It is curious to hear this great oculist talk of couching the cataract
by which the Netherlands were blinded, and hindered from seeing in
VOL.
by which the Netherlands were blinded, and hindered from seeing in
VOL.
Edmund Burke
They had just reason to apprehend,
that, if they permitted the smallest delay, they should
see themselves besieged by an army collected from
all parts of France. Violent threats were thrown
out against that city in the Assembly. Its total
destruction was menaced. A very remarkable ex
pression was used in these debates, -" that in future
times it might be inquired on what part of the Seine
Paris had stood. " The faction which' uled in Paris,
too bold to be intimidated and too vigilant to be surprised, instantly armed themselves. In their turn,
they accused the Girondists of a treasonable design
to break the republic one and indivisible (whose unity
they contended could only be preserved by the supremacy of Paris) into a number of confederate commonwealths. The Girondin faction on this account received also the name of Federalists.
Things on both sides hastened fast to extremities.
Paris, the mother of equality, was herself to be equalized. Matters were come to this alternative: either
that city must be reduced to a mere member of the
federative republic, or the Convention, chosen, as
they said, by all France, was to be brought regularly
and systematically under the dominion of the Common Hall, and even of any one of the sections of
Paris.
In this awful contest, thus brought to issue, the
great mother club of the Jacobins was entirely in the
Parisian interest. The Girondins no longer dared
to show their faces in that assembly. Nine tenths
at least of the Jacobin clubs, throughout France, adhered to the great patriarchal Jacobinidre of Paris,
to which they were (to use their own term) affiliated. No authority of magistracy, judicial or executive,
? ? ? ? TO HIS CONSTITUENTS. 85
had the least weight, whenever these clubs chose to
interfere: and they chose to interfere in everything,
and on every occasion. All hope of gaining them to
the support of property, or to the acknowledgment
of any law but their own will, was evidently vain
and hopeless. Nothing but an armed insurrection
against their anarchical authority could answer the
purpose of the Girondins. Anarchy was to be cured
by rebellion, as it had been caused by it.
As a preliminary to this attempt on the Jacobins
and the commons of Paris, which it was hoped would
be supported by all the remaining property of France,
it became absolutely necessary to prepare a manifesto, laying before the public the whole policy, genius, character, and conduct of the partisans of club government. To make this exposition as fully and clearly as it ought to be made, it was of the same unavoidable necessity to go through a series of transactions, in which all those concerned in this Revolution were,
at the several periods of their activity, deeply involved. In consequence of this design, and under
these difficulties, Brissot prepared the following declaration of his party, which he executed with no
small ability; and in this manner the whole mystery
of the French Revolution was laid open in all its
parts.
It is almost needless to mention to the reader the
fate of the design to which this pamphlet was to
be subservient. The Jacobins of Paris were more
prompt than their adversaries. They were the readiest to resort to what La Fayette calls the most sacred of all duties, that of insurrection. Another era of holy
insurrection commenced the 31st of last May. As
the first fruits of that insurrection grafted on in
? ? ? ? 86 PREFACE TO BRISSOT'S ADDRESS
surrection, and of that rebellion improving upon
rebellion, the sacred, irresponsible character of the
members of the Convention was laughed to scorn.
They had themselves shown in their proceedings
against the late king how little the most fixed principles are to be relied upon, in their revolutionary
Constitution. The members of the Girondin party
in the Convention were seized upon, or obliged to
save themselves by flight. The unhappy author of
this piece, with twenty of his associates, suffered
together on the scaffold, after a trial the iniquity of
which puts all description to defiance.
The English reader will draw from this work of
Brissot, and from the result of the last struggles of
this party, some useful lessons. He will be enabled
to judge of the information of those who have undertaken to guide and enlighten us, and who, for reasons best known to themselves, have chosen to paint the French Revolution and its consequences in brilliant and flattering colors. They will know how
to appreciate the liberty of France, which has been
so much magnified in England. They will do justice
to the wisdom and goodness of their sovereign and
his Parliament, who have put them into a state of
defence, in the war audaciously made upon us in
favor of that kind of liberty. When we see (as here
we must see) in their true colors the character and
policy of our enemies, our gratitude will become an
active principle. It will produce a strong and zealous cooperation with the efforts of our government
in favor of a Constitution under which we enjoy
advantages the full value of which the querulous
weaknes;s of human nature requires sometimes the
opportunity of a comparison to understand and to
relish.
? ? ? ? TO HIS CONSTITUENTS. 87
Our confidence in those who watch for the public
will not be lessened. We shall be sensible that to
alarm us in the late circumstances of our affairs was
not for our molestation, but for our security. We
shall be sensible that this alarm was not ill-timed,
and that it ought to have been given, as it was given,
before the enemy had time fully to mature and accomplish their plans for reducing us to the condition of France, as that condition is faithfully and without
exaggeration described in the following work. We
now have our arms in our hands; we have the means
of opposing the sense, the courage, and the resources
of England to the deepest, the most craftily devised,
the best combined, and the most extensive design
that ever was carried on, since the beginning of the
world, against all property, all order, all religion, all
law, and all real freedom.
The reader is requested to attend to the part of
this pamphlet which relates to the conduct of the
Jacobins with regard to the Austrian Netherlands,
which they call Belgia or Belgium. It is from page
seventy-two to page eighty-four of this translation.
Here their views and designs upon all their neighbors
are fully displayed. Here the whole mystery of their
ferocious politics is laid open with the utmost clearness. Here the manner in which they would treat every nation into which they could introduce their
doctrines and influence is distinctly marked. We
see that no nation was out of danger, and we see
what the danger was with which every nation was
threatened. The writer of this pamphlet throws the
blame of several of the most violent of the proceedings on the other party. He and his friends, at the time alluded to, had a majority in the National As
? ? ? ? 88 PREFACE TO BRISSOT'S ADDRESS
sembly. He admits that neither he nor they ever
publicly opposed these measures; but he attributes
their silence to a fear of rendering themselves suspected. It is most certain, that, whether from fear
or from approbation, they never discovered any dislike of those proceedings till Dumouriez was driven
from the Netherlands. But whatever their motive
was, it is plain that the most violent is, and since
the Revolution has always been, the predominant
party.
If Europe could not be saved without our interposition, (most certainly it could not,) I am sure there
is not an Englishman who would not blush to be left
out of the general effort made in favor of the general
safety. But we are not secondary parties in this
war; we are principals in the danger, and ought to be
principals in the exertion. If any Englishman asks
whether the designs of the French assassins are confined to the spot of Europe which they actually desolate, the citizen Brissot, the author of this book, and the author of the declaration of war against England,
will give him his answer. He will find in this book,
that the republicans are divided into factions full of
the most furious and destructive animosity against
each other; but he will find also that there is one
point in which they perfectly agree: that they are
all enemies alike to the government of all other nations, and only contend with each other about the
means of propagating their tenets and extending
their empire by conquest.
It is true that in this present work, which the
author professedly designed for an appeal to foreign
nations and posterity, he has dressed up the phil(,sophy of his own faction in as decent a garb as he
? ? ? ? TO HIS CONSTITUENTS. 89
could to make her appearance in public; but through
every disguise her hideous figure may be distinctly
seen. If, however, the reader still wishes to see her
in all her naked deformity, I would further refer him
to a private letter of Brissot, written towards the end
of the last year, and quoted in a late very able pamphlet of Mallet Du Pan. " We must" (says our philosopher) " set fire to the four corners of Europe "; in that alone is our safety. " IDumouriez cannot suit us.
