V. 1789. bodies, and on the promise of an indemnity in that of CHAP. the parochial clergy. This indemnity was never given. At the same time, all privileges of incorporations, burghs, and provinces, were abolished, and all Frenchmen declared eligible alike to all offices, civil and military, in the kingdom.* This decree was sanctioned with great solemnity by the King on the 13th August. 37. regrets of and clergy party. Those innovators in the Assembly who had joined with the popular party from a belief that in doing so Unavailing lay their only chance of preserving the wreck of their the nobles property, now perceived, with bitter regret, the infatua- who joined tion of the course they had pursued, and the hopelessness the popular of any expectation that, by yielding to revolutionary demands, they would satisfy the people. The Bishop of Chartres, one of the popular bishops who had supported the union of orders, the vote by head, and the new constitution, was at this time visited by Dumont, when he was dismissing his domestics, selling his effects, and leaving his house to discharge his debts. With tears in his eyes, the benevolent prelate deplored the infatuation which had led him to embrace the cause of the Tiers Etat, which violated in its prosperity all the engagements contracted in its adversity. The Abbé * "I. L'Assemblée Nationale détruit entièrement le régime féodal. Elle décrète que, dans les droits et devoirs, tant féodaux que personnels, ceux qui tiennent à la main-morte réelle ou personnelle, et à la servitude personnelle, et ceux qui les représentent, sont abolis sans indemnité; tous les autres sont déclarés rachetables, et le prix et le mode du rachat seront fixés par l'Assemblée Nationale. "II. Le droit exclusif de la chasse et des garennes ouvertes est pareillement aboli, et tout propriétaire a le droit de détruire, et faire détruire, seulement sur ses possessions, toute espèce de gibier. "III. Les dîmes de toute nature, et les redevances qui en tiennent lieu, sous quelque dénomination qu'elles soient connues et perçues, possédées par les corps séculiers et réguliers, par les bénéficiers, les fabriques, et tous genres de mainmorte tenues par l'ordre de Malte, et autres ordres religieux et militaires, moins celles qui auraient été abandonnées à des laïques en remplacement et pour option de portions congrues, sont abolies. Sauf à aviser aux moyens de subvenir d'une autre manière à la dépense du culte divin, à l'entretien des ministres des autels, au soulagement des pauvres, aux réparations et réconstructions des églises et presbytères, et à tous les établissemens à l'entretien des quels elles sont actuellement affectées."-Histoire Parlementaire de la Révolution, ii. 259, 263; Décret, 11 Août 1789. 1789. CHAP. Sièyes, who had taken so decided a part in the early usurpations of the Assembly, was hissed and coughed down when he strove to resist this iniquitous confiscation. Next day he gave vent to his spleen to Mirabeau, who answered, "My dear abbé, you have loosed the 66, 67, 147. bull; do you expect he is not to make use of his horns ?"1 1 Dumont, 38. Secret causes of tion of the church, at which all classes connived. This first and great precedent of iniquity, the confiscation of the property of the church, was brought about this spolia- by the selfish apathy, or secret wishes, of the great majority of the laity. All classes felt that the financial difficulties of the state were nearly insurmountable, and all anticipated a sensible relief from any measure, how violent soever, which might lead to their extrication. It was the universal belief that this embarrassment was the main cause of the public difficulties, and the secret hope that the property of the church would at once put an end to it, which was the real cause of this general and iniquitous coalition. All imagined that some interest must be sacrificed, and the church was pitched upon as at once the most wealthy and defenceless body in the state. But, like all other measures of spoliation, this great invasion of private right rapidly and fatally recoiled on the heads of those who engaged in it. The ecclesiastical estates, it was soon found, in the hands of the revolutionary agents, encumbered as they were with the debts of the clergy, yielded no profit, but were rather a burden to the state. To render them available, the contraction of debt on their security became necessary; the temptation of relieving the public necessities by such a step was irresistible to a public and irresponsible body, holding estates to the value of nearly two hundred millions sterling in their hands. Extraordinary as it may appear, it is a well-authenicated fact, that the expenses of managing the church property cost the nation at first £2,000,000 a-year more than it yielded, besides in a few years augmenting the public debt by £7,000,000. The V. 1789. reason was this: in the confusion consequent on so CHAP. great an act of spoliation, no account of ecclesiastical domains could be obtained; and the leaders who had sanctioned so prodigious a robbery found it impossible, after its commission, to restrain the peculation of their inferior agents. Hence ere long, as will appear in the sequel, arose the system of ASSIGNATS, which speedily quadrupled the strength of the republican government, rendered irretrievable the march of the Revolution, and involved all classes in such inextricable difficulties, as 81, 82. Burke, v. rapidly brought home to every interest in the state the 421. spoliation which they had begun by inflicting on the weakest.1 1 Calonne, the right of The abolition of the exclusive right of shooting and 39. hunting was made the pretext for the most