Hymne du 21 janvier.
Les flammes d'Etna sur ses laves antiques |
Hymn of 21 January
Etna's flames of ancient lava |
Ô Richard! Ô mon roi!
Ô Richard! Ô mon roi! Ô Richard! Ô mon roi! Monarques, cherchez, cherchez des amis, Ô Richard! Ô mon roi! Ô Richard! Ô mon roi! Il n'est que moi, Il n'est que moi, |
O Richard, O, my King!
O Richard! O my king! O Richard! O my king! Monarchs search, search for friends, O Richard! O my King! O Richard! O my king! It's only me, It's only me |
It is above all in the interests of the Princes of your Blood to tell you the truth. By their rank, they are first among your subjects; by their status, they are your natural advisers; and by their rights, they are interested in defending yours. By the same token, they believe they owe you an explanation of their feelings and thoughts.
Sire, the state is in peril. Your person is respected, the virtues of the monarch assure him of the nation's respect. But Sire, a revolution is brewing in the elements of government and is being brought about by rousing the people. Institutions thought to be sacred, through which the monarchy has flourished for so many centuries, are being questioned, seen as problems, or even disparaged as unjust.
There is a deliberate plan of insubordination in progress that holds nothing but contempt for the laws of the state. This is evidenced by the subject matter and tone displayed in the writings published in the Assembly of Notables, in the memoranda sent to the princely signatories, and in the demands drawn up by various provinces, towns, or corporations. Every author sets himself up as legislator. Eloquence or a clever pen, even if these talents are devoid of education, knowledge, or experience, seem sufficient authorization to settle the empireÕs constitutional questions. Whoever puts forth a bold proposition or proposes to change the laws is sure to draw a readership or start a faction.
Unfortunately, the rate with which this turmoil is developing is such that opinions, which not long ago would have seemed most reprehensible, today appear sensible and fair. They are making people indignant, and will soon allow them to accept these views as normal and legitimate. Who can say how far these audacious opinions will go? The rights of the throne have begun to be questioned. Opinion is divided over what is due the first two orders of the state. Property rights soon will be attacked and the unequal distribution of wealth will be represented as something in need of reform. It has been proposed that feudal dues be abolished as a barbarous remnant of an oppressive system.
From these new theories, and from the design to change rights and laws, comes a claim advanced by several sections of the Third Estate that their order should have two votes in the Estates-General while each of the two leading orders continues to have only one. . . .
Your Majesty has been shown the importance of maintaining the only constitutional method of convening the Estates-General, the method that is hallowed by law and custom and is the immutable foundation of the French monarchy: the distinction between the orders, the right to deliberate in separate chambers, and equality of votes.
These principles have been developed and proven, and would seem to be irrefutable.
For the princely signatories there remains only to express the feelings they have that are inspired by their loyalty to the state and to Your Majesty.
The princes cannot hide the fact that they fear for the state should the claims of the Third Estate be successful, nor can they conceal the dire consequences the proposed revolution would incur for the constitution of the estates. They foresee a sad future where each king alters the nationÕs laws in accordance with his personal inclinations. They foresee a superstitious king giving extra votes to the clergy. They foresee a bellicose king doting on the nobles who follow him into battle. They see the Third Estate obtaining a majority of votes only to be punished for its success because of these changes. As time elapses, each order will either be the oppressor or the oppressed. The constitution will be corrupt or unstable and the nation will always be divided as well as weak and unhappy.
Let the Third Estate, then, cease its attack upon the rights of the first two orders. . . . [These] rights are as ancient as the monarchy and should be as unalterable as its constitution. Let them limit themselves to seeking the reduction of taxes by which they are overburdened. Then, the first two orders, recognizing that the Third Estate has citizens who are important to them, will generously be able to renounce any prerogatives that may have a pecuniary value and agree to bear their full share of public taxation.
To Madame de Bombelles:
. . . . But, to return to my account of Tuesday, the women and the people in courtyards demanded that the King should come to Paris and this was decided upon at eleven o'clock. Then the King and the Queen showed themselves on the balcony of the King's room. There were shouts of Vive le Roi! La Reine! La Nation! Le Roi à Paris, and others I could not distinguish.
