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Table of Contents

Why they took the initiative.—The people in council.

—Powerlessness of the municipalities.—the violence to which

they are subject.—Aix in 1790.—Government disobeyed and

perverted everywhere.

Were it but possible for the dissolution to stop here! But each commune is far from being a tranquil little state under the rule of a body of respected magistrates. The same causes which render municipalities rebellious against the central authority render individuals rebellious against local authority. They also feel that they are in danger and want to provide for their own safety. They also, in virtue of the Constitution and of circumstances, believe themselves appointed to save the country. They also consider themselves qualified to judge for themselves on all points and entitled to carry out their judgments with their own hands. The shopkeeper, workman or peasant, at once elector and National Guard, furnished with his vote and a musket, suddenly becomes the equal and master of his superiors; instead of obeying, he commands, while all who see him again after some years' absence, find that "in his demeanor and manner all is changed." "There was great agitation everywhere,"3137 says M. de Ségur; "I noticed groups of men talking earnestly in the streets and on the squares. The sound of the drum struck my ear in the villages, while I was astonished at the great number of armed men I encountered in the little towns. On interrogating various persons among the lower classes they would reply with a proud look and in a bold and confident tone. I observed everywhere the effect of those sentiments of equality and liberty which had then become such violent passions."—Thus exalted in their own eyes they believed themselves qualified to take the lead in everything, not only in local affairs, but also in general matters. France is to be governed by them; by virtue of the Constitution they arrogate to themselves the right, and, by dint of ignorance, attribute to themselves the capacity, to govern it. A torrent of new, shapeless, and disproportionate ideas have taken possession of their brains in the space of a few months. Vast interests about which they have never thought, have to be considered. Government, royalty, the church, creeds, foreign powers, internal and external dangers, what is occurring at Paris and at Coblentz, the insurrection in the Low Countries, the acts of the cabinets of London, Vienna, Madrid, Berlin; and, of all this, they inform themselves as they best can. An officer,3138 who traverses France at this time, narrates that at the post-stations they made him wait for horses until he had "given them details. The peasants stopped my carriage in the middle of the road and overwhelmed me with questions. At Autun, I was obliged, in spite of the cold, to talk out of a window opening upon the square and tell what I knew about the Assembly."—These on-dits are all changed and amplified in passing from mouth to mouth. They finally become circumstantial stories adapted to the caliber of the minds they pass into and to the dominant passion that propagates them. Trace the effect of these fables in the house of a peasant or fish-woman in an outlying village or a populous suburb, on brutish or almost brutal minds, especially when they are lively, heated, and over-excited—the effect is tremendous. For, in minds of this stamp, belief is at once converted into action, and into rude and destructive action. It is an acquired self-control, reflection, and culture which interposes between belief and action the solicitude for social interests, the observance of forms and respect for the law. These restraints are all wanting in the new sovereign. He does not know how to stop and will not suffer himself to be stopped. Why so many delays when the peril is urgent? What is the use of observing formalities when the safety of the people is at stake? What is there sacred in the law when it protects public enemies? What is more pernicious than passive deference and patient waiting under timid or blind officials? What can be more just than to do one's self justice at once and on the spot?—Precipitation and passion, in their eyes, are both duties and merits. One day "the militia of Lorient decide upon marching to Versailles and to Paris without considering how they are to get over the ground or what they will do on their arrival."3139 Were the central government within reach they would lay their hands on it. In default of this they substitute themselves for it on their own territory, and exercise its functions with a full conviction of right, principally those of gendarme, judge, and executioner.

