, The Old Regime and the French
Revolution
(Chicago, 1987), 47-50, quote from 49.
Cult of the Nation in France
4. To take just one example, in November of 1730, when a group of obstreper- ous barristers claimed that the king was bound to his subjects by contract, d'Aguesseau himself insisted on drafting the royal declaration that con- demned their offending document to the flame, and threatened the signato- ries with dire penalties unless they formally retracted. See Bell, Lawyers and Citizens (see Ch. 1, n. 12), 92-3. D'Aguesseau's arre^t de conseil can be found in Bibliothe`que Nationale, Cabinet des Manuscrits, Fonds Joly de Fleury 97, fols. 281-82. On d'Aguesseau in general, see most recently Storez, Le chancelier Henri-Franc? ois d'Aguesseau (see Ch. 1, n. 45). Notes to Pages 48-54
5. D'Aguesseau never mentioned the king by name and insisted that whatever Louis's failings, his subjects suffered from them as well.
6. The only real predecessor I can find for d'Aguesseau in this respect is Soanen, in "Sur l'amour de la patrie" (see Intro. , n. 36).
7. D'Aguesseau, 207-8.
8. Ibid. , 211.
9. See Viroli, For Love of Country (see Intro. , n. 68), 18-62.
10. Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, L'ancien re? gime, De Louis XIII a` Louis XV, 2 vols. (Paris, 1991), II, 7.
11. The chancellor never engaged in open theological debate and never made any public profession of faith, but as Storez shows (535-48), his sympathy for and acceptance of Jansenist ideas was obvious.
12. See Storez, 197-236.
13. Bibliothe`que de Port-Royal, Collection Le Paige, 449.
14. D'Aguesseau, 211-12.
15. Among these studies are Aulard, Le patriotisme; Church, "France"; Clive
Emsley, "Nationalist Rhetoric and Nationalist Sentiment in Revolutionary
240 Notes to Pages 54-55
? France," in Otto Dann and John Dinwiddy, eds. , Nationalism in the Age of the French Revolution (London, 1988), 39-52; Fehrenbach, "Nation" (see Intro. , n. 46); Godechot, "Nation, patrie" (see Intro. , n. 22); Greenfeld, Nationalism (see Intro. , n. 21); Jean-Yves Guiomar, L'ide? ologie nationale (see Ch. 1, n. 88); Guiomar, La nation entre l'histoire et la raison (see Intro. , n. 18); Norman Hampson, "La patrie," in Colin Lucas, ed. , The Political Culture of the French Revolution (Oxford, 1988), 125-37; Hyslop, French Nationalism in 1789 (see Intro. , n. 22); Hans Kohn, Prelude to Nation States: The French and German Experience, 1789-1815 (New York, 1967); W. Krauss, "'Patriote,' 'patriotique,' 'patriotisme' a` la fin de l'Ancien Re? gime," in W. H. Barber, ed. , The Age of the Enlightenment (London, 1967), 387-94; Jean Lestocquoy, Histoire du patriotisme en France des origines a` nos jours (Paris, 1968); Nora, "Nation" (see Intro. , n. 77); O'Brien, "Nationalism" (see Ch. 1, n. 2); Robert Palmer, "The National Idea in France before the Revolution," Journal of the History of Ideas, I (1940), 95-111; Boyd Shafer, "Bourgeois Nationalism in the Pam- phlets on the Eve of the French Revolution," Journal of Modern History, X (1938), 31-50; Michel Vovelle, "Entre cosmopolitisme et xe? nophobie: Patrie, nation, re? publique universelle dans les ide? ologies de la Re? volution franc? aise," in Michael O'Dea and Kevin Whelan, eds. , Nations and Nationalisms: France, Britain and Ireland and the Eighteenth-Century Context (Oxford, 1995), 11- 26. See also the following dissertations: Dupuy, "Gene`se de la patrie moderne" (see Intro. , n. 33); Elie-Lefebvre, "Le de? bat" (see Ch. 1, n. 80); Clarke Garrett, "French Nationalism on the Eve of the French Revolution," Ph. D.