I always distrusted him. Miranda is the general for
us: he understands the revolutionary power; he has
courage, lights," &c. * Here everything is fairly
avowed in plain language. The triumph of philosophy is the universal conflagration of Europe; the
only real dissatisfaction with Dumouriez is a suspicion of his moderation; and the secret motive of
that preference which in this very pamphlet the author gives to Miranda, though without assigning his
reasons, is declared to be the superior fitness of that
foreign adventurer for the purposes of subversion and
destruction. On the other hand, if there can be any
man in this country so hardy as to undertake the defence or the apology of the present monstrous usurpers of France, and if it should be said in their favor, that it is not just to credit the charges of their enemy Brissot against them, who have actually tried and
conderfined him on the very same charges among
others, we are luckily supplied with the best possible evidence in support of this part of his book
against them: it comes from among themselves.
Camille Desmoulins published the History of the
Brissotins in answer to this very address of Bris* See the translation of Mallet Du Pan's work, printed for Owen,
p. 53.
? ? ? ? 90 PREFACE TO BRISSOT'S ADDRESS
sot. It was the counter-manifesto of the last holy
revolution of the 31st of May; and the flagitious
orthodoxy of his writings at that period has been
admitted in the late scrutiny of him by the Jacobin Club, when they saved him from that guillotine
" which he grazed. " In the beginning of his work
he displays " the task of glory," as he calls it, which
presented itself at the opening of the Convention.
All is summed up in two points: "To create the
French Republic; to disorganize Europe; perhaps to
purge it of its tyrants by the eruption of the volcanic
principles of equality. " * The coincidence is exact;
the proof is complete and irresistible.
In a cause like this, and in a time like the present,
there is no neutrality. They who are not actively,
and with decision and energy, against Jacobinism
are its partisans. They who do not dread it love it.
It cannot be viewed with indifference. It is a thing
made to produce a powerful impression on the feelings. Such is the nature of Jacobinism, such is the nature of man, that this system must be regarded
either with enthusiastic admiration, or with the highest degree of detestation, resentment, and horror. Another great lesson may be taught by this book,
and by the fortune of the author and his party: I
mean a lesson drawn firom the consequences of engaging in daring innovations from an hope that we may be able to limit their mischievous operation at
our pleasure, and by our policy to secure ourselves
against the effect of the evil examples we hold out to
the world. This lesson is taught through almost all
the important pages of history; but never has it been
* See the translation of the History of the Brissotins by Camille
Desmoulins, printed for Owen, p. 2.
? ? ? ? TO HIS CONSTITUENTS. 91
taught so clearly and so awfully as at this hour. The
revolutionists who have just suffered an ignominious
death, under the sentence of the revolutionary tribunal, (a tribunal composed of those with whom they
had triumphed in the total destruction of the ancient
governlment,) were by no means ordinary men, or
without very considerable talents and resources. But
with all their talents and resources, and the apparent
momentary extent of their power, we see the fate of
their projects, their power, and their persons. We
see before our eyes the absurdity of thinking to establish order upon principles of confusion, or with the
materials and instruments of rebellion to build up a
solid and stable government.
Such partisans of a republic amongst us as may
not have the worst intentions will see that the principles, the plans, the manners, the morals, and the
whole system of France is altogether as adverse to the
formation and duration of any rational scheme of a
republic as it is to that of a monarchy, absolute or
limited. It is, indeed, a system which can only answer the purposes of robbers and murderers.
The translator has only to say for himself, that he
has found some difficulty in this version. His original author, through haste, perhaps, or through the
perturbation of a mind filled with a great and arduous enterprise, is often obscure. There are some passages, too, in which his language requires to be first translated into French, - at least into such French as
the Academy would in former times have tolerated.
He writes with great force and vivacity; but the lallguage, like everything else in his country, has undergone a revolution. The translator thought it best to be as literal as possible, conceiving such a transla
? ? ? ? 92 PREFACE TO BRISSOT' S ADDRESS.
tion would perhaps be the most fit to convey the author's peculiar mode of thinking. In this way the translator has no credit for style, but he makes it up
in fidelity. Indeed, the facts and observations are so
much more important than the style, that no apology
is wanted for producing them in any intelligible manlier.
? ? ? ? APPENDIX.
[The Address of M. Brissot to his Constituents being now almost
forgotten, it has been thought right to add, as an Appendix, that part
of it to which Mr. Burke points our particular attention, and upon
which he so forcibly comments in his Preface. ]
THREE sorts of anarchy have ruined our affairs
in Belgium.
The anarchy of the administration of Pache, which
has completely disorganized the supply of our armies;
which by that disorganization reduced the army of
Dumouriez to stop in the middle of its conquests;
which struck it motionless through the months of
November and December; which hindered it from
joining Beurnonville and Custine, and from forcing
the Prussians and Austrians to repass the Rhine, and
afterwards from putting themselves in a condition to
invade Holland sooner than they did.
To this state of ministerial anarchy it is necessary
to join that other anarchy which disorganized the
troops, and occasioned their habits of pillage; and
lastly, that. anarchy which created the revolutionary
power, and forced the union to France of the countries we had invaded, before things were ripe for such a measure.
Who could, however, doubt the frightful evils that
were occasioned in our armies by that doctrine of anarchy which, under the shadow of equality of right, would establish equality of fact? This is universal
? ? ? ? 94P PREFACE TO BRISSOT'S ADDRESS.
equality, the scourge of society, as the other is the
support of society: an anarchical doctrine which
would level all things, talents and ignorance, virtues
and vices, places, usages, and services; a doctrine
which begot that fatal project of organizing the army,
presented by Dubois de Cranlce, to which it will be indebted for a complete disorganization.
Mark the date of the presentation of the system of
this equality of fact, entire equality. It had been
projected and decreed even at the very opening of
the Dutch campaign. If any project could encourage
the want of discipline in the soldiers, any scheme
could disgust and banish good officers, and throw all
things into confusion at the moment when order alone
could give victory, it is this project, in truth, so stubbornly defended by the anarchists, and transplanted into their ordinary tactic.
How could they expect that there should exist any
discipline, any subordination, when even in the camp
they permit motions, censures, and denunciations of
officers and of generals? Does not such a disorder
destroy all the respect that is due to superiors, and
all the mutual confidence without which success cannot be hoped for? For the spirit of distrust makes the soldier suspicious, and intimidates the general.
The first discerns treason in every danger; the second, always placed between the necessity of conquest and the image of the scaffold, dares not raise himself to bold conception, and those heights of courage which electrify an army and insure victory. Turenne, in our time, would have carried his head to
the scaffold; for he was sometimes beat: but the rea.
son why he more frequently conquered was, that his
discipline was severe; it was, that his soldiers, confid
? ? ? ? APPENDIX. ! )5
ing in his talents, never muttered discontent instead
of fighting. Without reciprocal confidence betweenl
the soldier and the general, there can be no army, no
victory, especially in a free government.
Is it not to the same system of anarchy, of equalization, and want of subordination, which has been
recommended in some clubs and defended even in
the Convention, that we owe the pillages, the murders, the enormities of all kinds, which it was difficult
for the officers to put a stop to, from the general spirit of insubordination, -- excesses which have rendered
the French name odious to the Belgians? Again, is
it not to this system of anarchy, and of robbery, that
we are indebted for the revolutionary power, which
has so justly aggravated the hatred of the Belgians
against France?
What did enlightened republicans think before the
10th of August, men who wished for liberty, not only
for their own country, but for all -Europe? They believed that they could generally establish it by exciting
the governed against the governors, in letting the people
see the facility and the advantages of such insurrections.
But how can the people be led to that point? By
the example of good government established among
us; by the example of order; by the care of spreading nothing but moral ideas among them: to respect
their properties and their rights; to respect their
prejudices, even when we combat them: by disinterestedness in defending the people; by a zeal to
extend the spirit of liberty amongst them.
This system was at first followed. * Excellent panm* The most seditious libels upon all governments, in order to excite insurrection in Spain, Holland, and other countries. - TRANSLATOR.
