您的位置 : 首页 > 英文著作
The French Revolution
book 2.v. parliament first   Chapter 2.5.VIII. The Jacobins
Thomas Carlyle
下载:The French Revolution.txt
本书全文检索:
       Nevertheless let not Patriotism despair. Have we not, in Paris at least, a virtuous Petion, a wholly Patriotic Municipality? Virtuous Petion, ever since November, is Mayor of Paris: in our Municipality, the Public, for the Public is now admitted too, may behold an energetic Danton; further, an epigrammatic slow-sure Manuel; a resolute unrepentant Billaud-Varennes, of Jesuit breeding; Tallien able-editor; and nothing but Patriots, better or worse. So ran the November Elections: to the joy of most citizens; nay the very Court supported Petion rather than Lafayette. And so Bailly and his Feuillants, long waning like the Moon, had to withdraw then, making some sorrowful obeisance, into extinction;--or indeed into worse, into lurid half-light, grimmed by the shadow of that Red Flag of theirs, and bitter memory of the Champ-de-Mars. How swift is the progress of things and men! Not now does Lafayette, as on that Federation-day, when his noon was, 'press his sword firmly on the Fatherland's Altar,' and swear in sight of France: ah no; he, waning and setting ever since that hour, hangs now, disastrous, on the edge of the horizon; commanding one of those Three moulting Crane-flights of Armies, in a most suspected, unfruitful, uncomfortable manner!
       But, at most, cannot Patriotism, so many thousands strong in this Metropolis of the Universe, help itself? Has it not right-hands, pikes? Hammering of pikes, which was not to be prohibited by Mayor Bailly, has been sanctioned by Mayor Petion; sanctioned by Legislative Assembly. How not, when the King's so-called Constitutional Guard 'was making cartridges in secret?' Changes are necessary for the National Guard itself; this whole Feuillant-Aristocrat Staff of the Guard must be disbanded. Likewise, citizens without uniform may surely rank in the Guard, the pike beside the musket, in such a time: the 'active' citizen and the passive who can fight for us, are they not both welcome?--O my Patriot friends, indubitably Yes! Nay the truth is, Patriotism throughout, were it never so white-frilled, logical, respectable, must either lean itself heartily on Sansculottism, the black, bottomless; or else vanish, in the frightfullest way, to Limbo! Thus some, with upturned nose, will altogether sniff and disdain Sansculottism; others will lean heartily on it; nay others again will lean what we call heartlessly on it: three sorts; each sort with a destiny corresponding. (Discours de Bailly, Reponse de Petion (Moniteur du 20 Novembre 1791).)
       In such point of view, however, have we not for the present a Volunteer Ally, stronger than all the rest: namely, Hunger? Hunger; and what rushing of Panic Terror this and the sum-total of our other miseries may bring! For Sansculottism grows by what all other things die of. Stupid Peter Baille almost made an epigram, though unconsciously, and with the Patriot world laughing not at it but at him, when he wrote 'Tout va bien ici, le pain manque, All goes well here, victuals not to be had.' (Barbaroux, p. 94.)
       Neither, if you knew it, is Patriotism without her Constitution that can march; her not impotent Parliament; or call it, Ecumenic Council, and General-Assembly of the Jean-Jacques Churches: the Mother-Society, namely! Mother-Society with her three hundred full-grown Daughters; with what we can call little Granddaughters trying to walk, in every village of France, numerable, as Burke thinks, by the hundred thousand. This is the true Constitution; made not by Twelve-Hundred august Senators, but by Nature herself; and has grown, unconsciously, out of the wants and the efforts of these Twenty-five Millions of men. They are 'Lords of the Articles,' our Jacobins; they originate debates for the Legislative; discuss Peace and War; settle beforehand what the Legislative is to do. Greatly to the scandal of philosophical men, and of most Historians;--who do in that judge naturally, and yet not wisely. A Governing power must exist: your other powers here are simulacra; this power is it.
