《the origins of contemporary france-4》

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the origins of contemporary france-4- 第103部分


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account of his expedition as follows:'87' 〃One hundred and thirty

muscadins have been arrested。  。  。  。  These gentlemen are

transferred to the Petits…Pêres。  Being well…fed and plump; they

cannot be sans…culottes。〃 Henriot was right; for; to live well is

incivique。  Whoever lays in stores of provisions is criminal; even if

he has gone a good ways for them; even if he has not overpaid the

butcher of his quarter; even if he has not diminished by an ounce of

meat the ration of his neighbor; when he is found out; he is punished

and his hoard confiscated。  〃A citizen'88' had a little pig brought to

him from a place six leagues from Paris; and killed it at once。  Three

hours afterwards; the pig was seized by commissioners and distributed

among the people; without the owner getting a bit of it;〃 moreover;

the said owner 〃was imprisoned。〃 … He is a monopolist! To Jacobin

people; to empty stomachs; there is no greater crime; this misdeed; to

their imaginations; explains the arrest of Hébert; their favorite: 〃It

is said at the Halle (the covered Paris market)'89' that he has

monopolized a brother of the order of Saint…Antoine'90' as well as a

pot of twenty…five pounds of Brittany butter;〃 which is enough; they

immediately and 〃unanimously consign Père Duchesne to the guillotine。〃

(Note that the Père Duchesne; founded by Hébert; was the most radical

and revolutionary journal。  (SR。) … Of all privileges; accordingly;

that of having a supply of food is the most offensive; 〃it is now

necessary for one who has two dishes to give one of them to him who

has none;〃'91' every man who manages to eat more than another is a

robber; for; in the first place; he robs the community; the sole

legitimate owner of aliments; and next; he robs; and personally; all

who have less to eat than he has。



The same rule applies to other things of which the possession is

either agreeable or useful: in an equalizing social system; that now

established; every article of food possessed by one individual to the

exclusion of others; is a dish abstracted from the common table and

held by him to another's detriment。  On the strength of this; the

theorists who govern agree with the reigning ragamuffins。  Whoever has

two good coats is an aristocrat; for there are many who have only one

poor one。'92' Whoever has good shoes is an aristocrat; for many wear

wooden ones; and others go barefoot。  Whoever owns and rents lodgings

is an aristocrat; for others; his tenants; instead of receiving money;

pay it out。  The tenant who furnishes his own rooms is an aristocrat;

for many lodge in boarding…houses and others sleep in the open air。

Whoever possesses capital is an aristocrat; even the smallest amount

in money or in kind; a field; a roof over his head; half…a…dozen

silver spoons given to him by his parents on his wedding…day; an old

woollen stocking into which twenty or thirty crowns have been dropped

one by one; all one's savings; whatever has been laid by or

economized; a petty assortment of eatables or merchandise; one's crop

for the year and stock of groceries; especially if; disliking to give

them up and letting his dissatisfaction be seen; he; through

revolutionary taxation and requisitions; through the maximum and the

confiscation of the precious metals; is constrained to surrender his

small savings gratis; or at half their value。  … Fundamentally; it is

only those who have nothing of their own that are held to be patriots;

those who live from day to day;'93' 〃the wretched;〃 the poor;