During the month of October, 1789, at Paris, after the assassination of the baker François, the leading murderer, who is a porter at the grain depot, declares "that he wanted to avenge the nation." It is quite probable that this declaration is sincere. In his mind, assassination is one of the forms of patriotism, and it does not take long for his way of thinking to become prevalent. In ordinary times, social and political ideas slumber in uncultured minds in the shape of vague antipathies, restrained aspirations, and fleeting desires. Behold them aroused—energetic, imperious, stubborn, and unbridled. Objection or opposition is not to be tolerated; dissent, with them, is a sure sign of treachery.—Apropos of the nonjuring priests,3140 five hundred and twenty-seven of the National Guards of Arras write, "that no one could doubt their iniquity without being suspected of being their accomplices. … Should the whole town combine and express a contrary opinion, it would simply show that it is filled with enemies of the Constitution;" and forthwith, in spite of the law and the remonstrances of the authorities, they insist on the closing of the churches. At Boulogne-sur-Mer, an English vessel having shipped a quantity of poultry, game, and eggs, "the National Guards, of their own authority," go on board and remove the cargo. On the strength of this, the accommodating municipal body approves of the act, declares the cargo confiscated, orders it to be sold, and awards one-half of the proceeds to the National Guards and the other half to charitable purposes. The concession is a vain one, for the National Guards consider that one-half is too little, "insult and threaten the municipal officers," and immediately proceed to divide the booty in kind, each one going home with a share of stolen hams and chickens.3141 The magistrates must necessarily keep quiet with the guns of those they govern pointed at them.—Sometimes, and it is generally the case, they are timid, and do not try to resist. At Douai,3142 the municipal officers, on being summoned three times to proclaim martial law, refuse, and end by avowing that they dare not unfold the red flag: "Were we to take this course we should all be sacrificed on the spot." Neither the troops nor the National Guards, in fact, are to be relied on. In this universal state of apathy the field is open to savages, and a dealer in wheat is hung.—Sometimes the administrative corps tries to resist, but in the end it has to succumb to violence. "For more than six hours," writes one of the members of the district of Etampes,3143 "we were closed in by bayonets leveled at us and with pistols at our breasts; and they were obliged to sign a dismissal of the troops which had arrived to protect the market. At present "we are all away from Etampes; there is no longer a district or a municipality;" almost all have handed in their resignations, or are to return for that purpose.—Sometimes, and this is the rarest case,3144 the officials do their duty to the end, and perish. In this same town, six months later, Simoneau, the mayor, having refused to cut down the price of wheat, is beaten with iron-pointed sticks, and his corpse is riddled with balls by the murderers.—Municipal bodies must take heed how they undertake to stem the torrent; the slightest opposition will soon be at the expense of their lives. In Touraine,3145 "as the publication of the tax-rolls takes place, riots break out against the municipal authorities; they are forced to surrender the rolls they have drawn up, and their papers are torn up." And still more, "they kill, they assassinate the municipal authorities." In that large commune men and women "beat and kick them with their fists and sabots. … The mayor is laid up after it, and the procureur of the commune died between nine and ten o'clock in the morning. Véteau, a municipal officer, received the last sacrament this morning;" the rest have fled, being constantly threatened with death and incendiarism. They do not, consequently, return, and "no one now will take the office of either mayor or administrator."—The outrages which the municipalities thus commit against their superiors are committed against themselves. The National Guards, the mob, the controlling faction, arrogating to themselves in the commune the same violent sovereignty which the commune pretends to exercise against the State.

I should never finish if I undertook to enumerate the outbreaks in which the magistrates are constrained to tolerate or to sanction popular usurpations, to shut up churches, to drive off or imprison priests, to suppress octrois, tax grain, and allow clerks; bakers, corn-dealers, ecclesiastics, nobles, and officers to be hung, beaten to death, or to have their throats cut. Ninety-four thick files of records in the national archives are filled with these acts of violence, and do not contain two-thirds of them. It is worth while to take in detail one case more, a special one, and one that is authentic, which serves as a specimen, and which presents a foreshortened image of France during one tranquil year. At Aix, in the month of December, 1790,3146 in Opposition to the two Jacobin clubs, a club had been organized, had complied with all the formalities, and, like the "Club des Monarchiens" at Paris, claimed the same right of meeting as the others. But here, as at Paris, the Jacobins recognize no rights but for themselves alone, and refuse to admit their adversaries to the privileges of the law. Moreover, alarming rumors are circulated. A person who has arrived from Nice states that he had "heard that there were twenty thousand men between Turin and Nice, under the pay of the emigrants, and that at Nice a neuvaine3147 was held in Saint François-de-Paule to pray God to enlighten the French." A counter-revolution is certainly under way. Some of the aristocrats have stated "with an air of triumph, that the National Guard and municipalities are a mere toy, and that this sort of thing will not last long." One of the leading members of the new club, M. de Guiraitiand, an old officer of seventy-eight years, makes speeches in public against the National Assembly, tries to enlist artisans in his party, "affects to wear a white button on his hat fastened by pins with their points jutting out," and, as it is stated, he has given to several mercers a large order for white cockades. In reality, on examination, not one is found in any shop, and all the dealers in ribbons, on being interrogated, reply that they know of no transaction of that description. But this simply proves that the culprit is a clever dissimulator, and the more dangerous because he is eager to save the country.—On the 12th of December, at four o'clock in the afternoon, the two Jacobin clubs fraternise, and pass in long procession before the place of meeting, "where some of the members, a few officers of the Lyons regiment and other individuals, are quietly engaged at play or seeing others play." The crowd hoot, but they remain quiet. The procession passes by again, and they hoot and shout, "Down with the aristocrats to the lamp post with them!" Two or three of the officers standing on the threshold of the door become irritated, and one of them, drawing his sword, threatens to strike a young man if he keeps on. Upon this the crowd cries out, "Guard! Help! An assassin!" and rushes at the officer, who withdraws into the house, exclaiming, "To arms!" His comrades, sword in hand, descend in order to defend the door; M. de Guiramand fires two pistol shots and receives a stab in the thigh. A shower of stones smashes in the windows, and the door is on the point of being burst open when several of the members of the club save themselves by taking to the roof. About a dozen others, most of them officers, form in line, penetrate the crowd with uplifted swords, strike and get struck, and escape, five of them being wounded. The municipality orders the doors and windows of the club-house to be walled up, sends the Lyons regiment away, decrees the arrest of seven officers and of M. de Guiramand, and all this in a few hours, with no other testimony than that of the conquerors.

