No More Learning

J. Villier, Nouveau plan d'e? ducation et d'instruction publique de? die? a` l'Assemble? e nationale dans lequel on substitue aux universite? s, seminaires et colle`ges des e? tablissements plus raisonnables, plus utiles, plus dignes d'une grande nation (Angers, 1789), vi-viii. For further discussion of this discourse of "degeneration" see Chapter 5 below.
In this analysis I take issue somewhat with Jacques Revel's important article, "La re? gion," in Nora, ed. , Les lieux de me? moire, 851-83, pt. III, I, in which, drawing on the work of Mona Ozouf and Catherine Bertho, he argues that the "regional problem" was invented in the early years of the Revolution itself. Toussaint Guiraudet, Qu'est-ce que la nation et qu'est-ce que la France (n. p. , 1789).
See Van Kley, "From the Lessons of French History," and esp. Joseph John Zizek, "The Politics and Poetics of History in the French Revolution, 1787- 1794," Ph. D. diss. , University of California, Berkeley (1995).
For this section I am relying on the rich literature already available on the concept of "regeneration" in the era of the French Revolution. See particu- larly Mona Ozouf, "Re? ge? ne? ration," in Furet and Ozouf, eds. , Dictionnaire (see Intro. , n. 77), 821-31; de Baecque, The Body Politic, 131-56; and most re- cently, Sepinwall, "Regenerating France" (see Ch. 1, n. 91), esp. 83-7.
On this shift to a social, statistical description of the nation, and the influence of the physiocrats (which was particularly strong on Sieye`s), see esp. Baker, Inventing, 238-50.
Pierre-Louis de Lacretelle, De la convocation de la prochaine tenue des e? tats-
Notes to Pages 76-80 249
? ge? ne? raux (Paris, 1789), quoted in Shafer, "Bourgeois Nationalism," 35;
Guiraudet, Qu'est-ce que la nation, 63, Sieye`s, passim.
111. Here I am following Baker, Inventing, 238-51; Friedland, "Representation,"
esp. 1-60.
112. Sepinwall, 85-6.
113. Jean Starobinski, "Eloquence et liberte? ," Revue suisse de l'histoire, XXVI
(1976), 549-63, quote from 562.
114. Cited in Fehrenbach, "Nation," 58.
115. Quoted in Vovelle, "Entre cosmopolitisme et xe? nophobie," 15.
116. For two examples from 1789, see Fauchet, La religion nationale, 2; Foix, Le
patriotisme (see Ch. 1, n. 75), 3-4.
3. English Barbarians, French Martyrs
1. For the most recent, complete, and impartial accounts of the incident, see Francis Jennings, Empire of Fortune: Crowns, Colonies and Tribes in the Seven Years War in America (New York, 1988), 67-70, and Richard White, The Mid- dle Ground: Indians, Empires and Republics in the Great Lakes Region, 1650- 1815 (Cambridge, 1991), 240-41. Jennings concludes that Jumonville was most likely killed by Tanaghrisson. See also Gilbert F. Leduc, Washington and the "Murder of Jumonville" (Boston, 1943). For an account critical of Wash- ington, see abbe? Georges Robitaille, Washington et Jumonville (Montreal, 1933). Notes to Pages 76-80
2. The French literature invariably identified the enemy as "England" rather than "Britain. " When discussing the literature, I will follow this usage.
