书城公版The Origins of Contemporary France
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第971章

Letter from Lhoste, agent, to the minister of justice, Lyons, Pluvi?se 8, year VIII. "The diligences are robbed every week." - Ibid., F7,3267, (Seine-et-Oise, bulletins of the military police and correspondence of the gendarmerie). Brumaire 25, year VIII, attack on the Paris mail near Arpajon by 5 brigands armed with guns. Fructidor, year VIII, at three o'clock P.M., a cart loaded with 10,860 francs sent by the collector at Mantes to the collector at Versailles is stopped near the Marly water-works, by 8 or 10 armed brigands on horseback. - Similar facts abound. It is evident that more than a year is required to put an end to brigandage. - It is always done by employing an impartial military force. (Rocquam, Ibid, p. 10.) "There are at Marseilles three companies of paid national guards, 60 men each, at a franc per man. The fund for this guard is supplied by a contribution of 5 francs a month paid by every man subject to this duty who wishes to be exempt. The officers . . . are all strangers in the country. Robberies, murders, and conflicts have ceased in Marseilles since the establishment of this guard."[9] Archives Nationales, 3144 and 3145, No.1004. (Reports of the councillors of State on mission during the year IX, published by Rocquam, with omissions, among which is the following, in the report of Fran?ois de Nantes.) "The steps taken by the mayors of Marseilles are sufficiently effective to enable an émigré under surveillance and just landed, to walk about Marseilles without being knocked down or knocking anybody else down, an alternative to which they have been thus far subject. And yet there are in this town nearly 500 men who have slaughtered with their own hands, or been the accomplices of slaughterers, at different times during the Revolution. . . . The inhabitants of this town are so accustomed to being annoyed and despoiled, and to being treated like those of a rebellious town or colony, that arbitrary power no longer frightens them, and they simply ask that their lives and property be protected against murderers and pillagers, and that things be entrusted to sure and impartial hands."[10] Roederer, III., 481. (Report on the Sénatorerie of Caen, Germinal 2, year XIII.)- Faber, "Notice sur l'intérieur de la France"(1807), p.110, 112. "Justice is one of the bright sides of France of to-day.

It is costly, but it cannot be called venal."[11] Rocquain, ibid., 19. (Report of Fran?ois de Nantes on the 8th military division.) "For the past eighteen months a calm has prevailed here equal to that which existed before the Revolution. Balls and parties have been resumed in the towns, while the old dances of Provence, suspended for ten years, now gladden the people of the country."[12] Proclamation to the French people, Dec. 15, 1799.

[13] See "The Revolution," vol. III., p.292. (Notes.) (Laff. II, the notes on pp. 218-219.)[14] Decision of the Council of State, Pluvi?se 5, year VIII (Jan. 25, 1800).

[15] Forneron, "Histoire générale des émigrés," II., 374. In 1800, the army of Condé still comprised 1007 officers and 5840 volunteers.

[16] Decrees of Brumaire 3, year IV, and of Frimaire 9, year VI. (Cf.

"The Revolution," pp.433, 460.)

[17] Constitution of Frimaire 22, year VIII. (December 13, 1799), article 93. "The French nation declares that in no case will it suffer the return of the Frenchmen who, having abandoned their country since the 14th of July 1789, are not comprised in the exceptions made to the laws rendered against émigrés. It interdicts every new exception in this respect."[18] Opinion of the Council of State, Dec. 25, 1799.

[19] Resolution of Dec. 26, 1799. - Two ultra-Jacobins, exiled after Thermidor, are added to the list, Barère and Vadier, undoubtedly by way of compensation and not to let it appear that the scales inclined too much on one side.

[20] Resolution of Dec. 30, 1799.

[21] Resolutions of February 26, March 2, and March 3, 1800.

[22] Thibaudeau, "Mémoires sur le Consulat," 199. (Stated by the First Consul at Regnault at a meeting of the council of state, Aug.12, 1801.) "I am glad to hear the denunciation of striking off names. How many have you yourselves not asked for? It could not be otherwise.

Everybody has some relation or friend on the lists."[23] Thibaudeau. ibid. (Speech by the First Consul.) "Never have there been lists of émigrés;" there are only lists of absentees. The proof of this is that names have always been struck off. I have seen members of the Convention and even generals on the lists. Citizen Monge was inscribed."[24] Thibaudeau, ibid., 97. - "The minister of police made a great hue and cry over the arrest and sending back of a few émigrés who returned without permission, or who annoyed the buyers of their property, while, at the same time, it granted surveillance to all who asked for it, paying no attention to the distinction made by the resolution of Vendémiaire 28."[25] Sénatus-consulte of April 26, 1802.