The History of French Revolution. Taine Hippolyte
property, but not against the proprietor; they are more greedy than hostile. One of the noblemen of Corrèze,3278 M. de Saint-Victour, has been absent for five years. From the beginning of the Revolution, although his feudal dues constitute one-half of the income of his estate, he has given orders that no rigorous measures shall be employed in their collection, and the result is that, since 1789, none of them were collected. Moreover, having a reserve stock of wheat on hand, he lent grain, to the amount of four thousand francs, to those of his tenants who had none. In short, he is liberal, and, in the neighboring town, at Ussel, he even passes for a Jacobin. In spite of all this, he is treated just like the rest. It is because the parishes in his domain are "clubbist," governed by associations of moral and practical levelers; in one of them "the brigands have organized themselves into a municipal body," and have chosen their leader as procureur-syndic. Consequently, on the 22nd of August, eighty armed peasants opened the dam of his large pond, at the risk of submerging a village in the neighborhood, the inhabitants of which came and closed it up. Five other ponds belonging to him are demolished in the course of the two following weeks; fish to the value of from four to five thousand francs are stolen, and the rest perish in the weeds. In order to make this expropriation sure, an effort is made to burn his title-deeds; his chateau, twice attacked in the night, is saved only by the National Guard of Ussel. His farmers and domestics hesitate, for the time being, whether or not to cultivate the ground, and come and ask the steward if they could sow the seeds. There is no recourse to the proper authorities: the administrators and judges, even when their own property is concerned, "dare not openly show themselves," because "they do not find themselves protected by the shield of the law. "—Popular will, traversing both the old and the new law, obstinately persists in its work, and forcibly attains its ends. Thus, whatever the grand terms of liberty, equality, and fraternity may be, with which the Revolution graces itself, it is, in its essence, a transfer of property; in this alone consists its chief support, its enduring energy, its primary impulse and its historical significance.—Formerly, in antiquity, similar movements were accomplished, debts were abolished or lessened, the possessions of the rich were confiscated, and the public lands were divided; but this operation was confined to a city and limited to a small territory. For the first time it takes place on a large scale and in a modern State.—Thus far, in these vast States, when the deeper foundations have been disturbed, it has ever been on account of foreign domination or on account of an oppression of conscience. In France in the fifteenth century, in Holland in the sixteenth and in England in the seventeenth century, the peasant, the mechanic, and the laborer had taken up arms against an enemy or in behalf of their faith. On religious or patriotic zeal has followed the craving for prosperity and comfort, and the new motive is as powerful as the others; for in our industrial, democratic, and utilitarian societies it is this which governs almost all lives, and excites almost all efforts. Kept down for centuries, the passion recovers itself by throwing off government and privilege, the two great weights which have borne it down. At the present time this passion launches itself impetuously with its whole force, with brutal insensibility, athwart every kind of proprietorship that is legal and legitimate, whether it be public or private. The obstacles it encounters only render it the more destructive, beyond property it attacks proprietors, and completes plunder with proscriptions.
3201 (return) [ The expression is that of Jean Bon Saint-André to Mathieu Dumas, sent to re-establish tranquillity in Montauban (1790): "The day of vengeance, which we have been awaiting for a hundred years, has come!"]
3202 (return) [ De Dampmartin, I. 187 (an eye-witness).]
3203 (return) [ "Archives Nationales," F7, 3223 and 3216. Letters of M. de Bouzols, major general, residing at Montpellier, May 21, 25, 28, 1790.]
3204 (return) [ Mary Lafon, "Histoire d'une Ville Protestante ".(with original documents derived from the archives of Montauban).]
3205 (return) [ Archives Nationales," F7, 2216. Procés-verbal of the Municipality of Nîmes and report of the Abbé de Belmont.—Report of the Administrative commissioners, June 28, 1790.—Petition of the Catholics, April 20.—Letters of the Municipality, the commissioners, and M. de Nausel, on the events of May 2 and 3.—Letter of M. Rabaut Saint-Etienne, May 12—Petition of the widow Gas, July 30.—Report (printed) of M. Alquier, February 19, 1791.—Memoir (printed) of the massacre of the Catholics at Nîmes, by Froment (1790).—New address of the Municipality of Nîmes, presented by M. de Marguerite, mayor and deputy (1790), printed. Mercure de France, February 23, 1791.]
3206 (return) [ The petition is signed by 3,127 persons, besides 1560 who put a cross declaring that they could not write. The counter-petition of the club is signed by 262 persons.]
3207 (return) [ This last item, stated in M. Alquier's report, is denied by the municipality. According to it, the red rosettes gathered around the bishop's quarters had no guns.]
3208 (return) [ An insurrection in the sixteenth century, when the Protestants fired on the Catholics on St. Michael's Day.—320TR.]
3209 (return) [ "Archives Nationales," F7, 3216. Letter of M. de Lespin, Major at Nîmes, to the commandant of Provence, M de Perigord, July 27, 1790: "The plots and conspiracies which were attributed to the vanquished party, and which, it was believed, would be discovered in the depositions of the four hundred men in prison, vanish as the proceedings advance. The veritable culprits are to be found among the informers."]
3210 (return) [ Buchez and Roux, III. 240 (Memorandum of the Ministers, October 28, 1789).—"Archives Nationales," D, XXIX. 3. Deliberation of the Municipal council of Vernon (November 4, 1789)]
3211 (return) [ "Archives Nationales," KK, 1105. correspondence of M. de Thiard, November 4, 1789.—See similar occurrences, September 4, October 23, November 4 and 19, 1789, January 27 and March 27, 1790]
3212 (return) [ "Archives Nationales," F7, 3257. Letter from Gex, May 29, 1790.—Buchez and Roux, VII. 198, 369 (September, October, 1790).]
3213 (return) [ "Archives Nationales," H. 1453. correspondence of M. de Bercheny, Commandant of the four central provinces. Letters of May 25, June 11, 19, and 27, 1790.—" Archives Nationales," D. XXIX. 4. Deliberations of the district administrators of Bourbon-Lancy, May 26.]
3214 (return) [ "Archives Nationales," H. 2453. Minutes of the meeting of a dozen parishes in Nivernais, June 4. "White bread is to be 2 sous,