3. Among works that discussed Jumonville's death, see Antoine-Le? onard Thomas, Jumonville (Paris, 1759); [Jacob-Nicolas Moreau], Me? moire con- tenant le pre? cis des faits avec leurs pie`ces justificatives (Paris, 1756); Moreau, L'Observateur hollandois, ou seconde lettre de M. Van ** a` M. H** de la Haye (The Hague, 1755), esp. 20-35; L'Observateur hollandois, troisie`me lettre . . . and cinquie`me lettre . . . (The Hague, 1755); [Edme-Jacques Genet], Petit catechisme politique des Anglois, traduit de leur langue (n. p. , n. d. [1757]), 4; [Lefebvre de Beauvray], Adresse (see Ch. l, n. 75), 7; Audibert, "Poe? me," in Recueil ge? ne? ral des pie`ces, chansons et fe^tes donne? es a` l'occasion de la prise du Port-Mahon ("France," 1757), 48; Denis-Ponce Ecouchard ("Lebrun"), Ode nationale contre l'Angleterre (Paris, 1758), 2-3; Se? ran de la Tour, Paralle`le de la conduite des carthaginois a` l'e? gard des romains, dans la seconde guerre punique, avec la conduite de l'Angleterre, a` l'e? gard de la France, dans la guerre de? clare? e par ces deux puissances, en 1756 (n. p. , 1757), 185-91.
4. Thomas, Jumonville, 22. I am assuming "souleva" is a misprint for "soule`ve. "
5. Zimmermann, Vom Nationalstolze (see Ch. 1, n. 111), 177.
250
Notes to Pages 80-83
? Notes to Pages 80-83
6. 7.
8.
Me? moires de Tre? voux (Me? moires pour servir a` l'histoire des sciences et des arts),
1756, II, 1756-57.
See Claude de Sacy, L'honneur franc? ois, ou Histoire des vertus et des exploits de notre nation, depuis l'Etablissement de la Monarchie jusqu'a` nos jours, 12 vols. (Paris, 1769-84), XI, 284-86; and Louis-Pierre Manuel, L'anne? e franc? oise, ou Vies des Hommes qui ont honore? la France, ou par leurs talens, ou par leurs ser- vices, & surtout par leurs vertus, 4 vols. (Paris, 1789), III, 12-15.
[Lefebvre de Beauvray], Adresse, 11; Lebrun, Ode aux franc? ois (Angers, 1762), 1. Lebrun's poem also contains the Marseillaise-like line "L'entendez-vous ge? mir cette auguste Patrie? " See David A. Bell, "Aux origines de la 'Marseil- laise': L'Adresse a` la nation angloise de Claude-Rigobert Lefebvre de Beauvray," Annales historiques de la Re? volution franc? aise, 299 (1995), 75-77. Lefebvre himself may well have borrowed from N. de Coulange, Ode sur les anglois au sujet de la Guerre pre? sente (Paris, 1756), 7: "Puissiez-vous aborder sur leurs propres rivages / Et de leur sang parjure arrosant les sillons. " Dziembowski, in Un nouveau patriotisme (see Intro. , n. 33), has also noticed these borrowings (82) and found further precedents in the 1656 verses by Boileau: "Et leurs corps pourris dans nos plaines / N'ont fait qu'engraisser nos sillons. "
Dziembowski, in Un nouveau patriotisme, has provided the first scholarly survey of this literature. He states that the French propagandists treated Jumonville's death as England's "original sin" (76) but does not explore the representations of this event in a systematic way.
The exception is Audibert, "Poe? me," 47: "Re? unis autrefois dans le sein de l'Eglise / L'He? re? sie aujourd'hui les guide & les divise. " On British anti-Cathol- icism in the period, see Colley, Britons (see Intro. , n. 26), 11-54. The fascinat- ing evidence of a possible plot involving French Protestants has been un- earthed by John D. Woodbridge in Revolt in Prerevolutionary France: The Prince de Conti's Conspiracy against Louis XV, 1755-1757 (Baltimore, 1995). Jacobin clubs quoted in Wahnich, L'impossible citoyen (see Intro. , n. 33), 322-3; Bertrand Bare`re, Rapport sur les crimes de l'Angleterre envers le Peuple franc? ais, et sur ses attentats contre la liberte? des Nations (Paris, 1794), 18. On the treatment of Pitt, and on the "take no prisoners" decree, see Norman Hampson, The Perfidy of Albion: French Perceptions of England during the French Revolution (Houndmills, Basingstoke, 1998), 103-19, 142-43.
