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the origins of contemporary france-3-第93章

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However vigorous the electoral pressure may have been; the voting

machine has not provided the expected results。 At the opening of the

session; out of 749 deputies; only about fifty'30' are found to

approve of the Commune; nearly all of the elected in places where; as

at Rheims and Paris; terror has the elector by the throat; 〃under the

clubs; axes; daggers; and bludgeons of the butchers。〃'31' But where

the physical impressions of murder have not been so tangible and

impressive; some sense of decency has prevented too glaring elections。

The inclination to vote for well…known names could not wholly be

arrested; seventy…seven former members of the Constituent Assembly;

and one hundred and eighty…six of the previous Legislative Assembly

enter the Convention; and the practical knowledge which many of these

have of government business has given them some insights。  In short;

the consciences of six hundred and fifty deputies are only in part

perverted。



They are all; unquestionably; decided republicans; enemies of

tradition; apostles of reason; and trained in deductive politics;

only on these conditions could they be elected。 Every candidate is

supposed to possess the Jacobin faith; or; at least; to recite the

revolutionary creed。 The Convention; consequently; at its opening

session votes unanimously; with cheers and enthusiasm; the abolition

of royalty; and three months later it pronounces; by a large majority;

Louis XVI。;



〃guilty of conspiring against the liberty of the nation; and of

assaults on



  the general welfare of the State。〃'32'



Nevertheless; social habitudes still subsist under political

prejudices。 A man who is born in and lives for a long time in an old

community; is; through this alone; marked with its imprint; the

customs to which he conforms have crystallized in him in the shape of

sentiments: if it is well…regulated and civilized; he has

involuntarily arrived at respect for property and for human life; and;

in most characters; this respect has taken very deep root。 A theory;

even if adopted; does not wholly succeed in destroying this respect;

only in rare instances is it successful; when it encounters coarse and

defective natures; to take full hold; it is necessary that it should

fall on the scattered inheritors of former destructive appetites; on

those hopelessly degenerate souls in which the passions of an anterior

date are slumbering; then only does its malevolence fully appear; for

it rouses the ferocious or plundering instincts of the barbarian; the

raider; the inquisitor; and the pasha。 On the contrary; with the

greatest number; do what it will; integrity and humanity always remain

powerful motives。 Nearly all these legislators; who originate in the

middle class; are at bottom; irrespective of a momentary delusion;

what they always have been up to now; advocates; attorneys; merchants;

priests; or physicians of the ancient regime; and what they will

become later on; docile administrators or zealous functionaries of

Napoleon's empire;'33' that is to say; ordinary civilized persons

belonging to the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; sufficiently

honest in private life to have a desire to be equally so in public

life。   Hence their horror of anarchy; of Marat;'34' and of the

September butchers and robbers。 Three days after their assembling

together they vote; 〃almost unanimously;〃 the preparation of a law

〃against the instigators of murder and assassination。〃  〃Almost

unanimously;〃 they desire to raise a guard; recruited in the 83

departments; against the armed bands of Paris and the Commune。

Pétition is elected as their first president by 〃almost the totality

of suffrages。〃 Roland who has just read his report to them; is greeted

with the 〃loudest〃 applause from nearly the 〃entire〃 Assembly。 In

short they are for the ideal republic against actual brigands。 This

accounts for their ranging themselves around those upright and sincere

deputies; who; in the two preceding Assemblies or alongside of them;

were the ablest defenders of both principles and humanity; around

Buzot; Lanjuinais; Pétition; and Rabaut…Saint…Etienne; around Brissot;

Vergniaud; Guadet; Gensonné; Isnard; and Condorcet; around Roland;

Louvet; Barbaroux; and the five hundred deputies of the 〃Plain;〃'35'

marching in one body under the leadership of the 180 Girondists who

now form the 〃Right。〃'36'



These latter; among the republicans; are the most sincere and have the

most faith; for they have long been such; after much thought; study

and as a matter of principle。 Nearly all of them are well…read

educated men; reasoners; philosophers; disciples of Diderot or of

Rousseau; satisfied that absolute truth had been revealed by their

masters; thoroughly imbued with the Encyclopédie'37' or the Contrat

Social; the same as the Puritans formerly were with the Bible。'38'  At

the age when the mind is maturing; and fondly clings to general

ideas;'39' they embraced the theory and aimed at a reconstruction of

society according to abstract principles。 They have accordingly set to

work as pure logicians; rigorously applying the superficial and false

system of analysis then in vogue。'40'  They have formed for themselves

an idea of man in general; the same in all times and ages; an extract

or minimum of man; they have pondered over several thousands of or

millions of these abstract mortals; erected their imaginary wills into

primordial rights; and drawn up in anticipation the chimerical

contract which is to regulate their impossible union。  There are to be

no more privileges; no more heredity; no qualifications of any kind;

all are to be electors; all eligible and all of equal members of the

sovereignty; all powers are to be of short date; and conferred through

election; there must be but one assembly; elected and entirely renewed

annually; one executive council elected and one…half renewed annually;

a national treasury…board elected and one…third renewed annually; all

local administrations and tribunals must be elected; a referendum to

the people; the electoral body endowed with the initiative; a constant

appeal to the sovereignty; which; always consulted and always active;

will manifest its will not alone by the choice of its mandatories but;

again; through 〃the censure〃 which it will apply to the laws  such

is the Constitution they forge for themselves。'41'  〃The English

Constitution;〃 says Condorcet; 〃is made for the rich; that of America

for citizens well…off; the French Constitution should be made for all

men。〃 … It is; for this reason; the only legitimate one; every

institution that deviates from it is opposed to natural rights and;

therefore; fit only to be put down。…This is what the Girondists have

done during the Legislative sessions; we know how they; armed with the

illusions'42' of their new philosophy and triumphing through a rigid;

rash and hasty reason; have



* persecuted Catholic consciences;



* violated feudal property;



* encroached on the legal authority of the King;



* persecuted the remains of the ancient regime;



* tolerated crimes committed by the crowds;



* even plunged France into an European war;



* armed even the paupers;



* caused the overthrow of all government。 …



As far as his Utopia is concerned; the Girondist is a sectarian; and

he knows no scruples。



* Little does he care that nine out of ten electors do not vote:  he

regards himself as the authorized representative of all ten。



* Little does he care whether the great majority of Frenchmen favor

the Constitution of 1791; it is his business to impose on them his

own。



* Little does he care whether his former opponents; King; émigrés;

unsworn ecclesiastics; are honorable men or at least excusable; he

will launch against them every rigorous legal proceeding;

transportation; confiscation; civil death and physical death。'43'



In his own eyes he is the justiciary; and his investiture is bestowed

upon him by eternal right。 There is no human infatuation so pernicious

to man as that of absolute right; nothing is better calculated for the

destruction in him of the hereditary accumulation of moral

conceptions。   Within the narrow bounds of their creed; however; the

Girondins are sincere and consistent。 They are masters of their

formulae; they know how to deduce consequences from them; they believe

in them the same as a surveyor in his theorems; and a theologian in

the articles of his faith; they are anxious to apply them; to devise a

constitution; to establish a regular government; to emerge from a

barbarous state; to put an end to fighting in the street; to

pillaging; to murders; to the sway of brutal force and of naked arms。



The disorder; mover; so repugnant to them as logicians is still more

repugnant to them as cultivated; polished men。 They have a sense of

what is proper;'44' of becoming ways; and their tastes are even

refin
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