2417 ([return])
[ "Archives Nationales." F7, 3195. Official report of the municipality of Aix (on the events of Feb. 26). March 1st.—Letter of M. Villardy, president of the directory, dated Avignon, March 10. (He barely escaped assassination at Aix.)—Ibid., F7,3196. Report of the district administrators of Arles, Feb. 28 (according to private letters from Aix and Marseilles).—Barbaroux, "Mémoires" (collection of Berville and Barrière), 106. (Narrative of M. Watteville, major in the Ernest regiment. Ibid., 108) (Report from M. de Barbentane, commanding general). These two documents show the liberalism, want of vigor, and the usual indecision of the superior authorities, especially the military authorities—Mercure de France, March 24, 1792 (letters from Aix).]
2418 ([return])
[ "Archives Nationales," F7, 3196. Dispatches of the new Directory to the Minister, March 24 and April 4, 1792. "Since the departure of the Directory, our administrative assembly is composed of only six members, notwithstanding our repeated summons to every member of the Council... Only three members of the Council consent to act with us; the reason is a lack of pecuniary means." The new Directory, consequently, passes a resolution to indemnify members of the Council. This, indeed, is contrary to a royal proclamation of Jan. 15; but "this proclamation was wrested from the King, on account of his firm faith. You must be aware that, in a free nation, the influence of a citizen on his government must not be estimated by his fortune; such a principle is false, and destructive of equality of rights. We trust that the King will consent to revoke his proclamation.">[
2419 ([return])
[ Ib., Letters of Borelly, vice-president of the Directory, to the Minister, April 10, 17, and 30, 1792.—Letter from another administrator, March 10. "They absolutely want us to march against Arles, and to force us to give the order."—Ibid., F7, 3195. Letters from Aix, March 12 and 16, addressed to M. Verdet.]
2420 ([return])
[ "Archives Nationales," F7, 3195. Letter of the administrators of the department Council to the Minister, March 10, "The Council of the administration is surprised, sir, at the fa1se impressions given you of the city of Marseilles; it should be regarded as the patriotic buckler of the department... If the people of Paris did not wait for orders to destroy the Bastille and begin the Revolution, can you wonder that in this fiery climate the impatience of good citizens should make them anticipate legal orders, and that they cannot comply with the slow forms of justice when their personal safety and the safety of the country is in peril?">[
2421 ([return])
[ "Archives Nationales." F7, 3197. Dispatches of the three commissioners, passim, and especially those of May 11, June 10 and 19, 1791 (on affairs in Arles). "The property-owners were a long time subject to oppression. A few of the factions maintained a reign of terror over honest folks, who trembled in secret.">[