Notes to Pages 54-55 diss. , University of Wisconsin (1961).
16. Dziembowski, Un nouveau patriotisme franc? ais (see Intro. , n. 33), esp. 1-15,
491-96. The reason may be that Dziembowski focuses on the patrie; the con- cept of the nation, by contrast, owed more of its importance to internal poli- tics.
17. Jean Egret's Louis XV et l'opposition parlementaire (Paris, 1970) is now badly out of date, but remains the most general survey of the parlements in the eighteenth century. Among more recent works, see particularly Campbell, Power and Politics (see Ch. 1, n. 45); Van Kley, The Damiens Affair (see Intro. , n. 32); Julian Swann, Politics and the Parlement of Paris under Louis XV, 1754- 1774 (Cambridge, 1995); Durand Echeverria, The Maupeou Revolution: A Study in the History of Libertarianism, France, 1770-1774 (Baton Rouge, 1985); and Bailey Stone, The French Parlements and the Crisis of the Old Re- gime (Chapel Hill, 1986).
18. See most recently Bell, Lawyers and Citizens, and Sarah Maza, Private Lives and Public Affairs: The Causes Ce? le`bres of Prerevolutionary France (Berkeley, 1993).
19. See Chartier, Cultural Origins (see Intro. , n. 32), 38-66.
Notes to Pages 55-58 241
? 20. Works emphasizing tradition and continuity in parlementaire history are Swann, Politics, and John Rogister, Louis XV and the Parlement of Paris, 1737- 55 (Cambridge, 1995). See also David A. Bell, "How (and How Not) to Write Histoire e? ve? nementielle: Recent Work on Eighteenth-Century French Politics," French Historical Studies, XIX/4 (1996), 1169-89.
21. See Robert Darnton, The Literary Underground of the Old Regime (Cam- bridge, Mass. , 1982), 167-208.
22. [Jacob-Nicolas Moreau], Le Moniteur franc? ois, 2 vols. (Avignon, 1760), I, 14. See also Jacob-Nicolas Moreau, Mes souvenirs, Camille Hermelin, ed. , 2 vols. (Paris, 1898), esp. I, 57-62; Baker, Inventing (see Intro. , n. 17), 61-5; Dieter Gembicki, Histoire et politique a` la fin de l'ancien re? gime: Jacob-Nicolas Moreau (1717-1803) (Geneva, 1976); Dziembowski, Un nouveau patriotisme, esp. 60-7.
23. Thus Keith Baker identifies the early 1750s as the moment when French poli- tics broke out of the "absolutist mold. " Baker, Inventing, 170. See also, in gen- eral, Van Kley, The Damiens Affair.
24. See in general on this literature, Shanti Marie Singham, "'A Conspiracy of Twenty Million Frenchmen': Public Opinion, Patriotism, and the Assault on Absolutism during the Maupeou Years, 1770-1775," Ph. D. diss. , Princeton University (1991), and Echeverria, The Maupeou Revolution, esp. 37-122.
25. On the vicissitudes of the concept of public opinion, which has received enormous attention in the last decade, see above all Ozouf, "L'opinion publique" (see Ch. 1, n. 16), and Baker, Inventing, 167-99. Notes to Pages 55-58
26. Henri de Boulainvilliers, Etat de la France, 2 vols. (London, 1727), I, 15-49.
27. See Rene? e Simon, Henry de Boulainviller [sic]: Historien, politique, philosophe, astrologue: 1658-1722 (Paris, 1941); Paul Vernie`re, Spinoza et la pense? e franc? aise avant la Re? volution, 2 vols. (Paris, 1954), I, 306-22. The most recent biography, and the most sophisticated in its study of Boulainvilliers' political writings (even if it does not do enough to integrate his religious and political thought) is Harold A. Ellis, Boulainvilliers and the French Monarchy: Aristo-
cratic Politics in Early Eighteenth-Century France (Ithaca, 1988).