But these prompt, vigorous and partial measures are not sufficient for the Jacobin club; other conspirators must be seized, and it is the club which designates them and goes to take them.—Three months before this, M. Pascalis, an advocate, on addressing along with some of his professional brethren the dissolved parliament, deplored the blindness of the people, "exalted by prerogatives of which they knew not the danger." A man who dared talk in this way is evidently a traitor.—There is another, M. Morellet de la Roquette, who refused to join the proscribed club. His former vassals, however, had been obliged to bring an action against him to make him accept the redemption of his feudal dues; also, six years before this, his carriage, passing along the public promenade, had run over a child; he likewise is an enemy of the people. While the municipal officers are deliberating, "a few members of the club" get together and decide that M. Pascalis and M. de la Roquette must be arrested. At eleven o'clock at night eighty trustworthy National Guards, led by the president of the club, travel a league off to seize them in their beds and lodge them in the town prison.—Zeal of this kind excites some uneasiness, and if the municipality tolerates the arrests, it is because it is desirous of preventing murder. Consequently, on the following day, December 13th, it sends to Marseilles for four hundred men of the Swiss Guard commanded by Ernest, and four hundred National Guards, adding to these the National Guard of Aix, and orders this company to protect the prison against any violence. But, along with the Marseilles National Guards, there came a lot of armed people who are volunteers of disorder. On the afternoon of the 13th the first mob strives to force the prison, and the next day, fresh squads congregate around it demanding the head of M. Pascalis. The members of the club head the riot with "a crowd of unknown men from outside the town, who give orders and carry them out." During the night the populace of Aix are tampered with, and the dikes all give way at the same moment. At the first clamors the National Guard on duty on the public promenade disband and disperse, while, as there is no signal for the assemblage of the others, notwithstanding the regulations, the general alarm is not sounded. "The largest portion of the National Guard draws off so as not to appear to authorize by its presence outrages which it has not been ordered to prevent. Peaceable Citizens are in great consternation;" each one takes to flight or shuts himself up in his house, the streets being deserted and silent. Meanwhile the prison gates are shattered with axes. The procureur-syndic of the department, who requests the commandant of the Swiss regiment to protect the prisoners, is seized, borne off, and runs the risk of losing his life. Three municipal officers in their scarves, who arrive on the ground, dare not give the order required by the commandant. At this decisive moment, when it is necessary to shed blood and kill a number of men, they obviously fear to take the responsibility; their reply is, "We have no orders to give."—An extraordinary spectacle now presents itself in this barrack courtyard surrounding the prison. On the side of the law stand eight hundred armed men, four hundred of the "Swiss" and four hundred of the National Guard of Marseilles. They are drawn up in battle array, with guns to their shoulders, with special orders repeated the evening before at three different times by the municipal district and departmental authorities and they have the sympathies of all honest people and of most of the National Guard. But the legal indispensable phrase does not pass the lips of those who by virtue of the Constitution should utter it, and a small group of convicts are found to be sovereign.—The three municipal officers are seized in their turn under the eyes of their own soldiers who remain motionless, and "with bayonets at their breasts they sign, under constraint, the order to give up M. Pascalis to the people." M. de la Roquette is likewise surrendered. "The only portion of the National Guard of Aix which was visible," that is to say, the Jacobin minority, form a circle around the gate of the prison and organize themselves into a council of war. And there they stand; at once "accusers, witnesses, judges, and executioners." A captain conducts the two victims to the public promenade where they are hung. Very soon after this old M. de Guiramand, whom the National Guard of his village have brought a prisoner to Aix, is hung in the same manner.

