书城公版The Origins of Contemporary France
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第481章

Petition of 150 active citizens of Brest, May 16, 1791. Deliberations of the council-general and commune of Brest, May 17. Letter of the Directory of the district, May 17 (very eloquent). Deliberations of the municipality of Plabennec, May 20. Letter of the municipality of Brest to the minister, May 21. Deliberations of the department Directory, June 13.

[60] Mortimer-Ternaux, II. 376 (session of the Directory of the Pas-du-Calais, July 4, 1792). The petition, signed by 127 inhabitants of Arras, is presented to the Directory by Robespierre the younger and Geoffroy. The administrators are treated as impostors, conspirators, etc., while the president, listening to these refinements, says to his colleagues: "Gentlemen, let us sit down; we can attend to insults sitting as well as standing."[61] "Archives Nationales," F7, 3223. Letter of M. Valéry, syndic-attorney of the department, April 4, 1792.

[62] "Archives Nationales," F7, 3220. Extract from the deliberations of the department Directory and letter to the king, Jan.28, 1792. --Letter of M. Lafiteau, president of the Directory, Jan. 30. (The mob is composed of from five to six hundred persons. The president is wounded on the forehead by a sword-cut and obliged to leave the town.)Feb. 20, following this, a deputy of the department denounces the Directory as unpatriotic.

[63] "Archives Nationales," F7, 3223. Letter of M. de Riolle, colonel of the gendarmerie, Jan. 19, 1792. -- "One hundred members of the club Friends of Liberty" come and request the brigadier's discharge. On the following day, after a meeting of the same club, "four hundred persons move to the barracks to send off or exterminate the brigadier."[64] "Archives Nationales," F7, 3219. Letter of M. Sainfal, Toulouse, March 4, 1792. -- Letter of the department Directory, March 14.

[65] "Archives Nationales," F7, 3229. Letter of M. de Narbonne, minister, to his colleague M. Cahier, Feb. 3, 1792. -- "The municipality of Auch has persuaded the under-officers and soldiers of the 1st battalion that their chiefs were making preparation to withdraw." -- The same with the municipality and club of the Navarreins. "All the officers except three have been obliged to leave and send in their resignations." - F7, 3225. The same to the same, March 8. -- The municipality of Rennes orders the arrest of Col. de Savignac, and four other officers. Mercure de France, Feb. 18, 1792.

De Dampmartin, I. 230; II. 70 (affairs of Landau, Lauterbourg, and Avignon).

[66] "'The French Revolution," I. 344 and following pages. Many other facts could be added to those cited in this volume. - "Archives Nationales," F7, 3219. Letter of M. Neil, administrator of Haute-Garonne, Feb. 27, 1792. "The constitutional priests and the club of the canton of Montestruc suggested to the inhabitants that all the abettors of unsworn priests and of aristocrats should be put to ransom and laid under contribution." - Cf. 7, 3193, (Aveyron), F7, 3271(Tarn), etc.

[67] "Archives Nationales," F7, 3200. Letter of the syndic-attorney of Bayeux, May 14, 1792, and letter of the Bayeux Directory, May 21. "The dubs should be schools of patriotism; they have become the terror of it. If this scandalous struggle against the law and legitimate authority does not soon cease liberty, a constitution, and safeguards for the French people will no longer exist"[68] "Archives Nationales," F7, 3253. Letter, of the Directory of the Bas-Rhin, April 26, 1792, and of Dietrich, Mayor of Strasbourg, May 8.

(The Strasbourg club had publicly invited the citizens to take up arms, "to vigorously pursue priests and administrators." ) -- Letter of the Besan?on club to M. Dietrich, May 3. "If the constitution depended on the patriotism or the perfidy of a few magistrates in one department, like that of the Bas-Rhin, for instance, we might pay you some attention, and all the freemen of the empire would then stoop to crush you. " -- Therefore the Jacobin clubs of the Upper and Lower Rhine send three deputies to the Paris club.

[69] Moniteur, XII. 558, May 19, 1792. "Letter addressed through patriotic journalists to all clubs of the Friends of the Constitution by the patriotic central society, formed at Clermont-Ferrand." (there is the same centralization between Lyons and Bordeaux.)[70] " Archives Nationales," F7, 3198. Report of Commissioners Bertin and Rebecqui, April 3, 1792. -- Cf. Dumouriez, book II. ch. V. The club at Nantes wants to send commissioners to inspect the foundries of the Ile d'Indrette.

[71] Moniteur, X. 420. Report of M. Cahier, Minister of the Interior, Feb. 18, 1792. "In all the departments freedom of worship has been more or less violated. . . Those who hold power are cited before the tribunals of the people as their enemies." -- On the radical and increasing powerlessness of the King and his ministers, Cf. Moniteur, XI. 11 (Dec. 31, 1791). -- Letter of the Minister of Finances. -- XII.

200 (April 23, 1792), report of the Minister of the Interior. -- XIII.

53 (July 4, 1792), letter of the Minister of Justice.

[72] Mortimer-Ternaux, II. 369. Letter of the Directory of the Basses-Pyrénées, June 25, 1792. -- "Archives Nationales," F7, 3200. Letter of the Directory of Calvados to the Minister of the Interior, Aug. 3. "We are not agents of the king or his ministers." - Moniteur, XIII. 103.

Declaration of M. de Joly, minister, in the name of his colleagues (session of July 10, 1792).