28. Ellis, 78, and more generally, 57-91.
29. For an excellent overview of these arguments see Wright, "National Sover-
eignty and the General Will" (see Intro. , n. 69). The works had a wide reader- ship as shown by the new research on eighteenth-century French political culture cited above in Intro. , n. 32. See particularly Chartier, Cultural Origins, and Van Kley, The Damiens Affair.
30. For the fullest discussion of this material, see Bickart, Les parlements (see Intro. , n. 45), and Daniel Carroll Joynes, "Jansenists and Ideologues: Opposi- tion Theory in the Parlement of Paris (1750-1775)," Ph. D. diss. , University of Chicago (1981).
242
Notes to Pages 58-60
? 31.
32.
The quotes are from the controversial legal brief that prompted d'Aguesseau's comments on public opinion, [Franc? ois de Maraimberg], Me? moire pour les Sieurs Samson Cure? d'Olivet, Coue? t cure? de Darvoi, Gaucher chanoine de Jargeau, Dioce`se d'Orle? ans (Paris, 1730), 3. At least 3,000 copies of the brief were circulated. On this text and the controversy surrounding it, see Bell, Lawyers and Citizens, 91-104.
Parlements of Rouen, Paris (twice) and Besanc? on, quoted in Bickart, Les parlements, 54. In general on the phenomenon, see Bickart, 71-142, and more recently, Joynes, "Jansenists and Ideologues"; and Van Kley, The Damiens Af- fair, 166-225. The same strategists promoted the theory of the "union des classes," according to which the individual provincial parlements each formed a part of a larger national parlement. On the newspapers, which were the principal independent sources of news in France before the 1760s, see Popkin, News and Politics, and his "The Pre-Revolutionary Origins of Revo- lutionary Journalism" (see Ch. 1, n. 58).
[Louis-Adrien Le Paige], Lettres historiques sur les fonctions essentielles du Parlement, sur les droits de Pairs, et sur les lois fondamentales du Royaume, 2 vols. (Amsterdam, 1753-54); and his, Lettre sur les lits de justice (n. p. , 1756). Jacques-Be? nigne Bossuet, Politics Drawn from the Very Words of Holy Scrip- ture, trans. and ed. Patrick Riley (Cambridge, 1990), 16.
Jean-Baptiste Dubos, Histoire critique de l'e? tablissement de la Monarchie franc? aise dans les Gaules (Amsterdam, 1735).
Jules Flammermont, ed. , Remontrances du Parlement de Paris au XVIIIe sie`cle, 3 vols. (Paris, 1888), II, 186.
"The Session of the Scourging," in Keith Michael Baker, ed.
, The Old Regime and the French Revolution (Chicago, 1987), 47-50, quote from 49.
See Bickart, 68-70.
Paul A. Friedland, "Representation and Revolution: The Theatricality of Poli- tics and the Politics of Theater in France, 1789-1794," Ph. D. diss. , University of California, Berkeley (1995); Baker, Inventing, 224-51. Friedland likens the process at one point to Catholic notions of transsubstantiation (105). Montesquieu, The Spirit of the Laws (see Intro. , n. 41), 544.
For example, see the following works: Michel Desjardins, Le patriotisme (n. p. , 1759); Franc? ois-Charles Vallier, Le citoyen, poe`me (Nancy, 1759); Claude- Franc? ois-Xavier Millot, Discours sur le patriotisme franc? ois (Lyon, 1762); Louis Basset de la Marelle, La diffe? rence du patriotisme national chez les franc? ois et chez les anglois (Paris, 1766); Joseph-Antoine-Joachim Cerutti, Discours qui a remporte? le prix de l'e? loquence a` l'Acade? mie de Toulouse, le 3 mai 1760 (Lyon, 1760); Antoine-Jacques Roustan, Offrande aux autels et a` la patrie, contenant De? fense du Christianisme ou re? futation du chapitre VIII du [livre IV du] Contrat Social; Examen historique des quatre beaux sie`cles de Mr.