? ? ? ? 96 PREFACE TO BRISSOT'S ADDRESS.
phblets from the pen of Condorcet prepared the people
for liberty; the 10th of August, the republican decrees, the battle of Valmy, the retreat of the Prussians, the victory of Jemappes, all spoke in favor of France: all was rapidly destroyed by the revolutionary power. Without doubt, good intentions made
the majority of the Assembly adopt it; they would
plant the tree of liberty in a foreign soil, under the
shade of a people already free. To the eyes of the
people of Belgium it seemed but the mask of a new
foreign tyranny. This opinion was erroneous; I will
suppose it so for a moment; but still this opinion of
Belgium deserved to be considered. In general, we
have always considered our own opinions and our
own intentions rather than the people whose cause
we defend. We have given those people a will: that
is to say, we have more than ever alienated them from
liberty.
How could the Belgic people believe themselves
free, since we exercise for them, and over them, the
rights of sovereignty, - when, without consulting
them, we suppress, all in a mass, their ancient usages, their abuses, their prejudices, those classes of society which without doubt are contrary to the spirit of liberty, but the utility of whose destruction was
not as yet proved to them? How could they believe
themselves free and sovereign, when we made them
take such an oath as we thought fit, as a test to give
them the right of voting? How could they believe
themselves free, when openly despising their religious worship, which religious worship that superstitious people valued beyond their liberty, beyond even their life; when we proscribed their priests; when
we banished them from their assemblies, where. theS
? ? ? ? APPENDIX. 97
were in the practice of seeing them govern; when we
seized their revenues, their domains, and riches, to
the profit of the nation; when we carried to the very
censer those hands which they regarded as profane?
Doubtless these operations were founded on principles; but those principles ought to have had the consent of the Belgians, before they were carried into practice; otherwise they necessarily became our most
cruel enemies.
Arrived ourselves at the last bounds of liberty and
equality, trampling under our feet all human superstitions, (after, however, a four years' war with them,)
we attempt all at once to raise to the same eminence
men, strangers even to the first elementary principles
of liberty, and plunged for fifteen hundred years in
ignorance and superstition; we wished to force men
to see, when a thick cataract covered their eyes, even
before we had removed that cataract; we would force
men to see, whose dulness of character had raised a
mist before their eyes, and before that character was
altered. *
* It may not be amiss, once for all, to remark on the style of all
the philosophical politicians of France. Without any distinction in
their several sects and parties, they agree in treating all nations who
will not conform their government, laws, manners, and religion to
the new French fashion, as an herd of slaves. They consider the content with which men live under those governments as stupidity, andt
all attachment to religion as the effect of the grossest ignorance.
The people of the Netherlands, by their Constitution, are as muchl
entitled to be called free as any nation upon earth. The Austrian
government ( until some wild attempts the Emperor Joseph made on
the French principle, but which have been since abandoned by the
court of Vienna) has been remarkably mild. No people were more
at their ease than the Flemish subjects, particularly the lower classes.
It is curious to hear this great oculist talk of couching the cataract
by which the Netherlands were blinded, and hindered from seeing in
VOL. V. 7
? ? ? ? 98 PREFACE TO BRISSOT'S ADDRESS.
Do you believe that the doctrine which now prevails in France would have found many partisans
among us in 1789? No: a revolution in ideas and
in prejudices is not made with that rapidity; it
moves gradually; it does not escalade.
Philosophy does not inspire by violence, nor by
seduction; nor is it the sword that begets love of
li iberty.
Joseph the Second also borrowed the language of
philosophy, when he wished to suppress the monks
in Belgium, and to seize upon their revenues. There
was seen on him a mask only of philosophy, covering
the hideous countenance of a greedy despot; and the
people ran to arms. Nothing better than another
kind of despotism has been seen in the revolutionary
power.
We have seen in the commissioners of the National Convention nothing but proconsuls working
the mine of Belgium for the profit of the French
nation, seeking to conquer it for the sovereign of
Paris, - either to aggrandize his empire, or to share
the burdens of the debts, and furnish a rich prize
to the robbers who domineered in France.
Do you believe the Belgians have ever been the
its proper colors the beautiful vision of the French republic, which
he has himself painted with so masterly an hand. That people must
needs be dull, blind, and brutalized by fifteen hundred years of superstition, (the time elapsed since the introduction of Christianity amongst them,) who could prefer their former state to the present
state of IFralce! The reader will remark, that the only difference
between Brissot and his adversaries is in the nmode of bringing other
nations into the pale of the French republic. They would abolish
the order and classes of society, and all religion, at a stroke: Brissot
would have just the same thing done, but with more address and
management. - TRANSLATOR.
? ? ? ? APPENDIX. 99
dupes of those well-rounded periods which they vended in the pulpit in order to familiarize them to the
idea of an union with France? Do you believe they
were ever imposed upon by those votes and resolutions, made by what is called acclamation, for their
union, of which corruption paid one part,* and fear
forced the remainder? Who, at this time of day,
is unacquainted with the springs and wires of their
miserable puppet-show? Who does not know the farces
of primary assemblies, composed of a president, of a
secretary, and of some assistants, whose day's work was
paid for? No: it is not by means which belong
only to thieves and despots that the foundations
of liberty can be laid in an enslaved country. It
is not by those means, that a new-born republic, a
people who know not yet the elements of republican
governments, call be united to us. Even slaves do
not suffer themselves to be seduced by such artifices;
and if they have not the strength to resist, they have
at least the sense to know how to appreciate the value of such an attempt.
If we would attach the Belgians to us, we must at
least enlighten their minds by good writings; we must
send to them missionaries, and not despotic commissioners. t We ought to give them time to see, -to
perceive by themselves the advantages of liberty, the
unhappy effects of superstition, the fatal spirit of
priesthood. And whilst we waited for this moral
* See the correspondence of Dumouriez, especially the letter of
the 12th of March.
t They have not as yet proceeded farther with regard to the English dominions. Here we only see as yet the good writings of Paine, and of his learned associates, and the labors of the missionary clubs,
and other zealous instructors. - TRANSLATOR.
? ? ? ? 100 PREFACE TO BRISSOT'S ADDRESS.
revolution, we should have accepted the offers which
they incessantly repeated to join to the French army
an army of fifty thousand men, to entertain them at
their own expense, and to advance to France the
specie of which she stood in need.
But have we ever seen those fifty thousand soldiers who were to join our army as soon as the standard of liberty should be displayed in Belgium?
IHave we ever seen those treasures which they were
to count into our hands? Can we either accuse the
sterility of their country, or the penury of their treasure, or the coldness of their love for liberty? No! despotism and anarchy, these are the benefits which
we have transplanted into their soil. We have acted,
we have spoken, like masters; and from that time
we have found the Flemings nothing but jugglers,
who made the grimace of liberty for money, or
slaves, who in their hearts cursed their new tyrants.
Our commissioners address them in this sort: " You
have nobles and priests among you: drive them out
without delay, or we will neither be your brethren
nor your patrons. " They answered: " Give us but
time; only leave to us the care of reforming these
institutions. " Our answer to them was: " No! it
must be at the moment, it must be on the spot;
or we will treat you as enemies, we will abandon
you to the resentment of the Austrians. "
What could the disarmed Belgians object to all
this, surrounded as they were by seventy thousand
men? They had only to hold their tongues, and to
bow down their heads before their masters. They
did hold their tongues, and their silence is received
as a sincere and free assent.
Have not the strangest artifices been adopted to
? ? ? ? APPENDIX. 101
prevent that people from retreating, and to constrain
them to an union? It was foreseen, that, as long
as they were unable to effect an union, the States
would preserve the supreme authority amongst themselves. Under pretence, therefore, of relieving the people, and of exercising the sovereignty in their
right, at one stroke they abolished all the duties
and taxes, they shut up all the treasuries. From
that time no more receipts, no more public money,
no more means of paying the salaries of any man
in office appointed by the States. Thus was anarchy
organized amongst the people, that they might be
compelled to throw themselves into our arms. It
became necessary for those who administered their
affairs, under the penalty of being exposed to sedition, and in order to avoid their throats being cut,
to have recourse to the treasury of France. What
did they find in this treasury? ASSIGNATS.
