The French Revolution

T >> Thomas Carlyle >> The French Revolution


Lomenie-Brienne, who had all his life 'felt a kind of predestination for
the highest offices,' has now therefore obtained them. He presides over
the Finances; he shall have the title of Prime Minister itself, and
the effort of his long life be realised. Unhappy only that it took such
talent and industry to gain the place; that to qualify for it hardly any
talent or industry was left disposable! Looking now into his inner
man, what qualification he may have, Lomenie beholds, not without
astonishment, next to nothing but vacuity and possibility. Principles or
methods, acquirement outward or inward (for his very body is wasted, by
hard tear and wear) he finds none; not so much as a plan, even an
unwise one. Lucky, in these circumstances, that Calonne has had a plan!
Calonne's plan was gathered from Turgot's and Necker's by compilation;
shall become Lomenie's by adoption. Not in vain has Lomenie studied
the working of the British Constitution; for he professes to have some
Anglomania, of a sort. Why, in that free country, does one Minister,
driven out by Parliament, vanish from his King's presence, and another
enter, borne in by Parliament? (Montgaillard, Histoire de France, i.
410-17.) Surely not for mere change (which is ever wasteful); but that
all men may have share of what is going; and so the strife of Freedom
indefinitely prolong itself, and no harm be done.

The Notables, mollified by Easter festivities, by the sacrifice of
Calonne, are not in the worst humour. Already his Majesty, while the
'interlunar shadows' were in office, had held session of Notables; and
from his throne delivered promissory conciliatory eloquence: 'The Queen
stood waiting at a window, till his carriage came back; and Monsieur
from afar clapped hands to her,' in sign that all was well. (Besenval,
iii. 220.) It has had the best effect; if such do but last. Leading
Notables meanwhile can be 'caressed;' Brienne's new gloss, Lamoignon's
long head will profit somewhat; conciliatory eloquence shall not be
wanting. On the whole, however, is it not undeniable that this of
ousting Calonne and adopting the plans of Calonne, is a measure which,
to produce its best effect, should be looked at from a certain distance,
cursorily; not dwelt on with minute near scrutiny. In a word, that no
service the Notables could now do were so obliging as, in some handsome
manner, to--take themselves away! Their 'Six Propositions' about
Provisional Assemblies, suppression of Corvees and suchlike, can be
accepted without criticism. The Subvention on Land-tax, and much
else, one must glide hastily over; safe nowhere but in flourishes of
conciliatory eloquence. Till at length, on this 25th of May, year
1787, in solemn final session, there bursts forth what we can call an
explosion of eloquence; King, Lomenie, Lamoignon and retinue taking up
the successive strain; in harrangues to the number of ten, besides his
Majesty's, which last the livelong day;--whereby, as in a kind of choral
anthem, or bravura peal, of thanks, praises, promises, the Notables are,
so to speak, organed out, and dismissed to their respective places of
abode. They had sat, and talked, some nine weeks: they were the first
Notables since Richelieu's, in the year 1626.

By some Historians, sitting much at their ease, in the safe distance,
Lomenie has been blamed for this dismissal of his Notables: nevertheless
it was clearly time. There are things, as we said, which should not be
dwelt on with minute close scrutiny: over hot coals you cannot glide too
fast. In these Seven Bureaus, where no work could be done, unless talk
were work, the questionablest matters were coming up. Lafayette, for
example, in Monseigneur d'Artois' Bureau, took upon him to set forth
more than one deprecatory oration about Lettres-de-Cachet, Liberty
of the Subject, Agio, and suchlike; which Monseigneur endeavouring to
repress, was answered that a Notable being summoned to speak his opinion
must speak it. (Montgaillard, i. 360.)