33.
34.
35.
Notes to Pages 58-60
36. 37.
38. 39.
40. 41.
de Voltaire; Quels sont les moyens de tirer un peuple de sa corruption (Amster-
dam, 1764).
42. Chevalier de Jaucourt, "Patrie" (see Ch. 1, n. 75), 178.
43. Elie-Lefebvre, in "Le de? bat," 100-108, agrees that very few texts put the
patrie's autonomy from the king at the heart of political arguments.
44. See, for instance, The? odore Lombard, Discours . . . sur ses paroles: L'amour de la patrie (Toulouse, 1742); Jean-Baptiste Geoffroy, De amore patriae oratorio
(Paris, 1744).
45. Plaidoyer of Louis Chevalier, May 9, 1716, in Plaidoyers de Mr. Joly, en faveur
des trois chanoines, & des trois Curez de Reims, pour e^tre de? charge? s de la sen- tence d'excommunication prononce? e contr'eux, le 17. juin 1715, au sujet de la Constitution Unigenitus (Paris, 1716), in Bibliothe`que Nationale, main collec- tion. Ld-4 802, p. 24. On the context for the remarks, see Bell, Lawyers and Citizens, 75-9.
46. For instance, De la nature de la Gra^ce . . . de? die? a` Messieurs les Avocats du Parlement de Paris (n. p. , 1739), 6.
47. [abbe? Coyer], Dissertations pour e^tre lues: La premie`re, sur le vieux mot de patrie; la seconde, sur la nature du peuple (The Hague, 1755), 9, 31. The first part of this work has recently been republished: Edmond Dziembowski, ed. , Ecrits sur le patriotisme, l'esprit public & la propagande au milieu du XVIIIe
sie`cle (La Rochelle, 1997), 41-53.
48. Jaucourt, "Patrie"; Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile, ou de l'e? ducation (Paris,
1966), 40. See also his article "Political Economy" for the Encyclope? die, in
which he claimed that love of the patrie is treated with derision.
49. Basset de la Marelle, La diffe? rence, 3; Rossel, Histoire du patriotisme franc? ois, 8 vols. (Paris, 1769), I, vi; Geoffroy, De amore patriae, 3. Norman Hampson, in "La patrie," 127, argues that during the pre-revolution of 1787-1789, "con- servatives" tended to use the word "patrie," while opponents of the monarchy used "patriote. " His observation is quite correct, but he does not examine the reason for this dichotomy, namely that the "patriotes" did not believe the patrie actually existed and had to be created, while their opponents believed
that it did exist and indeed was inseparable from the monarchy.
50. Quoted in Contamine, "Mourir pour la patrie," 31. On later French expres-
sions of the idea, see Viroli, 73-6. Chantreau, quoted in Dupuy, "Gene`se," 68.
51. Baptestein, Me? moire (see Ch. 1, n. 103), 2.
52. Coyer, 42.
53. Quoted in Bickart, Les parlements, 30.
54. [Edme-Franc? ois Darigrand], Antifinancier (n. p. , 1763), 7.
55. I reject the argument of Steven Englund in "The Ghost of Nation Past" (see
Intro. , n. 35), 315: "Who is using patrie and its derivations, patriotisme, patriote? Is it kings and ministers vis-a`-vis popes or ultramontanes? Or is it
Notes to Pages 60-63 243
? Notes to Pages 60-63
244
Notes to Pages 63-65
? 56. 57.
58.
more often municipalities, parlements, and aristocracies in opposition to centralizing monarchs? " In fact, the evidence shows that it was precisely the centralizing monarchs who used the word patrie most often.
Millot, Discours sur le patriotisme franc? ois (Lyon, 1762), 3, 15. Philippe-Auguste de Sainte-Foix, chevalier d'Arcq, La noblesse militaire (1756), iii; Beausobre, quoted in Elie-Lefebvre, "Le de? bat," 102.