       Great is the Mother-Society: She has had the honour to be denounced by Austrian Kaunitz; (Moniteur, Seance du 29 Mars, 1792.) and is all the dearer to Patriotism. By fortune and valour, she has extinguished Feuillantism itself, at least the Feuillant Club. This latter, high as it once carried its head, she, on the 18th of February, has the satisfaction to see shut, extinct; Patriots having gone thither, with tumult, to hiss it out of pain. The Mother Society has enlarged her locality, stretches now over the whole nave of the Church. Let us glance in, with the worthy Toulongeon, our old Ex-Constituent Friend, who happily has eyes to see: 'The nave of the Jacobins Church,' says he, 'is changed into a vast Circus, the seats of which mount up circularly like an amphitheatre to the very groin of the domed roof. A high Pyramid of black marble, built against one of the walls, which was formerly a funeral monument, has alone been left standing: it serves now as back to the Office-bearers' Bureau. Here on an elevated Platform sit President and Secretaries, behind and above them the white Busts of Mirabeau, of Franklin, and various others, nay finally of Marat. Facing this is the Tribune, raised till it is midway between floor and groin of the dome, so that the speaker's voice may be in the centre. From that point, thunder the voices which shake all Europe: down below, in silence, are forging the thunderbolts and the firebrands. Penetrating into this huge circuit, where all is out of measure, gigantic, the mind cannot repress some movement of terror and wonder; the imagination recals those dread temples which Poetry, of old, had consecrated to the Avenging Deities.' (Toulongeon, ii. 124.)
       Scenes too are in this Jacobin Amphitheatre,--had History time for them. Flags of the 'Three free Peoples of the Universe,' trinal brotherly flags of England, America, France, have been waved here in concert; by London Deputation, of Whigs or Wighs and their Club, on this hand, and by young French Citizenesses on that; beautiful sweet-tongued Female Citizens, who solemnly send over salutation and brotherhood, also Tricolor stitched by their own needle, and finally Ears of Wheat; while the dome rebellows with Vivent les trois peuples libres! from all throats:--a most dramatic scene. Demoiselle Theroigne recites, from that Tribune in mid air, her persecutions in Austria; comes leaning on the arm of Joseph Chenier, Poet Chenier, to demand Liberty for the hapless Swiss of Chateau-Vieux. (Debats des Jacobins (Hist. Parl. xiii. 259, &c.).) Be of hope, ye Forty Swiss; tugging there, in the Brest waters; not forgotten!
       Deputy Brissot perorates from that Tribune; Desmoulins, our wicked Camille, interjecting audibly from below, "Coquin!" Here, though oftener in the Cordeliers, reverberates the lion-voice of Danton; grim Billaud-Varennes is here; Collot d'Herbois, pleading for the Forty Swiss; tearing a passion to rags. Apophthegmatic Manuel winds up in this pithy way: "A Minister must perish!"--to which the Amphitheatre responds: "Tous, Tous, All, All!" But the Chief Priest and Speaker of this place, as we said, is Robespierre, the long-winded incorruptible man. What spirit of Patriotism dwelt in men in those times, this one fact, it seems to us, will evince: that fifteen hundred human creatures, not bound to it, sat quiet under the oratory of Robespierre; nay, listened nightly, hour after hour, applausive; and gaped as for the word of life. More insupportable individual, one would say, seldom opened his mouth in any Tribune. Acrid, implacable-impotent; dull- drawling, barren as the Harmattan-wind! He pleads, in endless earnest- shallow speech, against immediate War, against Woollen Caps or Bonnets Rouges, against many things; and is the Trismegistus and Dalai-Lama of Patriot men. Whom nevertheless a shrill-voiced little man, yet with fine eyes, and a broad beautifully sloping brow, rises respectfully to controvert: he is, say the Newspaper Reporters, 'M. Louvet, Author of the charming Romance of Faublas.' Steady, ye Patriots! Pull not yet two ways; with a France rushing panic-stricken in the rural districts, and a Cimmerian Europe storming in on you!