Thus too his Grace the Archbishop of Aix perorating once, with a
plaintive pulpit tone, in these words? "Tithe, that free-will offering
of the piety of Christians"--"Tithe," interrupted Duke la Rochefoucault,
with the cold business-manner he has learned from the English, "that
free-will offering of the piety of Christians; on which there are now
forty-thousand lawsuits in this realm." (Dumont, Souvenirs sur Mirabeau,
p. 21.) Nay, Lafayette, bound to speak his opinion, went the length,
one day, of proposing to convoke a 'National Assembly.' "You
demand States-General?" asked Monseigneur with an air of minatory
surprise.--"Yes, Monseigneur; and even better than that."--"Write it,"
said Monseigneur to the Clerks. (Toulongeon, Histoire de France depuis
la Revolution de 1789 (Paris, 1803), i. app. 4.)--Written accordingly it
is; and what is more, will be acted by and by.



Chapter 1.3.IV.

Lomenie's Edicts.

Thus, then, have the Notables returned home; carrying to all quarters
of France, such notions of deficit, decrepitude, distraction; and that
States-General will cure it, or will not cure it but kill it. Each
Notable, we may fancy, is as a funeral torch; disclosing hideous
abysses, better left hid! The unquietest humour possesses all men;
ferments, seeks issue, in pamphleteering, caricaturing, projecting,
declaiming; vain jangling of thought, word and deed.

It is Spiritual Bankruptcy, long tolerated; verging now towards
Economical Bankruptcy, and become intolerable. For from the lowest dumb
rank, the inevitable misery, as was predicted, has spread upwards. In
every man is some obscure feeling that his position, oppressive or else
oppressed, is a false one: all men, in one or the other acrid dialect,
as assaulters or as defenders, must give vent to the unrest that is in
them. Of such stuff national well-being, and the glory of rulers, is not
made. O Lomenie, what a wild-heaving, waste-looking, hungry and angry
world hast thou, after lifelong effort, got promoted to take charge of!

Lomenie's first Edicts are mere soothing ones: creation of Provincial
Assemblies, 'for apportioning the imposts,' when we get any; suppression
of Corvees or statute-labour; alleviation of Gabelle. Soothing measures,
recommended by the Notables; long clamoured for by all liberal men.
Oil cast on the waters has been known to produce a good effect. Before
venturing with great essential measures, Lomenie will see this singular
'swell of the public mind' abate somewhat.

Most proper, surely. But what if it were not a swell of the abating
kind? There are swells that come of upper tempest and wind-gust. But
again there are swells that come of subterranean pent wind, some
say; and even of inward decomposion, of decay that has become
self-combustion:--as when, according to Neptuno-Plutonic Geology, the
World is all decayed down into due attritus of this sort; and shall now
be exploded, and new-made! These latter abate not by oil.--The fool
says in his heart, How shall not tomorrow be as yesterday; as all
days,--which were once tomorrows? The wise man, looking on this France,
moral, intellectual, economical, sees, 'in short, all the symptoms he
has ever met with in history,'--unabatable by soothing Edicts.

Meanwhile, abate or not, cash must be had; and for that quite another
sort of Edicts, namely 'bursal' or fiscal ones. How easy were fiscal
Edicts, did you know for certain that the Parlement of Paris would what
they call 'register' them! Such right of registering, properly of mere
writing down, the Parlement has got by old wont; and, though but a
Law-Court, can remonstrate, and higgle considerably about the same.
Hence many quarrels; desperate Maupeou devices, and victory and
defeat;--a quarrel now near forty years long. Hence fiscal Edicts, which
otherwise were easy enough, become such problems. For example, is there
not Calonne's Subvention Territoriale, universal, unexempting Land-tax;
the sheet-anchor of Finance? Or, to show, so far as possible, that one
is not without original finance talent, Lomenie himself can devise an
Edit du Timbre or Stamp-tax,--borrowed also, it is true; but then from
America: may it prove luckier in France than there!