See John Brewer, The Sinews of Power: War, Money and the English State, 1688-1783 (New York, 1989); James C. Riley, The Seven Years' War and the Old Regime in France: The Economic and Financial Toll (Princeton, 1986). For examples from the Hundred Years' War, see, for instance, the material collected in Marie-Madeleine Martin, The Making of France: The Origins and Development of the Idea of National Unity, Barbara and Robert North, trans.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
Notes to Pages 83-84 251
? (London, 1951), 108-20. An amusing catalogue of national invective in the Renaissance can be found in John Hale, The Civilization of the Renaissance in Europe (New York, 1994), 51-66. More recently, many seventeenth-century French authors copiously indulged in the delights of Hispanophobia. See for instance Franc? ois de La Mothe le Vayer, Discours de la contrarie? te? d'humeurs qui se trouve entre certains nations, et singulie`rement entre la franc? aise et l'espagnole (Paris, 1636).
14. On the use of print in the wars of the Reformation, see especially Denis Pallier, Recherches sur l'imprimerie a` Paris pendant la Ligue, 1585-1594 (Geneva 1975); R. W. Scribner, For the Sake of Simple Folk: Popular Propa- ganda for the German Reformation (Cambridge, 1981). See also David A. Bell, "Unmasking a King: The Political Uses of Popular Literature under the French Catholic League, 1588-89," Sixteenth-Century Journal, 20 (1989), 371-86.
15. This assertion is based on holdings of the French Bibliothe`que Nationale, in my own survey of the number of publications that qualify as wartime propa- ganda--including plays and poems as well as pamphlets--and on material cited in Dziembowski, Un nouveau patriotisme. On wartime propaganda in the War of the Spanish Succession, see Joseph Klaits, Printed Propaganda un- der Louis XIV: Absolute Monarchy and Public Opinion (Princeton, 1976). On the Seven Years War, in addition to the fundamental work of Dziembowski, see also Nicholas Rowe, "Romans and Carthaginians in the Eighteenth Cen- tury: Imperial Ideology and National Identity in Britain and France during the Seven Years' War," Ph. D. diss. , Boston College (1997); Charles Gevaert Salas, "Punic Wars in France and Britain," Ph. D. diss. , Claremont Graduate School (1996); and Brenner, L'histoire nationale (see Ch. 2, n. 61), esp. 243-6N6otes to Pag. es 83-84
16. Journal encyclope? dique par une socie? te? de gens de lettres, 1756, VI, Sept. 15, 78.
17. According to Moreau, Mes souvenirs (see Ch. 2, n. 22), I, 59-63.
18.
As an indication of the diffusion of the works, see the lengthy and favorable
reviews of Moreau's Me? moire in Me? moires de Tre? voux, 1756, II, 1734-90, and of his Observateur hollandois, ou deuxie`me lettre in Journal encyclope? dique, 1756, V, July 1, 12-22. The British replied to the second in the pamphlet L'Observateur observe? (n. p. , [1756]), which the Journal encyclope? dique men- tioned as well (12). Lengthy and favorable reviews of Thomas's Jumonville in- cluded Me? moires de Tre? voux, 1759, II, 1116-33, and Journal encyclope? dique 1759, IV, pt. III, 123-40; Journal des Savants, June 1759, 429-31.
19. See the Recueil ge? ne? ral des pie`ces, chansons et fe^tes, and the discussion in Rowe, "Romans and Carthaginians," 10-63.
20. For instance, Voltaire's Le Poe`me sur la bataille de Fontenoy (Amsterdam, 1748). The only text I have found of a violence remotely close to those of the Seven Years' War is Peze? d'Anglincourt's Ode a` la France (Paris, 1744), which
252 Notes to Pages 84-87
? calls on Louis XV to "cut off the ferocious heads of a Cohort of Brigands," but then almost immedieately checks itself: "What am I saying? Where is my mind wandering? LOUIS, magnanimous victor, don't grant this barbarous desire" (6-7).
