1 Hist. Parl. Lac. Pr. Ferrières, i. 274. 40. tutionalists. CHAP. besieged by their importunity, and possibly preparing to VII. second their entreaties? Confidence is every day sink1791. ing; the rapid fall of the assignats renders nugatory the xii. 163, 174. best-devised plans of finance. How is it possible to Hist. i. 266. put a curb on the factions of the interior, when we suffer 32. Mig. ii. the emigrants to escape with impunity, who are about to 155. Th. ii. bring the scourge of foreign war upon all our homes? "1 The constitutional party could not deny the justice of Answer of these alarms, but they strove to moderate the severity of the Consti- the measures which were proposed to be adopted against the emigrants. "We are about," said Condorcet, "to put the sincerity of the King to too severe a trial, if we require him to adopt measures of severity against his nearest relations. Foreign powers can hardly be convinced that he really enjoys his freedom; and is it by his consenting to such an act that their doubts are to be removed? What will be the effect of the extreme measures which are proposed? Are they likely to calm the passions, soothe the pride, or heal the wounds which have been inflamed? They will bring back few of the absent, irritate many of the present. Time, distress, the frigid hospitality of strangers, the love of home, a sense of our justice, must be the means of restoring the love of their country in their bosoms: by the proposed measures you will extinguish it. The Constituent Assembly, more wise than ourselves, beheld with contempt those assemblages of discontented spirits on the frontier, who would be more truly formidable if exercising their spleen at home. A signal of alarm so sounded by us will at once excite the jealousy of all the European powers, and really bring on those foreign dangers which would never have arisen from the supplications of our nobility. The pain of confiscation is odious in the most tyrannical states; what must it be considered in a nation exercising the first rights of freedom? Are all the emigrants culpable in an equal degree? How many has fear rendered exiles from their country? Are you now to proclaim to the world VII. 1791. that these fears were well founded, to justify their deser- CHAP. tion of France, and to demonstrate to mankind that the picture they have drawn of our government is nowise overcharged? Let us rather prove that their calumnies were unfounded, and silence their complaints by pursuing a conduct diametrically opposite to that which they Lac. i. 207. anticipate." 1 Hist. Parl. xii. 173,218. 41. Two Decree against the emigrants. Oct. 31. The Assembly, influenced by the pressing dangers of emigration, disregarded all these considerations. decrees were passed, the first of which commanded the King's brother, the heir-apparent to the regency during the minority of the Dauphin, to return to France, under pain of being held to have abdicated his eventual right to the regency; while the second declared all the French without the kingdom engaged in a conspiracy against the Nov. 9. constitution; and subjected all those who should not return before the 1st of January to the penalty of death and confiscation of their estates, under reservation of the rights of their wives, children, and creditors. This proceeding on the part of the French Assembly cannot be better characterised than in the words of the eloquent author of the Vindicia Gallica, who cannot be suspected land, iii. 162. of undue prejudice against the Revolution. "Examples 2 Mackinof this kind," says Sir James Mackintosh, "are instances tosh's Engof that reckless tyranny which punishes the innocent to Mi. 156. make sure of including the guilty, as well as of that Lac. i. 208. refined cruelty which, after rendering home odious, per- Hist. Parl. haps insupportable, pursues with unrelenting rage such of 218. its victims as fly to foreign lands." 2 Th. ii. 24. xii. 207,208, 42. in favour of the Assem The disposal of the refractory clergy was the next question which occupied the Assembly: it excited debates Argument more stormy than those on the emigrants, in proportion the clergy in as religious rancour is more bitter than civil dissension. bly. "What are you about to do?" exclaimed the advocates of the clergy. Are you, who have consecrated the freedom of worship, to be the first to violate it? The declaration of the rights of man places it on a basis even more Nov. 11. VII. 1791. CHAP. solemn than the constitution; and yet you seriously propose to subvert it! The Constituent Assembly, the author of so much good to France, has left this one schism as a legacy to its successors: close it, for God's sake; do not widen the breach. To refuse an oath from a sense of duty can never be blamable; to take it from a desire of gain is alone disgraceful. Shall we deprive those, who decline from conscientious scruples, of the slender subsistence which they enjoy? Destroyers of political inequality, shall we re-establish a distinction more odious than any, by crushing to the dust a meritorious class of men? Who shall guarantee ourselves from similar spoliation, if we reduce to beggary the earliest supporters of the Revolution, those who first joined our standard after the immortal oath in the Tennis Court ? Beware of driving to desperation a set of men still possessing extensive influence over the rural population. If you are dead to every sentiment of justice, yet pause before xii. 129, 134. you adopt a measure so likely to awaken the flames of civil war among ourselves.” 