentimental contagion carried away every heart. That renunciation of all privileges that sacrifice of all rights burdensome to the 2 Moniteur, people those multiplied abandonments, had an air of 1789, p. magnanimity which made their consequences be entirely Bert, de overlooked."2 To such a height did the enthusiasm arise, Moll.ii. 127. that the Archbishop of Paris deserved no small credit for Rev. i. 330, having dexterously contrived to terminate the sitting by 144. the proposal that a Te Deum should be sung in the chapel Aug. 4, 5, 144. Dumont, |