keehah
8th March 2023, 07:04 AM
Seems familiar
Excerpt from pages 411-414
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION; A STUDY IN DEMOCRACY
(Second Edition) 1919
BY NESTA H. WEBSTER
...Accordingly war was now waged with particular ferocity on the manufacturing towns. In August the revolutionary troops surrounded Lyon, where the authorities, exasperated by the sanguinary propaganda of Chalier, had ended by condemning this disciple of Marat to death. The siege lasted until the 9th of October 1793, when, reduced by famine, Lyon was obliged to surrender, and it was then decided that the magnificent city, once the pride of France, must be demolished. " The name of Lyon," cried Barere at the Convention, " must no longer exist, you will call it Ville Affranchie." On the ruins he proposed to erect a monument bearing the words, " Lyon made war on liberty ; Lyon is no more." Thereupon the Convention passed the decree : " The town of Lyon shall be destroyed ; every part of it inhabited by the rich shall be demolished, only the dwellings of the poor shall remain."
Emissaries were then sent to carry out the task ; the paralytic Couthon, borne on a litter about the city, struck with a silver hammer the buildings destined to destruction, saying as he did so, *' In the name of the law I demolish you," and instantly masons set to work upon the task. Meanwhile orators incited the working-classes to violence : " What are you doing, pusillanimous workmen, in these industrial occupations by which opulence degrades you ? Come out of this servitude and confront the rich man who oppresses you . . . overthrow his fortune, over- throw these edifices, the wreckage belongs to you. It is thus that you will rise to that sublime equality, the basis of true liberty, the vigorous principle of a warrior people to whom commerce and arts should be unnecessary."
It will be seen, therefore, that there was no question of readjusting relations between employers and employed; the whole industrial system was simply to be destroyed whilst the workers were left to starve upon the ruins.
Yet even when commerce had gone the way of aristocracy, " and pride of wealth no longer violated the principles of ' sublime equality,' " yet another centre of gangrene still remained — the educated classes. It was here that Robespierre displayed particular energy. Men of talent had always been abhorrent to him—hence his inveterate animosity towards the Girondins. Unable himself to rise out of the crowd of Httle lawyers amongst whom he had made his debut in Paris, he could not forgive success achieved by eloquence or literary ability. To the Incorruptible wealth offered little or no temptation ; but superiority of talent roused in him an envy that bordered on insanity, and it was mainly owing to his influence that a campaign against intellect, art, and education was now inaugurated. " All highly educated men were persecuted," said Fourcroy later to the Convention ; "it was enough to have some knowledge, to be a man of letters, in order to be arrested as an aristocrat. . . . Robespierre . . . with atrocious skill, rent, calumniated ... all those who had given themselves up to great studies, all those who possessed wide knowledge ... he felt that no educated man would ever bend the knee to him."
This war on education was even carried out against the treasures of science, art, and literature. Manuel proposed to demolish the Porte Saint-Denis ; Chaumette wanted to kill all the rare animals in the Museum of Natural History ; Hanriot proposed to burn the Biblotheque Nationale, and his suggestion was repeated at Marseilles ; the other decemvirs, taking up the cry, added, " Yes, we will burn all the libraries, for only the history of the Revolution and the laws will be needed." And although the great National Library of Paris survived, thousands of books and valuable pictures all over France were destroyed or sold for next to nothing.
Not only education but politeness in all forms was to be destroyed. By a decree of the Commune on the 2ist of August 1792 the titles of " Monsieur " and " Madame " had been formally abolished, and the words " Citoyen " or " Citoyenne " substituted, and in order to satisfy the exponents of equality it had now become necessary to assume a rough and boorish manner, to present an uncultivated appearance. A refined countenance, hands that bore no marks of manual labour, well-brushed hair, clean and decent garments, were regarded with suspicion—to make sure of keeping one's head on one's shoulders it was advisable that it should be unkempt. Thus, says Beaulieu, ' those who had been born with a gentle exterior . . . were obliged to distort their faces, to quicken their movements, so as to look as if they formed a part of those ferocious bands that had been loosed against them. Our dandies had allowed their moustaches to grow long : they had ruffled their hair, soiled their hands, and put on repulsive clothes. Our philosophers, our men of letters, wore large bristling caps from which hung long fox-tails that floated on their shoulders ; some dragged great wheeled sabres along the pavement ; they were taken for Tartars. Paris was no longer recognizable ; one would have said that all the bandits of Europe had replaced its brilliant population."