21. Lefebvre de Beauvray, Adresse, 9; Coulange, Ode, 3; Conside? rations sur les diffe? rends des couronnes de la Grande-Bretagne et de France, touchant l'Acadie et autres parties de l'Ame? rique septentrionale (Frankfurt, 1756), 23.
22. On this comparison, see above all Rowe, "Romans and Carthaginians," 64-97, and Salas, "Punic Wars," 287-314. One play, entitled Asdrubal, took the other tack, comparing France to a virtuous Carthage and England to an expansion- ary, grasping Rome. See Dziembowski, Un nouveau patriotisme, 411.
23. Moreau, L'Observateur hollandois, ou deuxie`me lettre, 37, and cinquie`me lettre, 4.
24. Moreau, Cinquie`me lettre, 40.
25. "Quod genus hoc hominum? Quaeve hunc tam barbara morem / Permittit
patria? " Aeneid I, 539-40.
26. Me? moires de Tre? voux, 1759, II, 1118. It also noted, in the poem, "un contraste
frappant de la simplicite? & de la droiture des Sauvages avec la perfidie des
Anglois" (1132).
27. Lebrun, Ode Nationale, in Oeuvres, 403.
28. Se? ran de la Tour, 187-91, 250. The book attracted sufficient attention to war-
rant a nine-page review in the Journal encyclope? dique, 1757, III, pt. II, 81-89.
29. For instance, Lefebvre de Beauvray, Adresse, 12: "De l'affreuse Discorde
agitant le flambeau, / Fais de ton Isle entie`re un immense Tombeau. "
30. Audibert, in Recueil, 49.
NotestoPages384-871. L'Albionide,oul'Anglaisde? masque? :Poe? mehe? roi? -comique(Aix,1759),80.
32. Lefebvre de Beauvray, 8.
33. Lesuire, Les sauvages de l'Europe (see Ch. 1, n. 94). As noted above, the book
was reprinted in Paris in 1780 under the title Les amants franc? ois a` Londres, and translated as The Savages of Europe (London, 1764). Despite the English translation, there is no indication that Lesuire did not intend his criticisms seriously. As Grieder demonstrates in Anglomania (see Intro. , n. 55), 33-63, the novel obeyed the conventions of contemporary satirical Anglophobia. Furthermore, Lesuire himself felt obliged to tone down his criticisms in the 1780 version.
34. Lesuire, 18-19.
35. On this terminology, see Anthony Pagden, The Fall of Natural Man: The
American Indian and the Origins of Comparative Ethnology (Cambridge, 1982), 15-26; Pagden, Lords of All the World: Ideologies of Empire in Spain, Britain and France, c. 1500-c. 1800 (New Haven, 1995); Olive Patricia Dickason, The Myth of the Savage and the Beginnings of French Colonialism in
Notes to Pages 87-88 253
? the Americas (Calgary, 1984), esp. 61-94; Miche`le Duchet, Anthropologie et
histoire au sie`cle des lumie`res (Paris, 1973, repr. 1995), 217.
36. My thanks to Ste? phane Pujol for this observation.
37. See notably the politique pamphlets, La fleur de lys, qui est un discours d'un
Franc? ois retenu dans Paris (n. p. , 1590), and Exhortation d'aucuns Parisiens,
n'agueres eslargis de la Bastille de Paris, au peuple Franc? ois (n. p. , 1592).
38. Barthe? le? my-Franc? ois-Joseph Mouffle d'Angerville, Vie prive? e de Louis XV, ou principaux e? ve? nements, particularite? s et anecdotes de son re`gne (London,
1785), III, 84-85, quoted in Dziembowski, Un nouveau patriotisme, 106-7.
39. Dziembowski, Un nouveau patriotisme, while paying close attention to the ministry's efforts, occasionally errs somewhat in this direction (e. g. 491-96).