M. de La Fayette in an eloquent address to the people made them renew their oath of allegiance in the presence of the King. At last, at one o'clock we got into our carriages. Versailles greeted our departure with demonstrations of joy. We went on our way, surrounded by the whole of the National Guard and by several gentlemen of the Bodyguard on foot, who had exchanged their hats with the forage caps of the Grenadiers. I forgot to say that after the King had appeared on the balcony of the Palace, they had also shown themselves and had thrown away their bandoliers and their hats as a sign of peace. The King had asked the people to leave them alone and not to chase them any longer. I keep on thinking of them and always with pleasure, for no troops could have behaved themselves better. They really acted like angels. The shouts of Vive le Roi! Vive la Nation! and down with the priests began at dawn and continued until we had reached the Hôtel de Ville. At Paris there are only the King, the Queen, Monsieur, Madame, the children and I. My aunts are at Bellevue. My rooms look on to the courtyard. On Wednesday a crowd assembled beneath my windows calling for the King and the Queen! I went to fetch them. The Queen spoke with the charm you know so well and the way she conducted herself that morning did her good with the people. The whole day they had to show themselves at the windows, for the courtyard and the garden continued to be crowded. At present there are fewer people and the National Guard are keeping order. On Thursday there was some excitement at the Mont-de-Piété, because the press had published something about the Queen having promised to pay for all pawned objects on which less than a louis had been advanced—that would have been a matter of three million francs. You can guess the motive for spreading this rumour. It would be impossible for anyone to show more grace and courage than the Queen has done during the last week.
Monsieur le Baron de Breteuil, knowing the full extent of your zeal and fidelity and wishing to give you renewed proof of my confidence, I have chosen to confide the interests of my crown to you. Since circumstances do not allow me to give you my instructions on this or that matter or to have a continuous correspondence with you, I am sending you this letter as a symbol of plenipotential powers and authorization vis-à-vis the various powers with whom you may have to deal on my behalf. You know my intentions and I leave it to your discretion to make such use of these powers as you deem necessary for the good of my service. I approve of everything that you do to achieve my aims, which are the restoration of my legitimate authority and the happiness of my People. Upon which, Monsieur le Baron, I pray God that He keep you in His holy protection.
The calling of the Estates-General, the doubling of the deputies of the Third Estate, the efforts which the King made to clear up the difficulties which might delay the meeting of the Estates-General, and those which arose after its opening, all the retrenchments which the King made in his personal expenditure, all the sacrifices which he made for his people in the session of June 3rd, finally the union of the orders, brought about by the expression of the King's desire, a measure which His Majesty then judged indispensable for the inauguration of the Estates-General: all his anxiety, all his efforts, all his generosity, all his devotion to his people, all have been disparaged, all have been misconstrued.
The time when the Estates-General, assuming the name of the National Assembly, began to busy itself with the constitution of the kingdom, calls to mind the memoirs which the factious were cunning enough to cause to be sent from several provinces and the movements of Paris to cause the deputies to disregard one of the principal clauses contained in all their cahiers, which provided that the making of the laws should be done in concert with the King. In defiance of that clause, the assembly put the King entirely outside the constitution, in refusing to him the right to grant or to withhold his sanction to the articles which it regarded as constitutional, while reserving to itself the right to reckon in that class those which it thought belonged there, and by restraining for those regarded as purely legislative the royal prerogative to a right of suspension until the third legislature; a purely illusory right, as so many examples prove only too fully.
Justice is rendered in the name of the King . . . but it is only a matter of form. . . . One of the latest decrees of the assembly has deprived the King of one of the fairest prerogatives everywhere attached to royal power, that of pardoning and commuting penalties. . . .
Internal administration. It is entirely in the hands of the departments, districts, and municipalities, too many authorities, who clog the movement of the machine and often thwart each other. All these bodies are elected by the people, and have no relations with the government, according to the decrees, except for their execution and for those special orders which are issued in consequence thereof. . . .
Finances. The King had declared, even before the meeting of the Estates-General, that he recognized in the assemblies of the nation the right to grant subsidies, and that he no longer desired to tax the people without their consent.
But the nearer we see the assembly approach the end of its labors, the more we see increased measures which make difficult or even impossible the carrying on of the government and create for it lack of confidence and disfavor; other regulations, instead of applying balm to the wounds which still bleed in many provinces only increase the uneasiness and provoke discontent. The spirit of the clubs dominates and invades everything; thousands of calumniating and incendiary newspapers and pamphlets, which increase daily, are only their echoes and prepare men to become what they wish them to be. The National Assembly has never dared to remedy that license, so far removed from true liberty; it has lost its credit, and even the force of which it would have need in order to turn upon its steps and to change that which would seem to it well to correct. We see by the spirit which reigns in the clubs, and the manner in which they make themselves masters of the new primary assemblies, what must be expected from them; and if they allow to become perceptible any inclinations to turn back upon any matter, it is in order to destroy the remainder of the monarchy and establish a metaphysical and philosophical government impossible to put into operation.