These assignats were advanced at par to Belgium.
By this means, on the one hand, they naturalized
this currency in that country, and on the other,
they expected to make a good pecuniary transaction.
Thus it is that covetousness cut its throat with its
own hands. The Belgians have seen in this forced
introduction of assignats nothing but a double robbery;
and they have only the more violently hated the
union with France.
Recollect the solicitude of the Belgians on that
subject. With what earnestness did they conjure
you to take off a retroactive effect from these assignats, and to prevent them from being applied to the payment of debts that were contracted anterior
to the union!
Did not this language energetically enough signify
? ? ? ? 102 PREFACE TO BRISSOT' S ADDRESS.
that they looked upon the assignats as a leprosy, and
the union as a deadly contagion?
And yet what regard was paid to so just a demand? It was buried in the Committee of Finance.
That committee wanted to make anarchy the means
of an union. They only busied themselves in making
the Belgic Provinces subservient to their finances.
Cambon said loftily before the Belgians themselves:
The Belgian war costs us hundreds of millions. Their
ordinary revenues, and even some extraordinary taxes, will not answer to our reimbursements; and yet
we have occasion for them. The mortgage of our
assignats draws near its end. What must be done?
Sell the Church property of Brabant. There is a
mortgage of two thousand millions (eighty millions
sterling). How shall we get possession of them?
By an immediate union. Instantly they decreed this
union. Men's minds were not disposed to it. What
does it signify? Let us make them vote by means
of money. Without delay, therefore, they secretly
order the Minister of Foreign Affairs to dispose of
four or five hundred thousand livres (20,0001. sterling) to make the vagabonds of Brussels drunk, and to
buy proselytes to the union in all the States. But
even these means, it was said, will obtain but a
weak minority in our favor. What does that signify? Revolutions, said they, are made only by minorities. It is the minority which has made the Revolution of France; it is a minority which has made the people triumph.
The Belgic Provinces were not sufficient to satisfy
the voracious cravings of this financial system. Cambon wanted to unite everything, that he might sell
everything. Thus he forced the union of Savoy. In
? ? ? ? APPENDIX. 103
the war with Holland, he saw nothing but gold to
seize on, and assignats to sell at par. * "Do not
let us dissemble," said he one day to the Committee of General Defence, in presence even of the patriot deputies of Holland, "you have no ecclesiastical goods to offer us for our indemnity. IT IS A REVOLUTION IN THEIR COUNTERS AND
IRON CHESTS t that must be made amongst the
DUTCH. " The word was said, and the bankers Abema and Van Staphorst understood it.
Do you think that that word has not been worth
an army to the Stadtholder? that it has not cooled
the ardor of the Dutch patriots? that it has not commanded the vigorous defence of Williamstadt?
Do you believe that the patriots of Amsterdam,
when they read the preparatory decree which gave
France an execution on their goods, -- do you believe that those patriots would not have liked better
to have remained under the government of the Stadtholder, who took from them no more than a fixed
portion of their property, than to pass under that of
a revolutionary power, which would make a complete
revolution in their bureaus and strong-boxes, and
reduce them to wretchedness and rags? t Robbery
* The same thing will happen in Savoy. The persecution of the
clergy has soured people's minds. The commissaries represent them
to us as good Frenchmen. I put them to the proof. Where are the
legions? How! thirty thousand Savoyards, -are they not armed to
defend, in concert with us, their liberty? - BRISSOT.
t Portefeuille is the word in the original. It signifies all movable property which may be represented in bonds, notes, bills, stocks,
or any sort of public or private securities. I do not know of a single
word in English that answers it: I have therefore substituted that of
Iron Chests, as coming nearest to the idea. - TRANSLATOR.
t In the original les redauie iz la sansculotterie.
? ? ? ? 104 PREFACE TO BRISSOT'S ADDRESS.
and anarchy, instead of encouraging, will always stifle revolutions.
" But why," they object to me, " have not you and
your friends chosen to expose these measures in the
rostrum of the National Convention? Why have
you not opposed yourself to all these fatal projects
of union? "
There are two answers to make here, - one general, one particular.
You complain of the silence of honest men! You
quite forget, then, honest men are the objects of
your suspicion. Suspicion, if it does not stain the
soul of a courageous man, at least arrests his
thoughts in their passage to his lips. The suspicions of a good citizen freeze those men whom the calumny of the wicked could not stop in their progress.
You complain of their'silence! You forget, then,
that you have often established an insulting equality
between them and men covered with crimes and
made up of ignominy.
You forget, then, that you have twenty times left
them covered with opprobrium by your galleries.
You forget, then, that you have not thought yourself sufficiently powerful to impose silence upon these galleries.
What ought a wise man to do in the midst of
these circumstances? He is silent. He waits the
moment when the passions give way; he waits till
reason shall preside, and till the multitude shall listen to her voice.
What has been the tactic displayed during all
these unions? Cambon, incapable of political calculation, boasting his ignorance in the diplomatic, flat
? ? ? ? APPENDIX. L05
cering the ignorant multitude, lending his name and
popularity to the anarchists, seconded by their vociferations, denounced incessantly, as counter-revolutionists, those intelligent persons who were desirous at least of having things discussed. To oppose the acts
of union appeared to Cambon an overt act of treason. The wish so much as to reflect and to deliberate was in his eyes a great crime. He calumniated
our intentions. The voice of every deputy, especially
my voice, would infallibly have been stifled. There
were spies on the very monosyllables that escaped
our lips.
? ? ? ? A
LETTER
TO
WILLIAM ELLIOT, ESQ. ,'C'CASIONED BY
THE ACCOUNT GIVEN IN A NEWSPAPER OF THE SPEECH MADE IN THE HOUSE OF LORDS
BY THE **** OF *******
IN THE DEBATE
CONCERNING LORD FITZWILLIAM.
I 795.
? ? ? ? LETTER.
BEACONSFIELD, May 26, 1795.
M Y DEAR SIR, - I have been told of the voluntary which, for the entertainment of the
House of Lords, has been lately played by his Grace
the **** of ******* a great deal at my expense, and
a little at his own. I confess I should have liked the
composition rather better, if it had been quite new.
But every man has his taste, and his Grace is an admirer of ancient music.
There may be sometimes too much even of a good
thing. A toast is good, and a bumper is not bad:
but the best toasts may be so often repeated as to
disgust the palate, and ceaseless rounds of bumpers
may nauseate and overload the stomach. The ears
of the most steady-voting politicians may at last be
stunned with " three times three. " I am sure I have
been very grateful for the flattering remembrance
made of me in the toasts of the Revolution Society,
and of other clubs formed on the same laudable plan.
After giving the brimming honors to Citizen Thomas
Paine and to Citizen Dr. Priestley, the gentlemen of
these clubs seldom failed to bring me forth in my
turn, and to drink, " Mr. Burke, and thanks to him
for the discussion he has provoked. "
I found myself elevated with this honor; for, evenl! yv the collision of resistance, to be the means of
? ? ? ? 110 LETTER TO WILLIAM ELLIOT, ESQ.
striking out sparkles of truth, if not merit, is at least
felicity.
Here I might have rested. But when I found that
the great advocate, Mr. Erskine, condescended to resort to these bumper toasts, as the pure and exuberant fountains of politics and of rhetoric, (as I hear he did, in three or four speeches made in defence of certain worthy citizens,) I was rather let down a little.