destructive Abolition of disorders throughout all France. An immense crowd of shooting and artisans and mechanics issued from the towns, and, join- effects. hunting. Its ing the rural population, spread themselves over the fields in search of game. The greatest violence was speedily committed by the armed and uncontrollable multitude. No sort of regard was paid to the clause in the decree of the Assembly, that the right of the chase was given to each man on his own ground only. It was universally considered as conferring a general right to shoot over any ground whatever. Enclosures were struck down, woods destroyed, houses broken open, robbery perpetrated, under pretence of exercising the newly regained rights of man. Meanwhile, the burning of the chateaus, and the plunder of the landed proprietors, continued without intermission; while the Assembly, instead of attempting to check these disorders, issued a proclamation, in which they affected to consider them as the work of aristocrats, who were desirous of bringing odium upon the Revolution. One of the most singular effects of the spirit of faction, is the absurdities which it causes to be embraced by its votaries, and their extraordinary credulity in regard to every thing which seems calculated to advance V. 1789. 1 Deux CHAP. the interests of their party. The people of Versailles already insulted and pelted the nobles and clergy at the gate of the Assembly, whom they stigmatised as Aristocrats an epithet which afterwards became the prelude to certain destruction. It may readily be imagined what an effect this name had in influencing the minds of men, Moll.ii. 127, already sufficiently inflamed from other causes. "Epithets and nicknames," said Napoleon, "should never be despised: it is by such means that mankind are governed."1 Amis, ii. 279, 281. Bert. de 130. Lac. vii. 149. Dumont, i. 72. 40. Dreadful distress at Paris. Aug. 7. But in the midst of these mingled transports and disorders, Paris was in the most deplorable state of distress, and the finances of the kingdom, from the general cessation in the payment of taxes, were rapidly approaching a state of complete insolvency. Even the columns of the Moniteur openly announced that the municipality was bankrupt, and the people starving. Nor was the public exchequer in a more flourishing condition. M. Necker, on 7th August, drew the following dreadful picture of the state of the kingdom and of the finances:-"You are all aware that property has been violated in the provinces ; that bands of incendiaries have ravaged the houses; that the forms of justice are disregarded, and replaced by violence and lists of proscription. Terror and alarm have spread universally, even where the bands of depredators have not penetrated; licentiousness is unrestrained, law powerless, the tribunals idle; desolation covers a part of France, terror the whole; commerce and industry are suspended, and even the asylums of religion afford no longer a refuge to the innocent. Indigence or misforThe season has been tune has not produced these evils. "J'ai parlé de la capitale, du désespoir de ses habitans. Le développe ment de cette vérité peut être dangereux, et n'est pas nécessaire. La prudence ordonne de taire; et votre pénétration saura bien saisir l'excès du mal qu' entraine à Paris dans cet instant une suspension de payement. Qu'oppose-t-on, que peut-on opposer à cette première nécessité, à ce premier devoir de venir au secours de la chose publique qui périt?" Discours de M. DE LALLY TOL LENDAL, 7 Août 1789; Moniteur, p. 155. V. 1789. employment to all. The beneficence of the King has CHAP. been shown in every possible way; the rich have never shared so large a portion of their wealth with the poor. No, gentlemen! It is the total subversion of the police, and of all regular authority, which has occasioned these evils. The royal revenues have been in great part absorbed in the purchase of grain to feed the people. The payment of imposts and taxes of every sort has almost entirely ceased. The deficiency in the exchequer is enormous. So vast has this evil become that every one can judge of it—it is notorious to all the world. Let us then all unite to save the state, for matters have come Aug. 6, 7, to such a pass that nothing but the immediate and firm 152,154 union of all men of property can preserve us from the most dreadful convulsions."1 1 Moniteur, 1789, 41. It was not surprising that even the popular leader of the Tiers Etat made such a mournful exposition of the Anarchy in state of the nation, for matters had in reality reached Paris. such a height in Paris, and over all France, that they amounted almost to total anarchy. Every body of men. in the capital instantly entered on the exercise of their new and intoxicating rights; and the electors invariably assumed the government of their representatives. One Aug. 15 hundred and eighty delegates, nominated by the districts, to 20. usurped a legislative power in the metropolis; but they were in their turn controlled by their constituents, who, without hesitation, annulled their decrees when not suited to their inclinations and nothing was agreeable but what flattered their ambition. The idea of ruling by commanding their delegates speedily spread among the multitude, and was too delicious a one not to be every where well received. All those who were not legally vested with authority began to meet, and to give themselves importance by discussing public affairs; the soldiers had Mig. i. 85. debates at the Oratoire, the tailors at the Colonnade, the Bert. de hairdressers at the Champs Elysées, the valets at the Moll..147, Louvre.2 Subsequent ages might smile at such proceed Th. III. 149. |