In view of all these reasons and the impossibility for the King, from the position in which he is placed, effecting the good and preventing the evil which is perpetrated, is it astonishing that the King has sought to recover his liberty and to put himself and his family in safety?
Frenchmen, and especially Parisians, you inhabitants of a city which the ancestors of His Majesty were pleased to call the good city of Paris, distrust the suggestions and lies of your false friends; return to your King; he will always be your father, your best friend: what pleasure will he not take in forgetting all his personal injuries, and in beholding himself again in the midst of you, when a constitution, which he shall have freely accepted, shall cause your religion to be respected, the government to be established upon a firm footing and made useful by its operation, the property and status of each person no longer disturbed, the laws no longer violated with impunity, and, finally, liberty founded upon firm and immovable foundations.
Signed, Louis
Paris, 20 June 1791.
The King forbids his ministers signing any order in his name, until they receive further orders; he commands the keeper of the seal of the state to send it to him, as soon as may be required on his part.
Signed, Louis
Paris, 20 June 1791.
Decree for the Arrest of the King. 17 June 1791.
The National Assembly orders that the minister of the interior shall immediately send couriers into all the departments, with orders to all the public functionaries and the national guards or troops of the line of the kingdom, to arrest or cause the arrest of all persons whomsoever leaving the realm, as well as to prevent all removal of goods, arms, munitions of war, and every species of gold, silver, horses, vehicles and munitions of war; and, in case the said couriers should encounter any persons of the royal family and those who may have assisted in their removal, the said public functionaries or national guards and troops of the line shall be required to take all the necessary measures to stop the said removal, to prevent them from continuing their route, and to render account of everything to the legislative body.
Only the Emperor can put an end to the troubles caused by the French Revolution.
There is no longer any possibility of reconciliation.
The armed forces have destroyed everything—only armed forces can repair the situation.
The King has done everything to avoid civil war, and he is still very much convinced that civil war cannot correct anything, and that it shall, in the end, destroy everything.
The leaders of the Revolution correctly feel that their constitution cannot last, that it is being sustained by the personal interests of all those who dominate the departments, municipalities, and clubs. A portion of the People have been deceived and follow the opinions of these leaders. However, all educated people, the peaceful bourgeois, and, in general, a majority of the citizens from all walks of life, are fearful and discontented.
If opposition to the [armies of the great] powers was to arise, if the language of the powers was reasonable, if their assembled forces were imposing, and if there was no civil war, it would be risky to assume that a general revolution would occur in the cities. There would be, rather, no difficulty in returning things to order.
But if there is a civil war, the forces of the powers will only prevail in the areas where their armies are located. The distant provinces will be divided—those that have been oppressed will want to avenge themselves, those that have dominated will certainly feel that they must risk everything. There will be massacres in the name of revenge. There will be massacres to gain twenty-four hours in order to have time to escape. Everyone is armed. Things will be in a deplorable state, and crime and murder will enter into people's houses and no citizen will be assured of surviving from one day to the next. . . .
The united powers must take into account the position of the King, his powers and his dignity, and the relationships that depend on them. He cannot be firmly reestablished if factions are allowed to dictate laws which, on the pretext of deciding how he can exercise his authority, deprive him of those powers he requires. The united powers must ensure, in accordance with the principles and fundamental laws of the French monarchy, that no law or constitution may be reestablished in France that does not call for the free, full and entire concurrence of the King, and that no possibility exists of stipulating a limit on the free declaration of his will.
The united powers cannot view without concern the spreading of the principles of anarchy and confusion within a large European state . . . principles destructive to all governments. More than any argument, excess, or danger, it is the deplorable state of France that clearly demonstrates what these principles give rise to. The powers must recognize that this is a question of vital interest not only for all sovereigns, but for all orders, states, and classes of citizens in all countries and in republics as well as monarchies. . . .
It seems impossible that the nation should be without misgivings, and ready to lose all its resources because an immoderate and improvident assembly has destroyed, at a stroke, both the King's authority and its own. The Assembly is not the nation. Different forms of government can be disturbed or suspended. The nation remains, and, being more aware of the dangers, it can see where its true interests lie. It was the time-honored method of the kings of France to appeal to the good cities. It is probable that the cities, in order to redeem themselves from the misfortunes of the war, will entreat the King to take back his power and play a mediating role. The desire for public safety can restore to him the love of the people. All the anxieties, all the fears will rally to his authority. Upon his head will rest all hopes. His sufferings will be recalled, and those of the Queen, and their courage in the terrible days of October 5th and 6th. All the crimes of the Revolution will be remembered. It is possible that there will arise a terrible cry against their authors, against all the violent men who have been placed in office. Those frightened men will try to save themselves by flight, and the communal assemblies will no longer be composed of the same members, dominated by the same force, and governed by the same sentiments.