Though still somewhat proud of myself, I was not
quite so proud of my voucher. Though he is no
idolater of fame, in some way or other Mr. Erskine
will always do himself honor. Methinks, however,
in following the precedents of these toasts, he seemed
to do more credit to his diligence as a special pleader than to his invention as an orator.
that, if they permitted the smallest delay, they should
see themselves besieged by an army collected from
all parts of France. Violent threats were thrown
out against that city in the Assembly. Its total
destruction was menaced. A very remarkable ex
pression was used in these debates, -" that in future
times it might be inquired on what part of the Seine
Paris had stood. " The faction which' uled in Paris,
too bold to be intimidated and too vigilant to be surprised, instantly armed themselves. In their turn,
they accused the Girondists of a treasonable design
to break the republic one and indivisible (whose unity
they contended could only be preserved by the supremacy of Paris) into a number of confederate commonwealths. The Girondin faction on this account received also the name of Federalists.
Things on both sides hastened fast to extremities.
Paris, the mother of equality, was herself to be equalized. Matters were come to this alternative: either
that city must be reduced to a mere member of the
federative republic, or the Convention, chosen, as
they said, by all France, was to be brought regularly
and systematically under the dominion of the Common Hall, and even of any one of the sections of
Paris.
In this awful contest, thus brought to issue, the
great mother club of the Jacobins was entirely in the
Parisian interest. The Girondins no longer dared
to show their faces in that assembly. Nine tenths
at least of the Jacobin clubs, throughout France, adhered to the great patriarchal Jacobinidre of Paris,
to which they were (to use their own term) affiliated. No authority of magistracy, judicial or executive,
? ? ? ? TO HIS CONSTITUENTS. 85
had the least weight, whenever these clubs chose to
interfere: and they chose to interfere in everything,
and on every occasion. All hope of gaining them to
the support of property, or to the acknowledgment
of any law but their own will, was evidently vain
and hopeless. Nothing but an armed insurrection
against their anarchical authority could answer the
purpose of the Girondins. Anarchy was to be cured
by rebellion, as it had been caused by it.
As a preliminary to this attempt on the Jacobins
and the commons of Paris, which it was hoped would
be supported by all the remaining property of France,
it became absolutely necessary to prepare a manifesto, laying before the public the whole policy, genius, character, and conduct of the partisans of club government. To make this exposition as fully and clearly as it ought to be made, it was of the same unavoidable necessity to go through a series of transactions, in which all those concerned in this Revolution were,
at the several periods of their activity, deeply involved. In consequence of this design, and under
these difficulties, Brissot prepared the following declaration of his party, which he executed with no
small ability; and in this manner the whole mystery
of the French Revolution was laid open in all its
parts.
It is almost needless to mention to the reader the
fate of the design to which this pamphlet was to
be subservient. The Jacobins of Paris were more
prompt than their adversaries. They were the readiest to resort to what La Fayette calls the most sacred of all duties, that of insurrection. Another era of holy
insurrection commenced the 31st of last May. As
the first fruits of that insurrection grafted on in
? ? ? ? 86 PREFACE TO BRISSOT'S ADDRESS
surrection, and of that rebellion improving upon
rebellion, the sacred, irresponsible character of the
members of the Convention was laughed to scorn.
They had themselves shown in their proceedings
against the late king how little the most fixed principles are to be relied upon, in their revolutionary
Constitution. The members of the Girondin party
in the Convention were seized upon, or obliged to
save themselves by flight. The unhappy author of
this piece, with twenty of his associates, suffered
together on the scaffold, after a trial the iniquity of
which puts all description to defiance.
The English reader will draw from this work of
Brissot, and from the result of the last struggles of
this party, some useful lessons. He will be enabled
to judge of the information of those who have undertaken to guide and enlighten us, and who, for reasons best known to themselves, have chosen to paint the French Revolution and its consequences in brilliant and flattering colors. They will know how
to appreciate the liberty of France, which has been
so much magnified in England. They will do justice
to the wisdom and goodness of their sovereign and
his Parliament, who have put them into a state of
defence, in the war audaciously made upon us in
favor of that kind of liberty. When we see (as here
we must see) in their true colors the character and
policy of our enemies, our gratitude will become an
active principle. It will produce a strong and zealous cooperation with the efforts of our government
in favor of a Constitution under which we enjoy
advantages the full value of which the querulous
weaknes;s of human nature requires sometimes the
opportunity of a comparison to understand and to
relish.
? ? ? ? TO HIS CONSTITUENTS. 87
Our confidence in those who watch for the public
will not be lessened. We shall be sensible that to
alarm us in the late circumstances of our affairs was
not for our molestation, but for our security. We
shall be sensible that this alarm was not ill-timed,
and that it ought to have been given, as it was given,
before the enemy had time fully to mature and accomplish their plans for reducing us to the condition of France, as that condition is faithfully and without
exaggeration described in the following work. We
now have our arms in our hands; we have the means
of opposing the sense, the courage, and the resources
of England to the deepest, the most craftily devised,
the best combined, and the most extensive design
that ever was carried on, since the beginning of the
world, against all property, all order, all religion, all
law, and all real freedom.
The reader is requested to attend to the part of
this pamphlet which relates to the conduct of the
Jacobins with regard to the Austrian Netherlands,
which they call Belgia or Belgium. It is from page
seventy-two to page eighty-four of this translation.
Here their views and designs upon all their neighbors
are fully displayed. Here the whole mystery of their
ferocious politics is laid open with the utmost clearness. Here the manner in which they would treat every nation into which they could introduce their
doctrines and influence is distinctly marked. We
see that no nation was out of danger, and we see
what the danger was with which every nation was
threatened. The writer of this pamphlet throws the
blame of several of the most violent of the proceedings on the other party. He and his friends, at the time alluded to, had a majority in the National As
? ? ? ? 88 PREFACE TO BRISSOT'S ADDRESS
sembly. He admits that neither he nor they ever
publicly opposed these measures; but he attributes
their silence to a fear of rendering themselves suspected. It is most certain, that, whether from fear
or from approbation, they never discovered any dislike of those proceedings till Dumouriez was driven
from the Netherlands. But whatever their motive
was, it is plain that the most violent is, and since
the Revolution has always been, the predominant
party.
If Europe could not be saved without our interposition, (most certainly it could not,) I am sure there
is not an Englishman who would not blush to be left
out of the general effort made in favor of the general
safety. But we are not secondary parties in this
war; we are principals in the danger, and ought to be
principals in the exertion. If any Englishman asks
whether the designs of the French assassins are confined to the spot of Europe which they actually desolate, the citizen Brissot, the author of this book, and the author of the declaration of war against England,
will give him his answer. He will find in this book,
that the republicans are divided into factions full of
the most furious and destructive animosity against
each other; but he will find also that there is one
point in which they perfectly agree: that they are
all enemies alike to the government of all other nations, and only contend with each other about the
means of propagating their tenets and extending
their empire by conquest.
It is true that in this present work, which the
author professedly designed for an appeal to foreign
nations and posterity, he has dressed up the phil(,sophy of his own faction in as decent a garb as he
? ? ? ? TO HIS CONSTITUENTS. 89
could to make her appearance in public; but through
every disguise her hideous figure may be distinctly
seen. If, however, the reader still wishes to see her
in all her naked deformity, I would further refer him
to a private letter of Brissot, written towards the end
of the last year, and quoted in a late very able pamphlet of Mallet Du Pan. " We must" (says our philosopher) " set fire to the four corners of Europe "; in that alone is our safety. " IDumouriez cannot suit us.
I always distrusted him. Miranda is the general for
us: he understands the revolutionary power; he has
courage, lights," &c. * Here everything is fairly
avowed in plain language. The triumph of philosophy is the universal conflagration of Europe; the
only real dissatisfaction with Dumouriez is a suspicion of his moderation; and the secret motive of
that preference which in this very pamphlet the author gives to Miranda, though without assigning his
reasons, is declared to be the superior fitness of that
foreign adventurer for the purposes of subversion and
destruction. On the other hand, if there can be any
man in this country so hardy as to undertake the defence or the apology of the present monstrous usurpers of France, and if it should be said in their favor, that it is not just to credit the charges of their enemy Brissot against them, who have actually tried and
conderfined him on the very same charges among
others, we are luckily supplied with the best possible evidence in support of this part of his book
against them: it comes from among themselves.