In a word, it was now not merely war on nobility, on wealth, on industry, on art, and on intellect ; it was war on civilization. France was to return to a state of savagery. Insane as the project may seem, we must recognize it nevertheless to be the logical outcome of the desire for absolute equality. But unfortunately, when the equalizing process reached this stage, an unexpected difficulty occurred. The aristocracy of birth had long since been humbled to the dust ; the aristocracy of wealth was reduced to beggary ; the aristocracy of intellect concealed itself beneath a rude exterior; yet, after all, aristocracy still survived triumphantly, for lo ! it had taken refuge amongst the people. " Nowhere," says Taine, " are there so many suspects as amongst the people ; the shop, the farm, and the workshops contain more aristocrats than the presbytery or the chateau. In fact, according to the Jacobins, the cultivators are nearly aristocrats ; all the tradesmen are essentially counter-revolutionary . . . the butchers and bakers . . . are of an insufferable aristocracy." " The women of the market," writes a government spy, " except a few who are bribed, or whose husbands are Jacobins, curse, swear, rave, and fume ; but they dare not speak too loud, because they are all afraid of the revolutionary committee and the guillotine." " This morning," said a shop-keeper, ** I had four or five of them here. They do not wish to be called ' citizenesses ' any longer. They say they spit on the Republic." In the provinces matters were still worse ; not only had reverence for religion and the King survived, but everywhere respect for superiority and successful enterprise prevailed—the good bourgeois whose business had prospered, the worthy mayor renowned for his benevolence, the working-man who had " got on in the world," all these in the eyes of country-folk seemed more deserving of esteem than the drunkard or the wastrel. How was perfect equality to be achieved if the people themselves persisted in raising one man above another ?
It is easy to imagine the despair that seized on the surgeons who had embarked on the great scheme of eliminating gangrene when they discovered its existence in this most vital point of the body. Yet, nothing daunted, they grasped their instruments and set to work once more ; if " the people " themselves were gangrened, then the people too must come under the knife — the blade of the guillotine must fall alike on the neck of noble, priest, or peasant.
So on the 5th of September the word went forth from the Commune of Paris : " Let us make Terror the order of the day ! " In order to carry out this system it was necessary to reconstruct the government. Already the first Constitution framed on the cahiers had been swept away and replaced by the anarchic code known as the " Constitution de I'An II." without further reference to the desires of the people. But now the Anarchists had recourse to a still more arbitrary measure, and on the 10th of October the Convention, entirely dominated by the Mountain, acceded to the proposal of St. Just that a " provisional revolutionary government " should be proclaimed, in which every department of the State was to be placed under the control of the Comite de Salut Public...
Excerpt from pages 411-414
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION; A STUDY IN DEMOCRACY
(Second Edition) 1919
BY NESTA H. WEBSTER
...Accordingly war was now waged with particular ferocity on the manufacturing towns. In August the revolutionary troops surrounded Lyon, where the authorities, exasperated by the sanguinary propaganda of Chalier, had ended by condemning this disciple of Marat to death. The siege lasted until the 9th of October 1793, when, reduced by famine, Lyon was obliged to surrender, and it was then decided that the magnificent city, once the pride of France, must be demolished. " The name of Lyon," cried Barere at the Convention, " must no longer exist, you will call it Ville Affranchie." On the ruins he proposed to erect a monument bearing the words, " Lyon made war on liberty ; Lyon is no more." Thereupon the Convention passed the decree : " The town of Lyon shall be destroyed ; every part of it inhabited by the rich shall be demolished, only the dwellings of the poor shall remain."
Emissaries were then sent to carry out the task ; the paralytic Couthon, borne on a litter about the city, struck with a silver hammer the buildings destined to destruction, saying as he did so, *' In the name of the law I demolish you," and instantly masons set to work upon the task. Meanwhile orators incited the working-classes to violence : " What are you doing, pusillanimous workmen, in these industrial occupations by which opulence degrades you ? Come out of this servitude and confront the rich man who oppresses you . . . overthrow his fortune, over- throw these edifices, the wreckage belongs to you. It is thus that you will rise to that sublime equality, the basis of true liberty, the vigorous principle of a warrior people to whom commerce and arts should be unnecessary."
It will be seen, therefore, that there was no question of readjusting relations between employers and employed; the whole industrial system was simply to be destroyed whilst the workers were left to starve upon the ruins.
Yet even when commerce had gone the way of aristocracy, " and pride of wealth no longer violated the principles of ' sublime equality,' " yet another centre of gangrene still remained — the educated classes. It was here that Robespierre displayed particular energy. Men of talent had always been abhorrent to him—hence his inveterate animosity towards the Girondins. Unable himself to rise out of the crowd of Httle lawyers amongst whom he had made his debut in Paris, he could not forgive success achieved by eloquence or literary ability. To the Incorruptible wealth offered little or no temptation ; but superiority of talent roused in him an envy that bordered on insanity, and it was mainly owing to his influence that a campaign against intellect, art, and education was now inaugurated. " All highly educated men were persecuted," said Fourcroy later to the Convention ; "it was enough to have some knowledge, to be a man of letters, in order to be arrested as an aristocrat. . . . Robespierre . . . with atrocious skill, rent, calumniated ... all those who had given themselves up to great studies, all those who possessed wide knowledge ... he felt that no educated man would ever bend the knee to him."