用户中心

本站图书检索

本书目录

book 1.i. death of louis xv
   Chapter 1.1.I. Louis the Well-Beloved
   Chapter 1.1.II. Realised Ideals
   Chapter 1.1.III. Viaticum
   Chapter 1.1.IV. Louis the Unforgotten
book 1.ii. the paper age
   Chapter 1.2.I. Astraea Redux
   Chapter 1.2.II. Petition in Hieroglyphs
   Chapter 1.2.III. Questionable
   Chapter 1.2.IV. Maurepas
   Chapter 1.2.V. Astraea Redux without Cash
   Chapter 1.2.VI. Windbags
   Chapter 1.2.VII. Contrat Social
   Chapter 1.2.VIII. Printed Paper
book 1.iii. the parlement of paris
   Chapter 1.3.I. Dishonoured Bills
   Chapter 1.3.II. Controller Calonne
   Chapter 1.3.III. The Notables
   Chapter 1.3.IV. Lomenie's Edicts
   Chapter 1.3.V. Lomenie's Thunderbolts
   Chapter 1.3.VI. Lomenie's Plots
   Chapter 1.3.VII. Internecine
   Chapter 1.3.VIII. Lomenie's Death-throes
book 1.iii. the parlement of pari
   Chapter 1.3.IX. Burial with Bonfire
book 1.iv. states-general
   Chapter 1.4.I. The Notables Again
   Chapter 1.4.II. The Election
   Chapter 1.4.III. Grown Electric
   Chapter 1.4.IV. The Procession
book 1.v. the third estate
   Chapter 1.5.I. Inertia
   Chapter 1.5.II. Mercury de Breze
   Chapter 1.5.III. Broglie the War-God
   Chapter 1.5.IV. To Arms!
   Chapter 1.5.V. Give us Arms
   Chapter 1.5.VI. Storm and Victory
   Chapter 1.5.VII. Not a Revolt
   Chapter 1.5.VIII. Conquering your King
   Chapter 1.5.IX. The Lanterne
book 1.vi. consolidation
   Chapter 1.6.I. Make the Constitution
   Chapter 1.6.II. The Constituent Assembly
   Chapter 1.6.III. The General Overturn
   Chapter 1.6.IV. In Queue
   Chapter 1.6.V. The Fourth Estate
book 1.vii. the insurrection of women
   Chapter 1.7.I. Patrollotism
   Chapter 1.7.II. O Richard, O my King
   Chapter 1.7.III. Black Cockades
   Chapter 1.7.IV. The Menads
   Chapter 1.7.V. Usher Maillard
   Chapter 1.7.VI. To Versailles
   Chapter 1.7.VII. At Versailles
   Chapter 1.7.VIII. The Equal Diet
   Chapter 1.7.IX. Lafayette
   Chapter 1.7.X. The Grand Entries
   Chapter 1.7.XI. From Versailles
book 2.i. the feast of pikes
   Chapter 2.1.I. In the Tuileries
   Chapter 2.1.II. In the Salle de Manege
   Chapter 2.1.III. The Muster
   Chapter 2.1.IV. Journalism
   Chapter 2.1.V. Clubbism
   Chapter 2.1.VI. Je le jure
   Chapter 2.1.VII. Prodigies
   Chapter 2.1.VIII. Solemn League and Covenant
   Chapter 2.1.IX. Symbolic
   Chapter 2.1.X. Mankind
   Chapter 2.1.XI. As in the Age of Gold
   Chapter 2.1.XII. Sound and Smoke
book 2.ii. nanci
   Chapter 2.2.I. Bouille
   Chapter 2.2.II. Arrears and Aristocrats
   Chapter 2.2.III. Bouille at Metz
   Chapter 2.2.IV. Arrears at Nanci
   Chapter 2.2.V. Inspector Malseigne
   Chapter 2.2.VI. Bouille at Nanci
book 2.iii. the tuileries
   Chapter 2.3.I. Epimenides
   Chapter 2.3.II. The Wakeful
   Chapter 2.3.III. Sword in Hand
   Chapter 2.3.IV. To fly or not to fly
   Chapter 2.3.V. The Day of Poniards
   Chapter 2.3.VI. Mirabeau
   Chapter 2.3.VII. Death of Mirabeau
book 2.iv. varennes
   Chapter 2.4.I. Easter at Saint-Cloud
   Chapter 2.4.II. Easter at Paris
   Chapter 2.4.III. Count Fersen