There is no prosecution of the assassins. The new tribunal, frightened or forestalled, has for some time back ranged itself on the popular side; its writs, consequently, are served on the oppressed, against the members of the assaulted dub. Writs of arrest, summonses to attend court, searches, seizures of correspondence, and other proceedings, rain down upon them. Three hundred witnesses are examined. Some of the arrested officers are "loaded with chains and thrust into dungeons." Henceforth the club rules, and "makes everybody tremble."3148 "From the 23rd to the 27th of December, more than ten thousand passports are delivered at Aix." "If the emigrations continue," write the commissioners, "there will be no one left at Aix but workmen without work and with no resources. Whole streets are uninhabited. … . As long as such crimes can be permitted with impunity fear will drive out of this town every one who has the means of living elsewhere."—Many come back after the arrival of the commissioners, hoping to obtain justice and security through them. But, "if a prosecution is not ordered, we shall scarcely have departed from Aix when three or four hundred families will abandon it. … And what man in his senses would dare guarantee that each village will not soon have some one hung in it? … Country valets arrest their masters. … The expectation of impunity leads the inhabitants of villages to commit all sorts of depredations in the forests, which is very harmful in a region where woods are very scarce. They set up the most absurd and most unjust pretensions against rich proprietors, and the fatal rope is ever the interpreter and the signal of their will." There is no refuge against these outrages. "The department, the districts, the municipalities, administer only in conformity with the multiplied petitions of the club." In the sight of all, and on one solemn day, a crushing defeat has demonstrated the weakness of the government officials; and, bowed beneath the yoke of their new masters, they preserve their legal authority only on the condition that it remains at the service of the victorious party.

3101 (return) [ Festivals approving the federation of all the National Guards in France. (SR.)]

3102 (return) [ See the address of the commune of Paris, June 5, 1790. "Let the most touching of all utterances be heard on this day (the anniversary of the taking of the Bastille), Frenchmen, we are brothers! Yes, brothers, freemen and with a country!" Roux et Buchez, VI. 275.]

3103 (return) [ Buchez and Roux, IV. 3, 309; V. 123; VI. 274, 399.—Duvergier, Collection of Laws and Decrees. Decree of June 8 and 9, 1790.]

3104 (return) [ For one who, like myself, has lived for years among the Moslems, the 5 daily ritual prayers all performed while turned towards Mecca, this description of the French taking of the oath, has something familiar in it. (SR.)]

3105 (return) [ Michelet, "Histoire de la Révolution Française," II, 470, 474.]

3106 (return) [ De Ferrières, II. 91.—Albert Babeau, I. 340. (Letter addressed to the Chevalier de Poterat, July 18, 1790.)—De Dampmartin, "Evénements qui se sont passés sous mes yeux," etc., 155.]

3107 (return) [ One may imagine the impression Taine's description made upon the thousands of political science students and others in the years after this book was printed and widely sold all over Europe. (SR.)]

3108 (return) [ Sauzay, I. 202.]

3109 (return) [ Albert Babeau, ib. I, 339—De Ferrières, II, 92.]

3110 (return) [ "Archives Nationales," H. 1453, Correspondence of M. de Bercheney, May 23, 1790.]

3111 (return) [ "Archives Nationales," ibid, May 13, 1790. "M. de la Rifaudière was dragged from his carriage and brought to the guard-house, which was immediately filled with people, shouting, 'To the lamp post, the aristocrat!'—The fact is this: after his having repeatedly shouted Vive le Roi et la Nation! They wanted him to shout Vive la Nation! alone, upon which he gave Vive la Nation tant qu'elle pourra."—At Blois, on the day of the Federation, a mob promenades the streets with a wooden head covered with a wig, and a placard stating that the aristocrats must be decapitated.]

3112 (return) [ Might Freud ( 1856—1939) have been inspired, directly or indirectly, by Taine's observation? 'La Révolution' vol. I, was published in 1877 when Freud was 21 years old!! (SR.)]

3113 (return) [ Mercure de France, the articles by Mallet du Pan (June 18th and August 16, 1791; April 14, 1792).]

