the origins of contemporary france-4-第103节
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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