1 1 Hist. Parl. 43. crees against Nov. 5. But the days of reason and justice were past. The Severe de- leaders of the popular party all declared against the the clergy. priests. Even Condorcet, the advocate of freedom of worship, was the first to support the violent measures proposed against them. It was decreed that all the clergy should be ordained instantly to take the oath to the constitution, under pain of being deprived of their benefices, and declared suspected of treason against the State. They were ordered to be moved from place to place, to prevent their acquiring any influence over their flocks, and imprisoned if they refused to obey. On no account were they to exercise any religious rites in private. Such was the liberty which the Revolution had xii. 129,157. already bestowed upon France-such its gratitude to its 7th Nov. first supporters. The adoption of these severe and Mig. ii. 156. oppressive enactments was signalised by the first open. expression of irreligious or atheistical sentiments in the 2 Hist. Parl. Moniteur, Lac. ii. 209. 2 VII. 1791. Assembly. "My God is the Law-I acknowledge no CHAP. other," was the expression of one of the opponents of the church. The remonstrance of the constitutional bishops had no effect. These and similar expressions were loudly applauded, and the decree was carried in the midst of tumult and acclamation. 44. refuses to these de crees. When these acts were submitted, agreeably to the constitution, to the King for his consideration, he sanctioned The King the first decree against his brother, and the emigrants, sanction but put his veto upon the last, and the one against the priests. He had previously and openly censured the Nov. 11. Count d'Artois's desertion of the kingdom, and his disapproval of the general emigration of the noblesse was well known to all parties, for on the 14th October he had issued a pressing proclamation, urging them, in the strongest manner, to return; but he was unwilling to give his sanction to the extreme measures which were now meditated against them. It was proposed in the council that, to pacify the people, whom it was well known the exercise of the veto would exasperate, the King should dismiss all his religious attendants, excepting those who had taken the oaths to the constitution ; but to this Louis, though in general so flexible, opposed an invincible resistance, observing, that it would ill become those who had declared the right of every subject in the realm to liberty of conscience, to deny it to the sovereign alone. In acting thus firmly, he was supported by a large portion of the constitutional party, and by the directory of the department of Paris; and he stood much in need of their adhesion, in thus coming to open rupture with the people and the legislature. The announcement * ( Français qui avez abandonné votre patrie, revenez dans son sein; c'est là qu'est le poste d'honneur ; parcequ'il n'y a de véritable honneur qu'à servir son pays et à défendre les lois. Venez leur donner l'appui que tous les bons citoyens leur doivent elles vous rendront à leur tour ce calme et ce bonheur que vous chercheriez en vain sur une terre étrangère. Revenez donc, et que le cœur cesse d'être déchiré entre ses sentimens qui sont les mêmes pour tous, et les devoirs de la Royauté qui l'attachent principalement à ceux qui suivent la loi."-Proclamation de Louis XVI. aux Emigrés, 14 Oct. 1791; Hist. Parl. xii. 160, 162. CHAP. VII. 1791. Nov. 12. of the King's refusal was received with very different feelings by the different parties in the Assembly. The republicans could not disguise their satisfaction at a step which promised to embroil him still further with the nation, and to give to their ambitious projects the weight 1 Hist. Parl. of popular support. They congratulated the ministers in terms of irony on the decisive proof they had now given 13th Nov. of the freedom of the throne. On the following morning, a severe proclamation from Louis appeared against the Mig. ii. 157. emigrants. The Feuillants animadverted upon it as an Th. ii. 30, unconstitutional stretch of prerogative; the Jacobins, as too indulgent in its expressions.1 xii. 221,223. Moniteur, Deux Amis, Lac. i. 211. 31. 45. a Mayor of Paris. The choice of a mayor for the city of Paris, in the room Election of of Bailly, whose period of holding that dignity had expired, shortly after occupied the attention of the capital. Lafayette had retired from the command of the national guards, and was a candidate for that dignity. He was supported by the constitutionalists; while Pétion, the nominee of the now united Girondists and Jacobins, was the favourite of the people. The Court, jealous of Lafayette, who had never ceased to be an object of dislike, especially to the Queen, since the 5th October, had the imprudence to throw the influence of the crown into the scale for Pétion, and even to expend large sums of money for that purpose. “M. Lafayette," said the Queen, aspires to the mayoralty, in the hope of soon becoming a mayor of the palace; Pétion is a Jacobin and a republican, but he is a fool, incapable of rendering himself the head of a party." Pétion accordingly was elected, and gave the whole of his influence to the Revolutionists. The majority which Pétion obtained on this occasion, by the coalition of the whole democratic party, was immense, and 2 Hist. Parl. Showed in a decisive manner the vast preponderance xii. 330. which the democrats, who were carrying on the Revolu20th Nov; tion, had already acquired over the constitutionalists who i. 158. commenced it; for Pétion had 6708 votes-Lafayette only 3125,2 Moniteur, 1791. Mig. |