3114 (return) [ Moniteur, IV. 560. (sitting of June 5, 1790) report of M. Freteau. "These facts are attested by fifty witnesses."—Cf. The number of April 19, 1791.]

3115 (return) [ Solon was a famous legislator who reformed Athens some 2500 years ago. (SR.)]

3116 (return) [ "Archives Nationales," KK, 1105, Correspondence of M. de Thiard, military commandant in Brittany (September, 1789), "There are in every petty village three conflicting powers, the présidial, the bourgeois militia, and the permanent committee. Each is anxious to outrank the other, and, on this occasion, a scene happened to come under my eyes at Landivisiau which might have had a bloody termination, but which turned out to be simply ridiculous. A lively dispute arose between three speakers to determine which should make the first address. They appealed to me to decide. Not to offend either of the parties, I decided that all three should speak at the same time; which decision was immediately carried out."]

3117 (return) [ Decree of August 10–14, 1789.]

3118 (return) [ "Archives Nationales," KK, 1105. Correspondence of M. de Thiard, September 21, 1789. "The troops now obey the municipalities only."—Also July 30th, August 11, 1790.]

3119 (return) [ "Archives Nationales," KK, 1105. Correspondence of 31. M. de Thiard, September 11 and 25, November 20, December 25 and 30, 1789.]

3120 (return) [ Buchez and Roux, V.304 (April, 1790).—"Archives Nationales," Papers of the committee of Investigation, DXXIX. I (note of M. Latour-du-Pin, October 28, 1789)—? Buchez and Roux, IV. 3 (December 1, 1789); IV. 390 (February, 1790); VI. 179 (April and May, 1790).]

3121 (return) [ Mercure de France, Report of M. Emery, sitting of July 21, 1790, Number for July 32.—"Archives Nationales," F7, 3200. Letter of the directory of Calvados, September 26 and October 20, 1791.]

3122 (return) [ "Archives Nationales," F7, 3207. Letter of the minister Dumouriez, June 15, 1792. Report of M. Caillard, May 29, 1792.]

3123 (return) [ Mercure de France, No. for July, 1791 (sitting of the 6th); Nos. for November 5 and 26, 1791.]

3124 (return) [ Albert Babeau, "Histoire de Troyes," vol. I. passim.—"Archives Nationales," F7, 3257. Address of the Directory of Saône-et-Loire to the National Assembly, November 1, 1790.—F7, 3200. Letter of the Directory of Calvados, November 9, 1791.—F 7, 3195. Minutes of the meeting of the municipality of Aix, March 1, 1792 (on the events of February 26th); letter of M. Villard, President of the Directory, March 20, 1792.—F7, 3220. Extracts from the deliberations of the Directory of Gers, and a letter to the King, January 28, 1792. Letter of M. Lafitau, President of the Directory, January 30. (He was dragged along by his hair and obliged to leave the town.)]

3125 (return) [ Mercure de France, No. for October 30, 1790.]

3126 (return) [ "Archives Nationales," F7, 3226. Letter of the directory of Indre to M. Cahier, minister, December 6, 1791.—Letter of M. Delessart, minister, to the directory of Indre, December 31, 1791.]

3127 (return) [ Fabre, "Histoire de Marseille," II. 442. Martin had but 3,555 votes, when shortly after the National Guard numbered 24,000 men.]

3128 (return) [ "Archives Nationales," F7, 3196. Letter of the minister, M. de Saint-Priest, to the President of the National Assembly, May 11, 1790.]

3129 (return) [ "Archives Nationales," F7 3196. Letters of the military commandant, M. de Miran, March 6, 14, 30, 1790.]

3130 (return) [ "Archives Nationales," F7, 3196. Letter of M. de Bournissac, grand-privot, March 6,1790.]

3131 (return) [ "Archives Nationales," F7, 3196. Letters of M. du Miran, April 11th and 16th, and May 1, 1790.]

3132 (return) [ "Archives Nationales," F7, 3196. Procés-verbal of events on the 30th of April.]

3133 (return) [ "Archives Nationales," F7, 3196. Letters of the Municipality of Marseilles to the National Assembly, May 5 and 20, 1790.]

3134 (return) [ "Archives Nationales," F7, 3196. Order of the king, May10. Letter of M. de Saint-Priest to the National Assembly, May 11. Decree of the National Assembly, May 12. Letter of the Municipality to the King. May 20. Letter of M. de Rubum, May 20. Note sent from Marseilles, May 31. Address of the Municipality to the President of the Friends of the Constitution, at Paris, May 5. In his narration of the taking of the forts we read the following sentence: "We arrived without hindrance in the presence of the commandant, whom we brought to an agreement by means of the influence which force, fear and reason give to persuasion."]

