书城公版The Origins of Contemporary France
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第972章

[26] Sénatus-consulte of April 26, 1802, title II., articles 16 and 17. - Gaudin, Duc de Ga?te, "Mémoires," I., 183. (Report on the administration of the Finances in 1803.) "The old proprietors have been reinstated in more than 20,000 hectares of forests."[27] Thibaudeau, ibid., p. 98. (Speech of the First Consul, Thermidor 24, year IX.) Some of the émigrés who have been pardoned are cutting down their forests, either from necessity or to send money abroad. Iwill not allow the worst enemies of the republic, the defenders of ancient prejudices, to recover their fortunes and despoil France. I am glad to welcome them back; but it is important that the nation should preserve its forests; the navy needs them."[28] An arpent measures about an acre and a half.(TR.)[29] Stourm, "Les Finances de l'ancien régime et de la révolution,"II., 459 to 461. - (According to the figures appended to the projected law of 1825.) - This relates only to their patrimony in real estate; their personal estate was wholly swept away, at first through the abolition, without indemnity, of their available feudal rights under the Constituent and Legislative assemblies, and afterwards through the legal and forced transformation of their personal capital into national bonds (titres sur le grand-livre, rentes) which the final bankruptcy of the Directory reduced to almost nothing.

[30] Pelet de la Lozère, "Opinions de Napoléon au conseil d'état"(March 15th and July 1st, 1806): "One of the most unjust effects of the revolution was to let an émigré; whose property was found to be sold, starve to death, and give back 100,000 crowns of rente to another whose property happened to be still in the hands of the government. How odd, again, to have returned unsold fields and to have kept the woods! It would have been better, starting from the legal forfeiture of all property, to return only 6000 francs of rente to one alone and distribute what remained among the rest."[31] Léonce de Lavergne, "Economie rurale de la France," p.26.

(According to the table of names with indemnities awarded by the law of 1825.) - Duc de Rovigo, Mémoires," IV., 400.

[32] De Puymaigre, "Souvenirs de l'émigration de l'empire et de la restauration," p.94.

[33] Pelet de la Lozère, ibid., p.272.

[34] De Puymaigre, ibid., passim. - Alexandrine des écherolles, "Une famille noble pendant la Terreur," pp.328, 402, 408. - I add to published documents personal souvenirs and family narrations.

[35] Duc de Rovigo, "Mémoires," IV., 399. (On the provincial noblesse which had emigrated and returned.) "The First Consul quietly gave orders that none of the applications made by the large number of those who asked for minor situations in various branches of the administration should be rejected on account of emigration."[36] M. de Vitrolles, "Mémoires." - M. d'Haussonville, "Ma jeunesse,"p. 6o: "One morning, my father learns that he has been appointed chamberlain, with a certain number of other persons belonging to the greatest families of the faubourg Saint-Germain."[37] Madame de Rémusat, "Mémoires," II., 312, 315 and following pages, 373. - Madame de Sta?l, "Considérations sur la révolution fran?aise,"4th part, ch IV.

[38] Roederer, III., 459. (Speech by Napoleon, December 30, 1802.)--"Very well, I do protect the nobles of France; but they must see that they need protection. . . . I give places to many of them; I restore them to public distinction and even to the honors of the drawing-room;but they feel that it is alone through my good will. - Ibid., III., 558 (January 1809): "I repent daily of a mistake I have made in my government; the most serious one I ever made, and I perceive its bad effects every day. It was the giving back to the émigrés the totality of their possessions. I ought to have massed them in common and given each one simply the chance of an income of 6000 francs. As soon as Isaw my mistake I withdrew from thirty to forty millions of forests;but far too many are still in the hands of a great number of them." -We here see the attitude he would impose on them, that of clients and grateful pensioners. They do not stand in this attitude. (Roederer, III., 472. Report on the Sénatorerie of Caen, 1803.) - "The returned émigrés are not friendly nor even satisfied; their enjoyment of what they have recovered is less than their indignation at what they have lost. They speak of the amnesty without gratitude, and as only partial justice. . . . In other respects they appear submissive."[39] Duc de Rovigo1 "Memoires." V., 297. Towards the end, large numbers of the young nobles went into the army. "In 1812, there, was not a marshal, or even a general, who had not some of these on his staff, or as aids-de-camp. Nearly all the cavalry regiments in the army were commanded by officers belonging to these families. They had already attracted notice in the infantry. All these young nobles had openly joined the emperor because they were easily influenced by love of glory."[40] Madame de Rémusat II., 299 (1806): "He began to surround himself about this time with so much ceremony that none of us had scarcely any intimate relations with him. . . . The court became more and more crowded and monotonous, each doing on the minute what he had to do.

Nobody thought of venturing outside the brief series of ideas which are generated within the restricted circle of the same duties. . . .

Increasing despotism, . . . fear of a reproof if one failed in the slightest particular, silence kept by us all. . . . There was no opportunity to indulge emotion or interchange any observation of the slightest importance."[41] Roederer, III., 558 (January 1809). - "The Modern Régime," ante, book I., ch. II.

[42] Madame de Rémusat, III., 75, 155: "When the minister of police learned that jesting or malicious remarks had been made in one of the Paris drawing-rooms he at once notified the master or mistress of the house to be more watchful of their company." - Ibid., p.187 (1807):