Camille Desmoulins published the History of the
Brissotins in answer to this very address of Bris* See the translation of Mallet Du Pan's work, printed for Owen,
p. 53.
? ? ? ? 90 PREFACE TO BRISSOT'S ADDRESS
sot. It was the counter-manifesto of the last holy
revolution of the 31st of May; and the flagitious
orthodoxy of his writings at that period has been
admitted in the late scrutiny of him by the Jacobin Club, when they saved him from that guillotine
" which he grazed. " In the beginning of his work
he displays " the task of glory," as he calls it, which
presented itself at the opening of the Convention.
All is summed up in two points: "To create the
French Republic; to disorganize Europe; perhaps to
purge it of its tyrants by the eruption of the volcanic
principles of equality. " * The coincidence is exact;
the proof is complete and irresistible.
In a cause like this, and in a time like the present,
there is no neutrality. They who are not actively,
and with decision and energy, against Jacobinism
are its partisans. They who do not dread it love it.
It cannot be viewed with indifference. It is a thing
made to produce a powerful impression on the feelings. Such is the nature of Jacobinism, such is the nature of man, that this system must be regarded
either with enthusiastic admiration, or with the highest degree of detestation, resentment, and horror. Another great lesson may be taught by this book,
and by the fortune of the author and his party: I
mean a lesson drawn firom the consequences of engaging in daring innovations from an hope that we may be able to limit their mischievous operation at
our pleasure, and by our policy to secure ourselves
against the effect of the evil examples we hold out to
the world. This lesson is taught through almost all
the important pages of history; but never has it been
* See the translation of the History of the Brissotins by Camille
Desmoulins, printed for Owen, p. 2.
? ? ? ? TO HIS CONSTITUENTS. 91
taught so clearly and so awfully as at this hour. The
revolutionists who have just suffered an ignominious
death, under the sentence of the revolutionary tribunal, (a tribunal composed of those with whom they
had triumphed in the total destruction of the ancient
governlment,) were by no means ordinary men, or
without very considerable talents and resources. But
with all their talents and resources, and the apparent
momentary extent of their power, we see the fate of
their projects, their power, and their persons. We
see before our eyes the absurdity of thinking to establish order upon principles of confusion, or with the
materials and instruments of rebellion to build up a
solid and stable government.
Such partisans of a republic amongst us as may
not have the worst intentions will see that the principles, the plans, the manners, the morals, and the
whole system of France is altogether as adverse to the
formation and duration of any rational scheme of a
republic as it is to that of a monarchy, absolute or
limited. It is, indeed, a system which can only answer the purposes of robbers and murderers.
The translator has only to say for himself, that he
has found some difficulty in this version. His original author, through haste, perhaps, or through the
perturbation of a mind filled with a great and arduous enterprise, is often obscure. There are some passages, too, in which his language requires to be first translated into French, - at least into such French as
the Academy would in former times have tolerated.
He writes with great force and vivacity; but the lallguage, like everything else in his country, has undergone a revolution. The translator thought it best to be as literal as possible, conceiving such a transla
? ? ? ? 92 PREFACE TO BRISSOT' S ADDRESS.
tion would perhaps be the most fit to convey the author's peculiar mode of thinking. In this way the translator has no credit for style, but he makes it up
in fidelity. Indeed, the facts and observations are so
much more important than the style, that no apology
is wanted for producing them in any intelligible manlier.
? ? ? ? APPENDIX.
[The Address of M. Brissot to his Constituents being now almost
forgotten, it has been thought right to add, as an Appendix, that part
of it to which Mr. Burke points our particular attention, and upon
which he so forcibly comments in his Preface. ]
THREE sorts of anarchy have ruined our affairs
in Belgium.
The anarchy of the administration of Pache, which
has completely disorganized the supply of our armies;
which by that disorganization reduced the army of
Dumouriez to stop in the middle of its conquests;
which struck it motionless through the months of
November and December; which hindered it from
joining Beurnonville and Custine, and from forcing
the Prussians and Austrians to repass the Rhine, and
afterwards from putting themselves in a condition to
invade Holland sooner than they did.
To this state of ministerial anarchy it is necessary
to join that other anarchy which disorganized the
troops, and occasioned their habits of pillage; and
lastly, that. anarchy which created the revolutionary
power, and forced the union to France of the countries we had invaded, before things were ripe for such a measure.
Who could, however, doubt the frightful evils that
were occasioned in our armies by that doctrine of anarchy which, under the shadow of equality of right, would establish equality of fact? This is universal
? ? ? ? 94P PREFACE TO BRISSOT'S ADDRESS.
equality, the scourge of society, as the other is the
support of society: an anarchical doctrine which
would level all things, talents and ignorance, virtues
and vices, places, usages, and services; a doctrine
which begot that fatal project of organizing the army,
presented by Dubois de Cranlce, to which it will be indebted for a complete disorganization.
Mark the date of the presentation of the system of
this equality of fact, entire equality. It had been
projected and decreed even at the very opening of
the Dutch campaign. If any project could encourage
the want of discipline in the soldiers, any scheme
could disgust and banish good officers, and throw all
things into confusion at the moment when order alone
could give victory, it is this project, in truth, so stubbornly defended by the anarchists, and transplanted into their ordinary tactic.
How could they expect that there should exist any
discipline, any subordination, when even in the camp
they permit motions, censures, and denunciations of
officers and of generals? Does not such a disorder
destroy all the respect that is due to superiors, and
all the mutual confidence without which success cannot be hoped for? For the spirit of distrust makes the soldier suspicious, and intimidates the general.
The first discerns treason in every danger; the second, always placed between the necessity of conquest and the image of the scaffold, dares not raise himself to bold conception, and those heights of courage which electrify an army and insure victory. Turenne, in our time, would have carried his head to
the scaffold; for he was sometimes beat: but the rea.
son why he more frequently conquered was, that his
discipline was severe; it was, that his soldiers, confid
? ? ? ? APPENDIX. ! )5
ing in his talents, never muttered discontent instead
of fighting. Without reciprocal confidence betweenl
the soldier and the general, there can be no army, no
victory, especially in a free government.
Is it not to the same system of anarchy, of equalization, and want of subordination, which has been
recommended in some clubs and defended even in
the Convention, that we owe the pillages, the murders, the enormities of all kinds, which it was difficult
for the officers to put a stop to, from the general spirit of insubordination, -- excesses which have rendered
the French name odious to the Belgians? Again, is
it not to this system of anarchy, and of robbery, that
we are indebted for the revolutionary power, which
has so justly aggravated the hatred of the Belgians
against France?
What did enlightened republicans think before the
10th of August, men who wished for liberty, not only
for their own country, but for all -Europe? They believed that they could generally establish it by exciting
the governed against the governors, in letting the people
see the facility and the advantages of such insurrections.
But how can the people be led to that point? By
the example of good government established among
us; by the example of order; by the care of spreading nothing but moral ideas among them: to respect
their properties and their rights; to respect their
prejudices, even when we combat them: by disinterestedness in defending the people; by a zeal to
extend the spirit of liberty amongst them.
This system was at first followed. * Excellent panm* The most seditious libels upon all governments, in order to excite insurrection in Spain, Holland, and other countries. - TRANSLATOR.