   Chapter 2.4.IV. Attitude
   Chapter 2.4.V. The New Berline
   Chapter 2.4.VI. Old-Dragoon Drouet
   Chapter 2.4.VII. The Night of Spurs
   Chapter 2.4.VIII. The Return
   Chapter 2.4.IX. Sharp Shot
book 2.v. parliament first
   Chapter 2.5.I. Grande Acceptation
   Chapter 2.5.II. The Book of the Law
   Chapter 2.5.III. Avignon
   Chapter 2.5.IV. No Sugar
   Chapter 2.5.V. Kings and Emigrants
   Chapter 2.5.VI. Brigands and Jales
   Chapter 2.5.VII. Constitution will not march
   Chapter 2.5.VIII. The Jacobins
   Chapter 2.5.IX. Minister Roland
   Chapter 2.5.X. Petion-National-Pique
   Chapter 2.5.XI. The Hereditary Representative
   Chapter 2.5.XII. Procession of the Black Breeches
book 2.vi. the marseillese
   Chapter 2.6.I. Executive that does not act
   Chapter 2.6.II. Let us march
   Chapter 2.6.III. Some Consolation to Mankind
   Chapter 2.6.IV. Subterranean
   Chapter 2.6.V. At Dinner
   Chapter 2.6.VI. The Steeples at Midnight
   Chapter 2.6.VII. The Swiss
   Chapter 2.6.VIII. Constitution burst in Pieces
book 3.i. september
   Chapter 3.1.I. The Improvised Commune
   Chapter 3.1.II. Danton
   Chapter 3.1.III. Dumouriez
   Chapter 3.1.IV. September in Paris
   Chapter 3.1.V. A Trilogy
   Chapter 3.1.VI. The Circular
   Chapter 3.1.VII. September in Argonne
   Chapter 3.1.VIII. Exeunt
book 3.ii. regicide
   Chapter 3.2.I. The Deliberative
   Chapter 3.2.II. The Executive
   Chapter 3.2.III. Discrowned
   Chapter 3.2.IV. The Loser pays
   Chapter 3.2.V. Stretching of Formulas
   Chapter 3.2.VI. At the Bar
   Chapter 3.2.VII. The Three Votings
   Chapter 3.2.VIII. Place de la Revolution
book 3.iii. the girondins
   Chapter 3.3.I. Cause and Effect
   Chapter 3.3.II. Culottic and Sansculottic
   Chapter 3.3.III. Growing shrill
   Chapter 3.3.IV. Fatherland in Danger
   Chapter 3.3.V. Sansculottism Accoutred
   Chapter 3.3.VI. The Traitor
   Chapter 3.3.VII. In Fight
   Chapter 3.3.VIII. In Death-Grips
   Chapter 3.3.IX. Extinct
book 3.iv. terror
   Chapter 3.4.I. Charlotte Corday
   Chapter 3.4.II. In Civil War
   Chapter 3.4.III. Retreat of the Eleven
   Chapter 3.4.IV. O Nature
   Chapter 3.4.V. Sword of Sharpness
   Chapter 3.4.VI. Risen against Tyrants
   Chapter 3.4.VII. Marie-Antoinette
   Chapter 3.4.VIII. The Twenty-two
book 3.v. terror the order of the day
   Chapter 3.5.I. Rushing down
   Chapter 3.5.II. Death
   Chapter 3.5.III. Destruction
   Chapter 3.5.IV. Carmagnole complete
   Chapter 3.5.V. Like a Thunder-Cloud
   Chapter 3.5.VI. Do thy Duty
   Chapter 3.5.VII. Flame-Picture
book 3.vi. thermidor
   Chapter 3.6.I. The Gods are athirst
   Chapter 3.6.II. Danton, No weakness
   Chapter 3.6.III. The Tumbrils
   Chapter 3.6.IV. Mumbo-Jumbo
   Chapter 3.6.V. The Prisons
   Chapter 3.6.VI. To finish the Terror
   Chapter 3.6.VII. Go down to
book 3.vii. vendemiaire
   Chapter 3.7.I. Decadent
   Chapter 3.7.II. La Cabarus
   Chapter 3.7.III. Quiberon
   Chapter 3.7.IV. Lion not dead
   Chapter 3.7.V. Lion sprawling its last
   Chapter 3.7.VI. Grilled Herrings
   Chapter 3.7.VII. The Whiff of Grapeshot