Rossel, Histoire du patriotisme franc? ois. The manuscript essays submitted to the contest do not appear to have survived in the archives. Entries that were printed include Baptestein, Me? moire; Cle? ment-Alexandre de Brie-Serrant, Ecrit adresse? a` l'Acade? mie de Cha^lons-sur-Marne, sur une question propose? e par voie de concours, concernant le patriotisme (n. p. , 1787); Johan Meerman, Discours pre? sente? a` l'Acade? mie de Cha^lons-sur-Marne en 1787 (Leiden, 1787); E. Mignonneau, Re? flexions politiques sur la question propose? e par l'Acade? mie de Cha^lons (Paris, 1787); and the winner, Charles-Joseph Mathon de la Cour, Discours sur les meilleurs moyens de faire nai^tre et d'encourager le patriotisme dans une monarchie; qui a remporte? le prix dans l'Acade? mie de Cha^lons-sur- Marne, le 25 aou^t, 1787 (Paris, 1787). All of these works stressed the compati- bility of monarchy and patriotism, although the anonymously published Discours sur le patriotisme of 1788 (see Intro. , n. 56), which appears to have been provoked by the contest but not submitted for the prize, argued the op- posite case.
Me? morial pittoresque de la France, ou recueil de toutes les belles actions, traits de courage, de bienfaisance, de patriotisme et d'humanite? , arrive? s depuis le re`gne de Henri IV jusqu'a` nos jours (Paris, 1786). On depictions of the great men, see Chapter 4, and Bonnet, Naissance du Panthe? on (see Intro. , n. 48), 131-32.
Pierre Buirette de Belloy, Oeuvres complettes de M. de Belloy, de l'Acade? mie Franc? aise (Paris, 1779), 32. This text probably first appeared in 1775. See Simon Schama, Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution (New York, 1989), 37.
The exact degree of royal sponsorship of the play has been the subject of con- siderable discussion. See especially Clarence D. Brenner, L'histoire nationale dans la trage? die franc? aise du dix-huitie`me sie`cle (Berkeley, 1929), 253-65; Mar- garet M. Moffat, "'Le sie`ge de Calais' et l'opinion publique en 1765," Revue d'histoire litte? raire de la France, 39 (1932), 339-54; Lennard Breitholz, Le the? a^tre historique en France jusqu'a` la Re? volution (Uppsala, 1952), 191-202; Carmen Biondi, "Le sie`ge de Calais di Dormont de Belloy [sic]: Ragioni di un successo," in Intorno a Montesquieu (Pisa, 1970), 5-20; Boe? s, La lanterne magique (see Intro. , n. 44), 98-103.
Belloy, Le sie`ge de Calais (see Ch. 1, n. 104), 48. The eulogist, in Belloy, Oeuvres, 33, makes clear the line was directed against the philosophes.
Notes to Pages 63-65
59.
60.
61.
62.
63. Louis-Se? bastien Mercier, L'an 2440 (London, 1772), 267.
64. [Louis Petit de Bachaumont, et al. ], Me? moires secrets pour servir a` l'histoire de
la re? publique des lettres en France, 36 vols. (London, 1777-1789), VI, 39; Baron Grimm similarly reported that those who dared criticize the play and its obsequious royalism "are regarded as bad citizens. " Quoted in Boe? s, La lanterne magique, 70.
65. The point has been exhaustively demonstrated by Dziembowski in Un nou- veau patriotisme franc? ais.
66. "Six months ago you caused one revolution in the opinions of this country; now you must cause another one. " Moreau, Mes souvenirs, I, 59.
67. In the newspaper he identified his enemies as "so-called philosophes," and people "who have tried to restrict the exercise of authority," and explicitly linked the former to the English enemy: "A contagious epidemic malady has come to us from England: it is called the philosophical spirit. " Moreau, Le Moniteur, I, 77, 19. On Moreau's enterprise, see Dziembowski, "Les de? buts d'un publiciste" (see Ch. 1, n. 98). Two introductory essays from the Moniteur have been published in Dziembowski, ed. , Ecrits, 57-74 and 75-83.
68.