? ? ? ? 96 PREFACE TO BRISSOT'S ADDRESS.
phblets from the pen of Condorcet prepared the people
for liberty; the 10th of August, the republican decrees, the battle of Valmy, the retreat of the Prussians, the victory of Jemappes, all spoke in favor of France: all was rapidly destroyed by the revolutionary power. Without doubt, good intentions made
the majority of the Assembly adopt it; they would
plant the tree of liberty in a foreign soil, under the
shade of a people already free. To the eyes of the
people of Belgium it seemed but the mask of a new
foreign tyranny. This opinion was erroneous; I will
suppose it so for a moment; but still this opinion of
Belgium deserved to be considered. In general, we
have always considered our own opinions and our
own intentions rather than the people whose cause
we defend. We have given those people a will: that
is to say, we have more than ever alienated them from
liberty.
How could the Belgic people believe themselves
free, since we exercise for them, and over them, the
rights of sovereignty, - when, without consulting
them, we suppress, all in a mass, their ancient usages, their abuses, their prejudices, those classes of society which without doubt are contrary to the spirit of liberty, but the utility of whose destruction was
not as yet proved to them? How could they believe
themselves free and sovereign, when we made them
take such an oath as we thought fit, as a test to give
them the right of voting? How could they believe
themselves free, when openly despising their religious worship, which religious worship that superstitious people valued beyond their liberty, beyond even their life; when we proscribed their priests; when
we banished them from their assemblies, where. theS
? ? ? ? APPENDIX. 97
were in the practice of seeing them govern; when we
seized their revenues, their domains, and riches, to
the profit of the nation; when we carried to the very
censer those hands which they regarded as profane?
Doubtless these operations were founded on principles; but those principles ought to have had the consent of the Belgians, before they were carried into practice; otherwise they necessarily became our most
cruel enemies.
Arrived ourselves at the last bounds of liberty and
equality, trampling under our feet all human superstitions, (after, however, a four years' war with them,)
we attempt all at once to raise to the same eminence
men, strangers even to the first elementary principles
of liberty, and plunged for fifteen hundred years in
ignorance and superstition; we wished to force men
to see, when a thick cataract covered their eyes, even
before we had removed that cataract; we would force
men to see, whose dulness of character had raised a
mist before their eyes, and before that character was
altered. *
* It may not be amiss, once for all, to remark on the style of all
the philosophical politicians of France. Without any distinction in
their several sects and parties, they agree in treating all nations who
will not conform their government, laws, manners, and religion to
the new French fashion, as an herd of slaves. They consider the content with which men live under those governments as stupidity, andt
all attachment to religion as the effect of the grossest ignorance.
The people of the Netherlands, by their Constitution, are as muchl
entitled to be called free as any nation upon earth. The Austrian
government ( until some wild attempts the Emperor Joseph made on
the French principle, but which have been since abandoned by the
court of Vienna) has been remarkably mild. No people were more
at their ease than the Flemish subjects, particularly the lower classes.
It is curious to hear this great oculist talk of couching the cataract
by which the Netherlands were blinded, and hindered from seeing in
VOL. V. 7
? ? ? ? 98 PREFACE TO BRISSOT'S ADDRESS.
Do you believe that the doctrine which now prevails in France would have found many partisans
among us in 1789? No: a revolution in ideas and
in prejudices is not made with that rapidity; it
moves gradually; it does not escalade.
Philosophy does not inspire by violence, nor by
seduction; nor is it the sword that begets love of
li iberty.
Joseph the Second also borrowed the language of
philosophy, when he wished to suppress the monks
in Belgium, and to seize upon their revenues. There
was seen on him a mask only of philosophy, covering
the hideous countenance of a greedy despot; and the
people ran to arms. Nothing better than another
kind of despotism has been seen in the revolutionary
power.
We have seen in the commissioners of the National Convention nothing but proconsuls working
the mine of Belgium for the profit of the French
nation, seeking to conquer it for the sovereign of
Paris, - either to aggrandize his empire, or to share
the burdens of the debts, and furnish a rich prize
to the robbers who domineered in France.
Do you believe the Belgians have ever been the
its proper colors the beautiful vision of the French republic, which
he has himself painted with so masterly an hand. That people must
needs be dull, blind, and brutalized by fifteen hundred years of superstition, (the time elapsed since the introduction of Christianity amongst them,) who could prefer their former state to the present
state of IFralce! The reader will remark, that the only difference
between Brissot and his adversaries is in the nmode of bringing other
nations into the pale of the French republic. They would abolish
the order and classes of society, and all religion, at a stroke: Brissot
would have just the same thing done, but with more address and
management. - TRANSLATOR.
? ? ? ? APPENDIX. 99
dupes of those well-rounded periods which they vended in the pulpit in order to familiarize them to the
idea of an union with France? Do you believe they
were ever imposed upon by those votes and resolutions, made by what is called acclamation, for their
union, of which corruption paid one part,* and fear
forced the remainder? Who, at this time of day,
is unacquainted with the springs and wires of their
miserable puppet-show? Who does not know the farces
of primary assemblies, composed of a president, of a
secretary, and of some assistants, whose day's work was
paid for? No: it is not by means which belong
only to thieves and despots that the foundations
of liberty can be laid in an enslaved country. It
is not by those means, that a new-born republic, a
people who know not yet the elements of republican
governments, call be united to us. Even slaves do
not suffer themselves to be seduced by such artifices;
and if they have not the strength to resist, they have
at least the sense to know how to appreciate the value of such an attempt.
If we would attach the Belgians to us, we must at
least enlighten their minds by good writings; we must
send to them missionaries, and not despotic commissioners. t We ought to give them time to see, -to
perceive by themselves the advantages of liberty, the
unhappy effects of superstition, the fatal spirit of
priesthood. And whilst we waited for this moral
* See the correspondence of Dumouriez, especially the letter of
the 12th of March.
t They have not as yet proceeded farther with regard to the English dominions. Here we only see as yet the good writings of Paine, and of his learned associates, and the labors of the missionary clubs,
and other zealous instructors. - TRANSLATOR.
? ? ? ? 100 PREFACE TO BRISSOT'S ADDRESS.
revolution, we should have accepted the offers which
they incessantly repeated to join to the French army
an army of fifty thousand men, to entertain them at
their own expense, and to advance to France the
specie of which she stood in need.
But have we ever seen those fifty thousand soldiers who were to join our army as soon as the standard of liberty should be displayed in Belgium?
IHave we ever seen those treasures which they were
to count into our hands? Can we either accuse the
sterility of their country, or the penury of their treasure, or the coldness of their love for liberty? No! despotism and anarchy, these are the benefits which
we have transplanted into their soil. We have acted,
we have spoken, like masters; and from that time
we have found the Flemings nothing but jugglers,
who made the grimace of liberty for money, or
slaves, who in their hearts cursed their new tyrants.
Our commissioners address them in this sort: " You
have nobles and priests among you: drive them out
without delay, or we will neither be your brethren
nor your patrons. " They answered: " Give us but
time; only leave to us the care of reforming these
institutions. " Our answer to them was: " No! it
must be at the moment, it must be on the spot;
or we will treat you as enemies, we will abandon
you to the resentment of the Austrians. "
What could the disarmed Belgians object to all
this, surrounded as they were by seventy thousand
men? They had only to hold their tongues, and to
bow down their heads before their masters. They
did hold their tongues, and their silence is received
as a sincere and free assent.
Have not the strangest artifices been adopted to
? ? ? ? APPENDIX. 101
prevent that people from retreating, and to constrain
them to an union? It was foreseen, that, as long
as they were unable to effect an union, the States
would preserve the supreme authority amongst themselves. Under pretence, therefore, of relieving the people, and of exercising the sovereignty in their
right, at one stroke they abolished all the duties
and taxes, they shut up all the treasuries. From
that time no more receipts, no more public money,
no more means of paying the salaries of any man
in office appointed by the States. Thus was anarchy
organized amongst the people, that they might be
compelled to throw themselves into our arms. It
became necessary for those who administered their
affairs, under the penalty of being exposed to sedition, and in order to avoid their throats being cut,
to have recourse to the treasury of France. What
did they find in this treasury? ASSIGNATS.