3135 (return) [ "Archives Nationales," F7, 3196, Letter of M. de Miran, May 5.—The spirit of the ruling party at Marseilles is indicated by several printed documents joined to the dossier, and, among others, by a "Requéte à Desmoulins, procureur-général de la Lanterne." It relates to a "patriotic inkstand," recently made out of the stones of the demolished citadel, representing a hydra with four heads, symbolizing the nobility, the clergy, the ministry and the judges. "It is from the four patriotic skulls of the hydra that the ink of proscription will be taken for the enemies of the Constitution. This inkstand, cut out of the first stone that fell in the demolition of Fort Saint-Nicolas, is dedicated to the patriotic Assembly of Marseilles. The magic art of the hero of the liberty of Marseilles, that Renaud who, under the mask of devotion, surprised the watchful sentinel of Notre-Dame de la Garde, and whose manly courage and cunning ensured the conquest of that key of the great focus of counter-revolution, has just given birth to a new trait of genius a new Deucalion, he personifies this stone which Liberty has flung from the summit of our menacing Bastilles, etc."]

3136 (return) [ "Archives Nationales," F7. 3198. Letters of the royal commissioners, April 13 and 5, 1791.]

3137 (return) [ De Ségur, "Memoires," III, 482 (early in 1790).]

3138 (return) [ De Dampmartin, I. 184 (January, 1791).]

3139 (return) [ "Archives Nationales," KK, 1105. Correspondence of M. de Thiard (October 12, 1789).]

3140 (return) [ "Archives Nationales," F7, 3250. Minutes from the meeting of the directory of the department. March 28, 1792. "As the ferment was at the highest point and fears were entertained that greater evils would follow, M. le Président, with painful emotion declared that he yielded and passed the unconstitutional act." Reply of the minister, June 23: "If the constituted authorities are thus forced to yield to the arbitrary will of a wild multitude, government no longer exists and we are in the saddest stage of anarchy. If you think it best I will propose to the King to reverse your last decision."]

3141 (return) [ "Archives Nationales," F7, 3250. Letter of M. Duport, minister of justice, December 24, 1791.]

3142 (return) [ "Archives Nationales," F7, 3248, Report of the members of the department, finished March 18, 1792.—Buchez and Roux, IX. 240 (Report of M. Alquier).]

3143 (return) [ "Archives Nationales," F7, 3268. Extract from the deliberations of the directory of Seine-et-Oise, with the documents relating to the insurrection at Etampes, September 16, 1791. Letter of M. Venard, administrator of the district, September 20—" I shall not set foot in Etampes until the re-establishment of order and tranquility, and the first thing I shall do will be to record my resignation in the register. I am tired of making sacrifices, for ungrateful wretches."]

3144 (return) [ Moniteur, March 16, 1792.—Mortimer-Ternaux, "Histoire de la Terreur" (Proceedings against the assassins of Simoneau), I. 381.]

3145 (return) [ "Archives Nationales," F7, 3226. Letter and memorandum of Chenantin, cultivator, November 7, 1792. Extract from the deliberations of the directory of Langeais, November 5, 1792 (sedition at Chapelle-Blanche, near Langeais, October 5, 1792).]

3146 (return) [ "Archives Nationales," F7, 3105. Report of the commissioners sent by the National Assembly and the King, February 23, 1791. (On the events of December 12 and 14, 1790)—Mercure de France, February 29, 5791. (Letters from Aix, and notably a letter from seven officers shut up in prison at Aix, January 30, 1791.) The oldest Jacobin Club formed in February, 1790, was entitled "(Club des vrais amis de la Constitution.)" The second Jacobin club, formed in October, 1790, was "composed from the beginning of artisans and laborers from the faubourgs and suburbs." Its title was" Société des frères anti-politiques," or "frères vrais, justes et utiles à la patrie." The opposition club, formed in December, 1790, bore the title, according to some, of "Les Amis du Roi, de la paix et de la religion;" according to others, "Les amis de la paix;" and finally, according to another report, "Les Défenseurs de la religion, des personnes et des proprietés."]

3147 (return) [ A special series of religious services. (TR)]

3148 (return) [ "Archives Nationales," F7, 3195. Letters of the commissioners, March 20, February 11, May 10, 1791.]