The Revolution will be effected in the interior of each city; it will be effected by the approach of the war and not by the war itself. The King, his powers restored, will be entrusted with negotiations with the foreign powers, and the princes will return, in the general tranquillity, to reassume their ranks at his court and in the nation.
There are few patriots who today would say that the right cause was triumphant, and that the aristocracy is forever beaten. Where there was a king devoted to the happiness of his people and was a faithful executor of the decrees of the legislative body; where there was a legislative body fully committed to both monarchal principles and to the king; where the National Assembly and the royal family were the focus of patriotism and enlightenment . . . now there are fugitive courtiers, hunted conspirators, cabals uncovered and disgraced, and working-class ministers (or they are forced to appear as such). There have been two great and terrible lessons delivered by the Parisians to the aristocrats, and every community in the kingdom demonstrated an equal amount of effort in unraveling political and individual freedoms. Are these reasons sufficient enough to believe that the Revolution has been carried out? That a counterrevolution is impossible? That would be a fatal error, a dangerous belief! The aristocracy again rises with a superb disguise. The barbarous gaiety that comes from being sure of a quick revenge has been replaced by the tears that we had attributed to a belated repentant, and from us spilled a then-powerless rage.
Citizens! Let us count our enemies, gauge their resources and see if that does not give us several reasons to keep on our guard. The nobles have to recover all of the benefits of an abusive regime where their name alone swept away merit, virtue, talent, and even justice. The clerics are forced to sell off their immense assets that had provided them with much credit and many pleasures. The magistrates are stripped of their titles as legislators, defenders of the people, and advisers of kings. The judges see the end to this judicial tyranny that, down to the smallest village, was so beneficial to their wealth and so flattering to their vanity. The money lenders can no longer hope to continue their atrocious business. Financiers have no doubt that their businesses will be suppressed. The infinite number of the breed known as clerks does not mean that there remains the resources for them to take on a useful profession. Add to this so impressive a group of anti-patriots, those that never do anything but what pleases them, those who have no homeland, and who cannot have one, and you will have an idea of the army of enemies that the state holds within its breast. But this is merely the body of the army, it has leaders. Where are they? Does it need saying? In part they are in the National Assembly, for which, through treacherous tactics, they fetter or corrupt the deliberations.
If we are not in agreement on the way to do right, at least they are not any more in agreement on how to do wrong. But if some scheming, persuasive, deceptive mind came and unified them, or at least made them act in a uniform manner (although for a different goal), the least misfortune that we have to fear is a war . . . a civil war.
Bankruptcy would be the inevitable conclusion to a civil war. Commerce and agriculture, both of which are already stagnant, would be destroyed. For the next century authority would be in convulsion and the people in agony before the complicated wheels of government of the old regime would once again be in working order. Liberty, that spark that glinted in our eyes, would, from time to time, light fires that we would only be able to extinguish by the spilling of blood. The aristocrats would not enjoy any of the advantages that established norms assured them they possessed. They would have to fight endlessly for them with brandished swords. Finally, in the place of a popular anarchy, which by its nature would be short since the majority are interested in order, we would have an aristocratic anarchy. This would be a hundred times worse than the autocratic regime, and would last until the current generation would be able to forget everything it had learned in the past three months, or had given way to another generation.
The philosophers who study the causes of important events have said that, in some way, each century carries within it the century that will follow. This bold metaphor covers an important truth that has been confirmed by the history of Athens: the century of laws and virtues prepared that of valor and glory, in turn producing a century of conquests and luxury, which finished with the destruction of the republic.