These assignats were advanced at par to Belgium.
By this means, on the one hand, they naturalized
this currency in that country, and on the other,
they expected to make a good pecuniary transaction.
Thus it is that covetousness cut its throat with its
own hands. The Belgians have seen in this forced
introduction of assignats nothing but a double robbery;
and they have only the more violently hated the
union with France.
Recollect the solicitude of the Belgians on that
subject. With what earnestness did they conjure
you to take off a retroactive effect from these assignats, and to prevent them from being applied to the payment of debts that were contracted anterior
to the union!
Did not this language energetically enough signify
? ? ? ? 102 PREFACE TO BRISSOT' S ADDRESS.
that they looked upon the assignats as a leprosy, and
the union as a deadly contagion?
And yet what regard was paid to so just a demand? It was buried in the Committee of Finance.
That committee wanted to make anarchy the means
of an union. They only busied themselves in making
the Belgic Provinces subservient to their finances.
Cambon said loftily before the Belgians themselves:
The Belgian war costs us hundreds of millions. Their
ordinary revenues, and even some extraordinary taxes, will not answer to our reimbursements; and yet
we have occasion for them. The mortgage of our
assignats draws near its end. What must be done?
Sell the Church property of Brabant. There is a
mortgage of two thousand millions (eighty millions
sterling). How shall we get possession of them?
By an immediate union. Instantly they decreed this
union. Men's minds were not disposed to it. What
does it signify? Let us make them vote by means
of money. Without delay, therefore, they secretly
order the Minister of Foreign Affairs to dispose of
four or five hundred thousand livres (20,0001. sterling) to make the vagabonds of Brussels drunk, and to
buy proselytes to the union in all the States. But
even these means, it was said, will obtain but a
weak minority in our favor. What does that signify? Revolutions, said they, are made only by minorities. It is the minority which has made the Revolution of France; it is a minority which has made the people triumph.
The Belgic Provinces were not sufficient to satisfy
the voracious cravings of this financial system. Cambon wanted to unite everything, that he might sell
everything. Thus he forced the union of Savoy. In
? ? ? ? APPENDIX. 103
the war with Holland, he saw nothing but gold to
seize on, and assignats to sell at par. * "Do not
let us dissemble," said he one day to the Committee of General Defence, in presence even of the patriot deputies of Holland, "you have no ecclesiastical goods to offer us for our indemnity. IT IS A REVOLUTION IN THEIR COUNTERS AND
IRON CHESTS t that must be made amongst the
DUTCH. " The word was said, and the bankers Abema and Van Staphorst understood it.
Do you think that that word has not been worth
an army to the Stadtholder? that it has not cooled
the ardor of the Dutch patriots? that it has not commanded the vigorous defence of Williamstadt?
Do you believe that the patriots of Amsterdam,
when they read the preparatory decree which gave
France an execution on their goods, -- do you believe that those patriots would not have liked better
to have remained under the government of the Stadtholder, who took from them no more than a fixed
portion of their property, than to pass under that of
a revolutionary power, which would make a complete
revolution in their bureaus and strong-boxes, and
reduce them to wretchedness and rags? t Robbery
* The same thing will happen in Savoy. The persecution of the
clergy has soured people's minds. The commissaries represent them
to us as good Frenchmen. I put them to the proof. Where are the
legions? How! thirty thousand Savoyards, -are they not armed to
defend, in concert with us, their liberty? - BRISSOT.
t Portefeuille is the word in the original. It signifies all movable property which may be represented in bonds, notes, bills, stocks,
or any sort of public or private securities. I do not know of a single
word in English that answers it: I have therefore substituted that of
Iron Chests, as coming nearest to the idea. - TRANSLATOR.
t In the original les redauie iz la sansculotterie.
? ? ? ? 104 PREFACE TO BRISSOT'S ADDRESS.
and anarchy, instead of encouraging, will always stifle revolutions.
" But why," they object to me, " have not you and
your friends chosen to expose these measures in the
rostrum of the National Convention? Why have
you not opposed yourself to all these fatal projects
of union? "
There are two answers to make here, - one general, one particular.
You complain of the silence of honest men! You
quite forget, then, honest men are the objects of
your suspicion. Suspicion, if it does not stain the
soul of a courageous man, at least arrests his
thoughts in their passage to his lips. The suspicions of a good citizen freeze those men whom the calumny of the wicked could not stop in their progress.
You complain of their'silence! You forget, then,
that you have often established an insulting equality
between them and men covered with crimes and
made up of ignominy.
You forget, then, that you have twenty times left
them covered with opprobrium by your galleries.
You forget, then, that you have not thought yourself sufficiently powerful to impose silence upon these galleries.
What ought a wise man to do in the midst of
these circumstances? He is silent. He waits the
moment when the passions give way; he waits till
reason shall preside, and till the multitude shall listen to her voice.
What has been the tactic displayed during all
these unions? Cambon, incapable of political calculation, boasting his ignorance in the diplomatic, flat
? ? ? ? APPENDIX. L05
cering the ignorant multitude, lending his name and
popularity to the anarchists, seconded by their vociferations, denounced incessantly, as counter-revolutionists, those intelligent persons who were desirous at least of having things discussed. To oppose the acts
of union appeared to Cambon an overt act of treason. The wish so much as to reflect and to deliberate was in his eyes a great crime. He calumniated
our intentions. The voice of every deputy, especially
my voice, would infallibly have been stifled. There
were spies on the very monosyllables that escaped
our lips.
? ? ? ? A
LETTER
TO
WILLIAM ELLIOT, ESQ. ,'C'CASIONED BY
THE ACCOUNT GIVEN IN A NEWSPAPER OF THE SPEECH MADE IN THE HOUSE OF LORDS
BY THE **** OF *******
IN THE DEBATE
CONCERNING LORD FITZWILLIAM.
I 795.
? ? ? ? LETTER.
BEACONSFIELD, May 26, 1795.
M Y DEAR SIR, - I have been told of the voluntary which, for the entertainment of the
House of Lords, has been lately played by his Grace
the **** of ******* a great deal at my expense, and
a little at his own. I confess I should have liked the
composition rather better, if it had been quite new.
But every man has his taste, and his Grace is an admirer of ancient music.
There may be sometimes too much even of a good
thing. A toast is good, and a bumper is not bad:
but the best toasts may be so often repeated as to
disgust the palate, and ceaseless rounds of bumpers
may nauseate and overload the stomach. The ears
of the most steady-voting politicians may at last be
stunned with " three times three. " I am sure I have
been very grateful for the flattering remembrance
made of me in the toasts of the Revolution Society,
and of other clubs formed on the same laudable plan.
After giving the brimming honors to Citizen Thomas
Paine and to Citizen Dr. Priestley, the gentlemen of
these clubs seldom failed to bring me forth in my
turn, and to drink, " Mr. Burke, and thanks to him
for the discussion he has provoked. "
I found myself elevated with this honor; for, evenl! yv the collision of resistance, to be the means of
? ? ? ? 110 LETTER TO WILLIAM ELLIOT, ESQ.
striking out sparkles of truth, if not merit, is at least
felicity.
Here I might have rested. But when I found that
the great advocate, Mr. Erskine, condescended to resort to these bumper toasts, as the pure and exuberant fountains of politics and of rhetoric, (as I hear he did, in three or four speeches made in defence of certain worthy citizens,) I was rather let down a little.
Though still somewhat proud of myself, I was not
quite so proud of my voucher. Though he is no
idolater of fame, in some way or other Mr. Erskine
will always do himself honor. Methinks, however,
in following the precedents of these toasts, he seemed
to do more credit to his diligence as a special pleader than to his invention as an orator.