This war on education was even carried out against the treasures of science, art, and literature. Manuel proposed to demolish the Porte Saint-Denis ; Chaumette wanted to kill all the rare animals in the Museum of Natural History ; Hanriot proposed to burn the Biblotheque Nationale, and his suggestion was repeated at Marseilles ; the other decemvirs, taking up the cry, added, " Yes, we will burn all the libraries, for only the history of the Revolution and the laws will be needed." And although the great National Library of Paris survived, thousands of books and valuable pictures all over France were destroyed or sold for next to nothing.
Not only education but politeness in all forms was to be destroyed. By a decree of the Commune on the 2ist of August 1792 the titles of " Monsieur " and " Madame " had been formally abolished, and the words " Citoyen " or " Citoyenne " substituted, and in order to satisfy the exponents of equality it had now become necessary to assume a rough and boorish manner, to present an uncultivated appearance. A refined countenance, hands that bore no marks of manual labour, well-brushed hair, clean and decent garments, were regarded with suspicion—to make sure of keeping one's head on one's shoulders it was advisable that it should be unkempt. Thus, says Beaulieu, ' those who had been born with a gentle exterior . . . were obliged to distort their faces, to quicken their movements, so as to look as if they formed a part of those ferocious bands that had been loosed against them. Our dandies had allowed their moustaches to grow long : they had ruffled their hair, soiled their hands, and put on repulsive clothes. Our philosophers, our men of letters, wore large bristling caps from which hung long fox-tails that floated on their shoulders ; some dragged great wheeled sabres along the pavement ; they were taken for Tartars. Paris was no longer recognizable ; one would have said that all the bandits of Europe had replaced its brilliant population."
In a word, it was now not merely war on nobility, on wealth, on industry, on art, and on intellect ; it was war on civilization. France was to return to a state of savagery. Insane as the project may seem, we must recognize it nevertheless to be the logical outcome of the desire for absolute equality. But unfortunately, when the equalizing process reached this stage, an unexpected difficulty occurred. The aristocracy of birth had long since been humbled to the dust ; the aristocracy of wealth was reduced to beggary ; the aristocracy of intellect concealed itself beneath a rude exterior; yet, after all, aristocracy still survived triumphantly, for lo ! it had taken refuge amongst the people. " Nowhere," says Taine, " are there so many suspects as amongst the people ; the shop, the farm, and the workshops contain more aristocrats than the presbytery or the chateau. In fact, according to the Jacobins, the cultivators are nearly aristocrats ; all the tradesmen are essentially counter-revolutionary . . . the butchers and bakers . . . are of an insufferable aristocracy." " The women of the market," writes a government spy, " except a few who are bribed, or whose husbands are Jacobins, curse, swear, rave, and fume ; but they dare not speak too loud, because they are all afraid of the revolutionary committee and the guillotine." " This morning," said a shop-keeper, ** I had four or five of them here. They do not wish to be called ' citizenesses ' any longer. They say they spit on the Republic." In the provinces matters were still worse ; not only had reverence for religion and the King survived, but everywhere respect for superiority and successful enterprise prevailed—the good bourgeois whose business had prospered, the worthy mayor renowned for his benevolence, the working-man who had " got on in the world," all these in the eyes of country-folk seemed more deserving of esteem than the drunkard or the wastrel. How was perfect equality to be achieved if the people themselves persisted in raising one man above another ?
It is easy to imagine the despair that seized on the surgeons who had embarked on the great scheme of eliminating gangrene when they discovered its existence in this most vital point of the body. Yet, nothing daunted, they grasped their instruments and set to work once more ; if " the people " themselves were gangrened, then the people too must come under the knife — the blade of the guillotine must fall alike on the neck of noble, priest, or peasant.
So on the 5th of September the word went forth from the Commune of Paris : " Let us make Terror the order of the day ! " In order to carry out this system it was necessary to reconstruct the government. Already the first Constitution framed on the cahiers had been swept away and replaced by the anarchic code known as the " Constitution de I'An II." without further reference to the desires of the people. But now the Anarchists had recourse to a still more arbitrary measure, and on the 10th of October the Convention, entirely dominated by the Mountain, acceded to the proposal of St. Just that a " provisional revolutionary government " should be proclaimed, in which every department of the State was to be placed under the control of the Comite de Salut Public...