The deeply philosophic thought can be applied to the history of all peoples. The tyrannical humiliations and bloodthirsty barbarity of Richelieu laid the groundwork for the despotism of Louis XIV. That century of great men was the work of the literary and religious debates that had preceded it. It is in the eye of the storm that the nature and policy of empires, the laws and all human institutions are regenerated, and that the sciences grow with renewed vigor. The nation, sagging beneath the weight of its misfortunes, crushed by its disgrace and caught up in terror and superstition, whimpered for a fragile and fleeting glory which it acquired at the cost of the people's future, the price of their blood, and the prosperity of the empire. Its gloomy silence evidenced its pain. For a few years, the call of the monarchy relieved the nation of this distressing state, only to deliver it up to the convulsions of madness and cupidity. The squanderings of Louis XIV gave birth to this system. The French, bent beneath the yoke, nevertheless endured the vices and errors of the government with incredible patience. The sacred and inalienable rights of the People were relegated to the museums of science and art as if they were curiosities to behold, things rendered useless by the long period of slavery. Thus was the reasoning that suspended any public demands during the entire reign of Louis XV. During the final years of that monarch the nation lost almost all of its morality. Corruption spread out from the base of the throne to almost all classes of society. Finally, the limit of arbitrary excesses of power had been reached. The horrible financial disarray rendered the required severe reform inevitable. This is how the course of events is played out: not by fortuitous syntheses, but by a primary and irrefutable impulse. It is very true that extremes come full circle.
I am sure Your Majesty will have learned, with as much surprise and indignation as I, of the unprecedented outrage of the arrest of the King of France, of my sister the Queen, and of the Royal Family. I am also sure your sentiments cannot differ from mine with regard to this event which immediately compromises the honor of all sovereigns and the security of all governments by inspiring fear of still more dreadful acts to follow, and by placing the seal of illegality upon previous excesses in France.
I am determined to fulfill my obligation as to these considerations, both as chosen head of the Germanic State, with its support, and as Sovereign of the Austrian states. I therefore propose to you, as I propose to the Kings of Spain, England, Prussia, Naples, and Sardinia, as well as to the Empress of Russia, to unite with them and me to consult on cooperation and measures to restore the liberty and honor of the Most Christian King and his family, and to limit the dangerous extremes of the French Revolution.
The most pressing [need] appears to be our immediate cooperation . . . having our ministers in France deliver a common declaration, or numerous similar and simultaneous declarations, which may curb the leaders of the violent party and forestall desperate decisions. This will still leave them an opportunity for honest repentance and for the peaceful establishment of a regime in France that will preserve at least the dignity of the crown and the essential requirements for general tranquillity. For this purpose, I propose to Your Majesty the plan annexed hereto which appears to me satisfactory.
However, since the success of such a declaration is problematical, and since complete success can be assured only in so far as we are prepared to support it by sufficiently respectable means, my Minister to Your Majesty will receive at once the necessary instructions to discuss with your Minister such agreement on vigorous measures as circumstances may require. I also intend to have him inform you concerning the replies of the other powers as soon as I have received them.
I regard it as an infinitely precious advantage that the disposition they all show for the reestablishment of peace and harmony gives promise to the removal of the obstacles which might be detrimental to the unanimity of the views and sentiments concerning an event so closely associated with the welfare of all Europe.
Signed, Leopold
Plan of the Common Declaration
Padua, 5 July 1791.
The undersigned are charged with making known, on the part of their sovereigns, the following:
That, notwithstanding the notorious deeds of constraint and violence which have preceded and succeeded the acts of consent granted by the King of France to the decrees of the National Assembly, they had nevertheless still wished to withhold their opinion concerning the degree to which such consent represented, or did not represent, the conviction and free will of His Most Christian Majesty. But the effort undertaken by that prince to set himself at liberty, being a most certain proof of the state of confinement in which he found himself, no longer left any doubt that he had been forced to do violence to his religion in several respects, at the same time that the last outrage, the formal arrest of Him and of the Queen, the Dauphin, and Madame Elizabeth, inspires legitimate fears concerning the ulterior undertakings of the dominant party.
That the said sovereigns, unable to delay any longer the manifestation of sentiments and resolutions which, under the circumstances, the honor of their crowns, the ties of blood, and the maintenance of the public order and peace of Europe require of them, have ordered their undersigned ministers to declare:
That they demand that this prince and his family be set at liberty immediately, and that they claim for all said royal persons the inviolability and respect which the law of nature and of men imposes upon subjects towards their princes;
That they will unite in order to avenge in a forceful manner any future outrages which may be committed, or may be allowed to be committed, against the security, the person, and the honor of the King, the Queen, and the Royal Family.
That, finally, they will recognize as law and as a constitution legally established in France only those [measures] which they find bearing the voluntary approval of the King, in the enjoyment of perfect liberty; but that, in the contrary case, they will employ in concert all the means within their power to bring to an end the scandal of an usurpation of power which bears the character of an open revolt, and the disastrous example of which it is important for all governments to check.