40. On Moreau's activities, see Moreau, Mes souvenirs, I, 57-63, and Dziembowski, "Les de? buts d'un publiciste" (see Ch. 1, n. 98); also Gembicki, Histoire et politique (see Ch. 2, n. 22). The papers taken from Washington were published as [Moreau], Me? moire, and translated into English as A Memorial, Containing a Summary View of Facts, with Their Authorities, in Answer to the Observations Sent by the English Ministry to the Courts of Europe (Paris, 1757Not)es to Pag. es 87-88
41. Se? ran de la Tour, x, says he based much of his account on Moreau's Pre? cis. Compare Thomas, Jumonville, iii-xx, with L'Observateur hollandois, ou seconde lettre, 20-35. Thomas's epigraph from the Aeneid was quoted in Moreau's Observateur hollandois, ou cinquie`me lettre, 32. Also compare Moreau's Observateur hollandois, ou deuxie`me lettre, 37 ("Imputerai-je donc a` toute la Nation angloise des forfaits qui ont fait honneur a` des Peuples que les Europe? ens traitent de Barbares? ") with Lebrun, Ode nationale, 403 ("Au Hu- ron qu'il de? daigne, et qu'il nomme barbare / Il apprend des Forfaits"), and the Observateur hollandois, ou cinquie`me lettre, 42 ("Chez les Franc? ois, au contraire, la Patrie n'est point une idole pour laquelle on se passionne"), with Conside? rations sur les diffe? rends, 23 ("La Patrie est l'Idole, a` laquelle les Anglois sacrifient tous les sentiments . . . "). This last piece may well be by
Moreau himself, although it has never actually been attributed to him.
42. Among the other official propagandists was Edme-Jacques Genet, who coop- erated with the anti-philosophe Palissot on yet another anti-English newspa- per. See Dziembowski, Un nouveau patriotisme, 62-5, 177-82. On Lefebvre, see Bell, Lawyers and Citizens (see Ch. 1, n. 12), 172, 184, 192. On Thomas, see Bonnet, Naissance du Panthe? on (see Intro. , n. 43), 68; Etienne Micard, Un e? crivain acade? mique au XVIIIe sie`cle: Antoine-Le? onard Thomas (1732-1785)
(Paris, 1924), 23.
43. Recueil ge? ne? ral . . . The volume included pieces by military officers and mem-
bers of the King's bodyguard, as well as several odes by Voltaire and pieces previously published in periodicals. It also included several pieces in Provenc? al.
254
Notes to Pages 88-90
? 44. 45. 46.
47.
48.
49.
50.
Notes to Pages 88-90
51.
52. 53.
54.
55.
56.
57. 58. 59.
See Moreau, Mes souvenirs, I, 57-63.
Moreau, L'Observateur hollandois, ou deuxie`me lettre, 6.
Moreau, Mes souvenirs, I, 129; Jacob-Nicolas Moreau, Lettre sur la paix, a` M. le Comte de *** (Lyons, 1763).
These were the years of Moreau's famous anti-philosophe satire Nouveau me? moire pour servir a` l'histoire des Cacouacs (Amsterdam, 1757), of Charles Palissot's Les philosophes (Paris, 1760), and many other anti-philosophe works, not to mention a hardening of censorship of the philosophes themselves. On the connection with the war, see Dziembowski, Un nouveau patriotisme, 119-30.
Dziembowski, esp. 298-311. For perceptions of English turbulence see Thomas, Jumonville, 5; Conside? rations sur les diffe? rends, 7; Lesuire, passim. On the importance of these perceptions in French political culture, see Baker, In- venting the French Revolution (see Intro. , n. 17), 173-85.
"Projet patriotique," in Anne? e litte? raire, 1756, VI, 43-4.
These gifts are described in Barbier, Chronique de la Re? gence (see Ch. 1, n. 96), VII, 422-4.