vagabonds; and the famished; the humblest laborer; the least

instructed; the most ill at his ease; is treated as criminal; as an

enemy; as soon as he is suspected of having some resources; in vain

does he show his scarified or callous hands; he escapes neither

spoliation; the prison; nor the guillotine。  At Troyes; a poor shop…

girl who had set up a small business on borrowed money; but who is

ruined by a bankruptcy and completely so by the maximum; infirm; and

consuming piecemeal the rest of her stock; is taxed five hundred

livres。'94' In the villages of Alsace; an order is issued to arrest

the five; six or seven richest persons in the commune; even if there

are no rich; consequently; they seize the least poor; simply because

they are so; for instance; at Heiligenberg; six 〃farmers〃 one of whom

is a day…laborer; 〃or journey…man;〃 〃suspect;〃 says the register of

the jail; 〃because he is comfortably off。〃'95' On this account nowhere

are there so many 〃suspects〃 as among the people; the shop; the farm

and the work…room harbor more aristocrats than the rectory and the

chateau。  In effect; according to the Jacobins;'96' 〃nearly all

farmers are aristocrats;〃 〃the merchants are all essentially anti…

revolutionary;〃'97' and especially all dealers in articles of prime

necessity; wine…merchants; bakers and butchers; the latter especially

are open 〃conspirators;〃 enemies 〃of the interior;〃 and 〃 whose

aristocracy is insupportable。〃 Such; already; among the lower class of

people; are the many delinquents who are punished。



But there are still more of them to punish; for; besides the crime of

not being destitute; of possessing some property; of withholding

articles necessary for existence; there is the crime of aristocracy;

necessarily so called; namely; repugnance to; lack of zeal; or even

indifference for the established régime; regret for the old one;

relationship or intercourse with a condemned or imprisoned émigré of

the upper class; services rendered to some outlaw; the resort to some

priest; now; numbers of poor farmers; mechanics; domestics and women

servants; have committed this crime;'98' and in many provinces and in

many of the large cities nearly the whole of the laboring population

commits it and persists in it; such is the case; according to Jacobin

reports; in Alsace; Franche…Comté; Provence; Vaucluse; Anjou; Poitou;

Vendée; Brittany; Picardie and Flanders; and in Marseilles; Bordeaux

and Lyons。  In Lyons alone; writes Collot d'Herbois; 〃there are sixty

thousand persons who never will become republicans。  They should be

dealt with; that is made redundant; and prudently distributed all over

the surface of the Republic。〃'99' … Finally; add to the persons of the

lower class; prosecuted on public grounds; those who are prosecuted on

private grounds。  Among peasants in the same village; workmen of the

same trade and shopkeepers in the same quarter; there is always envy;

enmities and spites; those who are Jacobins become local pashas and

are able to gratify local jealousies with impunity; something they

never fail to do。'100'



Hence; on the lists of the guillotined; the incarcerated and of

emigrés; the men and women of inferior condition are in much greater

number; far greater than their companions of the superior and middle

classes all put together。  Out of 12;000 condemned to death whose rank

and professions have been ascertained; 7;545'101' are peasants;

cultivators; ploughmen; workmen of various sorts; innkeepers; wine…

dealers; soldiers and sailors; domestics; women; young girls; servants

and seamstresses。  Out of 1;900 emigrés from Doubs; nearly 1;100

belong to the lower class。  Towards the month of April; 1794; all the

prisons in France overflow with farmers;'102' in the Paris prisons

alone; two months before Thermidor 9; there are 2 000 of them。'103'

Without mentioning the eleven western departments in which four or

five hundred square leagues of territory are devastated and twenty

towns and one thousand eight hundred villages destroyed;'104' where

the avowed purpose of the Jacobin policy is a systematic and total

destruction of the country; man and beast; buildings; crops; and even

trees; there are cantons and even provinces where the entire rural and

working population is arrested or put to flight。  In the Pyrenees; the

old Basque populations 〃torn from their natal soil; crowded into the

churches with no means of subsistence but that of charity;〃 in the

middle of winter; so that sixteen hundred of those incarcerated die

〃mostly of cold and hunger;〃'105'  at Bédouin; a town of two thousand

souls; in which a tree of liberty is cut down by some unknown persons;

four hundred and thirty…three houses are demolished or burned; sixteen

persons guillotined and forty…seven shot; while the rest of the

inhabitants are driven out; reduced to living like vagabonds on the

mountain; or in holes which they dig in the ground;'106' in Alsace;

fifty thousand farmers who; in the winter of 1793; take refuge with

their wives and children on the other side of the Rhine。'107' In

short; the revolutionary operation is a complete prostration of people

of all classes; the trunks as well as the saplings being felled; and

often in such a way as to clear the ground entirely。



But in this ruthless felling; however; the notables of the people;

making all due allowances; suffer more than the ordinary people。  It

is o
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