Without reverting to the events of Auguſt and September, 1792, preſided by the founders of liberty, and executed by their too apt ſectaries, it is notorious that the legions of Paris, ſent to chaſtiſe the unenlightened Vendeans, were the moſt cruel and rapacious banditti that ever were let looſe to afflict the world. Yet, while they exerciſed thiſ ſavage oppreſſion in the countries near the Loire, their fellow-citizenſ on the banks of the Seine crouched at the frown of paltry tyrants, and were unreſiſtingly dragged to dungeons, or butchered by hundreds on the ſcaffold.—At Marſeilles, Lyons, Bourdeaux, Arras, wherever theſe baleful principles have made converts, they have made criminals and victims; and thoſe who have been moſt eager in imbibing or propagating them have, by a natural and juſt retribution, been the firſt ſacrificed. The new diſcoveries in politics have produced ſome in ethics not leſs novel, and until the adoption of revolutionary doctrines, the extent of human ſubmiſſion or human depravity was fortunately unknown.
In this ſource of guilt and miſery the people of La Vendee are now to be inſtructed—that people, who are acknowledged to be hoſpitable, humane, and laborious, and whoſe ideas of freedom may be better eſtimated by their reſiſtance to a deſpotiſm which the reſt of France has ſunk under, than by the jargon of pretended reformers.—I could wiſh, that not only the peaſants of La Vendee, but thoſe of all other countries, might for ever remain ſtrangers to ſuch pernicious knowledge. It is ſufficient for this uſeful claſs of men to be taught the ſimple precepts of religion and morality, and thoſe who would teach them more, are not their benefactors. Our age is, indeed, a literary age, and ſuch purſuits are both liberal and laudable in the rich and idle; but why ſhould volumes of politics or philoſophy be mutilated and frittered into pamphlets, to inſpire a diſguſt for labour, and a taſte for ſtudy or pleaſure, in thoſe to whom ſuch diſguſts or inclinations are fatal. The ſpirit of one author iſ extracted, and the beauties of another are ſelected, only to bewilder the underſtanding, and engroſs the time, of thoſe who might be more profitably employed.
I know I may be cenſured as illiberal; but I have, during my abode in this country, ſufficiently witneſſed the diſaſtrous effects of corrupting a people through their amuſements or curioſity, and of making men neglect their uſeful callings to become patriots and philoſophers.*—
*This right of directing public affairs, and neglecting their own, we may ſuppoſe eſſential to republicans of the lower orders, ſince we find the following ſentence of tranſportation in the regiſters of a popular commiſſion: "Bergeron, a dealer in ſkinſ—ſuſpected—having done nothing in favour of the revolution—extremely ſelfiſh (egoiſte,) and blaming the Sans-Culottes for neglecting their callings, that they may attend only to public concerns."—Signed by the members of the Commiſſion and the two Committees.
—"Il eſt dangereux d'apprendre au peuple a raiſonner: il ne faut paſ l'eclairer trop, parce qu'il n'eſt pas poſſible de l'eclairer aſſez." ["It is dangerous to teach the people to reaſon—they ſhould not be too much enlightened, becauſe it is not poſſible to enlighten them ſufficiently.">[—When the enthuſiaſm of Rouſſeau's genius was thuſ uſefully ſubmitted to his good ſenſe and knowledge of mankind, he little expected every hamlet in France would be inundated with ſcraps of the contrat ſocial, and thouſands of inoffenſive peaſants maſſacred for not underſtanding the Profeſſion de Foi.
The arguments of miſtaken philanthropiſts or deſigning politicians may divert the order of things, but they cannot change our nature—they may create an univerſal taſte for literature, but they will never unite it with habits of induſtry; and until they prove how men are to live without labour, they have no right to baniſh the chearful vacuity which uſually accompanies it, by ſubſtituting reflections to make it irkſome, and propenſities with which it is incompatible.
The ſituation of France has amply demonſtrated the folly of attempting to make a whole people reaſoners and politicianſ—there ſeems to be no medium; and as it is impoſſible to make a nation of ſages, you let looſe a horde of ſavages: for the philoſophy which teaches a contempt for accuſtomed reſtraints, is not difficult to propagate; but that ſuperior kind, which enables men to ſupply them, by ſubduing the paſſions that render reſtraints neceſſary, is of ſlow progreſs, and never can be general.
I have made the war of La Vendee more a ſubject of reflection than narrative, and have purpoſely avoided military details, which would be not only unintereſting, but diſguſting. You would learn no more from theſe deſultory hoſtilities, than that the defeats of the republican armies were, if poſſible, more ſanguinary than their victories; that the royaliſts, who began the war with humanity, were at length irritated to repriſals; and that more than two hundred thouſand lives have already been ſacrificed in the conteſt, yet undecided.