2206 ([return])
[ Moniteur, speech by Cambon, sittings of Feb. 2 and April 20, 1792.]
2207 ([return])
[ Ibid., (sitting of April 3). Speech by M. Cailliasson. The property belonging to the nation, sold and to be sold, is valued at 2,195 millions, while the assignats already issued amount to 2,100 millions.—Cf. Mercure de France, Dec. 17, 1791, p.201; Jan.28, 1792, p. 215; May 19, 1792, p. 205.—Dumouriez, "Mémoires," III. 296, and 339, 340, 344, 346.—"Cambon, a raving lunatic, without education, humane principle, or integrity (public) a meddler, an ignoramus, and very giddy. He tells me that one resource remained to him, which is, to seize all the coin in Belgium, all the plate belonging to the churches, and all the cash deposits... that, on ruining the Belgians, on reducing them to the same state of suffering as the French, they would necessarily share their fate with them; that they would then be admitted members of the Republic, with the prospect of always making headway, through the same line of policy; that the decree of Dec. 15, 1792, admirably favored this and, because it tended to a complete disorganization, and that the luckiest thing that could happen to France was to disorganize all its neighbors and reduce them to the same state of anarchy." (This conversation between Cambon and Dumouriez occurs in the middle of January, 1793.)—Moniteur, XIV. 758 (sitting of Dec. 15, 1792). Report by Cambon.]
2208 ([return])
[ Chronique de Paris, Sept. 4, 1792. "It is a sad and terrible situation which forces a people, naturally amiable and generous, to take such vengeance!"—Cf. the very acute article, by St. Beuve, on Condorcet, in "Causeries du Lundi,"—Hua (a colleague of Condorcet, in the Legislative Assembly), "Mémoires," 89. "Condorcet, in his journal, regularly falsified things, with an audacity which is unparelleled. The opinions of the 'Right' were so mutilated and travestied the next day in his journal, that we, who had uttered them, could scarcely recognise them. On complaining of this to him and on charging him with perfidy, the philosopher only smiled.">[
2209 ([return])
[ Malouet, II. 215.—Dumouriez, III. ch. V. "They were elected to represent the nation to defend, they say, its interests against a perfidious court.">[
2210 ([return])
[ Moniteur, X. 223 (session of Oct. 26, 1791). Speech by M. François Duval.—Grandiloquence is the order of the day at the very first meeting. On the 1st of October, 1791, twelve old men, marching in procession, go out to fetch the constitutional act. "M. Camus, keeper of the records, with a composed air and downcast eyes, enters with measured steps," bearing in both hands the sacred document which he holds against his breast, while the deputies stand up and bare their heads. "People of France," says an orator, "citizens of Paris, all generous Frenchmen, and you, our fellow citizens—virtuous, intelligent women, bringing your gentle influence into the sanctuary of the law—behold the guarantee of peace which the legislature presents to you!"—We seem to be witnessing the last act of an opera.]