France has her resources: nevertheless, it cannot be denied, the aspect
of that Parlement is questionable. Already among the Notables, in that
final symphony of dismissal, the Paris President had an ominous tone.
Adrien Duport, quitting magnetic sleep, in this agitation of the world,
threatens to rouse himself into preternatural wakefulness. Shallower but
also louder, there is magnetic D'Espremenil, with his tropical heat
(he was born at Madras); with his dusky confused violence; holding
of Illumination, Animal Magnetism, Public Opinion, Adam Weisshaupt,
Harmodius and Aristogiton, and all manner of confused violent things: of
whom can come no good. The very Peerage is infected with the leaven. Our
Peers have, in too many cases, laid aside their frogs, laces, bagwigs;
and go about in English costume, or ride rising in their stirrups,--in
the most headlong manner; nothing but insubordination, eleutheromania,
confused unlimited opposition in their heads. Questionable: not to be
ventured upon, if we had a Fortunatus' Purse! But Lomenie has waited all
June, casting on the waters what oil he had; and now, betide as it may,
the two Finance Edicts must out. On the 6th of July, he forwards his
proposed Stamp-tax and Land-tax to the Parlement of Paris; and, as if
putting his own leg foremost, not his borrowed Calonne's-leg, places the
Stamp-tax first in order.

Alas, the Parlement will not register: the Parlement demands instead a
'state of the expenditure,' a 'state of the contemplated reductions;'
'states' enough; which his Majesty must decline to furnish! Discussions
arise; patriotic eloquence: the Peers are summoned. Does the Nemean Lion
begin to bristle? Here surely is a duel, which France and the Universe
may look upon: with prayers; at lowest, with curiosity and bets. Paris
stirs with new animation. The outer courts of the Palais de Justice roll
with unusual crowds, coming and going; their huge outer hum mingles with
the clang of patriotic eloquence within, and gives vigour to it. Poor
Lomenie gazes from the distance, little comforted; has his invisible
emissaries flying to and fro, assiduous, without result.

So pass the sultry dog-days, in the most electric manner; and the whole
month of July. And still, in the Sanctuary of Justice, sounds nothing
but Harmodius-Aristogiton eloquence, environed with the hum of crowding
Paris; and no registering accomplished, and no 'states' furnished.
"States?" said a lively Parlementeer: "Messieurs, the states that should
be furnished us, in my opinion are the STATES-GENERAL." On which timely
joke there follow cachinnatory buzzes of approval. What a word to be
spoken in the Palais de Justice! Old D'Ormesson (the Ex-Controller's
uncle) shakes his judicious head; far enough from laughing. But the
outer courts, and Paris and France, catch the glad sound, and repeat
it; shall repeat it, and re-echo and reverberate it, till it grow a
deafening peal. Clearly enough here is no registering to be thought of.

The pious Proverb says, 'There are remedies for all things but death.'
When a Parlement refuses registering, the remedy, by long practice, has
become familiar to the simplest: a Bed of Justice. One complete month
this Parlement has spent in mere idle jargoning, and sound and fury; the
Timbre Edict not registered, or like to be; the Subvention not yet so
much as spoken of. On the 6th of August let the whole refractory
Body roll out, in wheeled vehicles, as far as the King's Chateau of
Versailles; there shall the King, holding his Bed of Justice, order
them, by his own royal lips, to register. They may remonstrate, in an
under tone; but they must obey, lest a worse unknown thing befall them.

It is done: the Parlement has rolled out, on royal summons; has heard
the express royal order to register. Whereupon it has rolled back again,
amid the hushed expectancy of men. And now, behold, on the morrow, this
Parlement, seated once more in its own Palais, with 'crowds inundating
the outer courts,' not only does not register, but (O portent!) declares
all that was done on the prior day to be null, and the Bed of Justice
as good as a futility! In the history of France here verily is a new
feature. Nay better still, our heroic Parlement, getting suddenly
enlightened on several things, declares that, for its part, it is
incompetent to register Tax-edicts at all,--having done it by mistake,
during these late centuries; that for such act one authority only is
competent: the assembled Three Estates of the Realm!

To such length can the universal spirit of a Nation penetrate the most
isolated Body-corporate: say rather, with such weapons, homicidal and
suicidal, in exasperated political duel, will Bodies-corporate fight!
But, in any case, is not this the real death-grapple of war and
internecine duel, Greek meeting Greek; whereon men, had they even no
interest in it, might look with interest unspeakable? Crowds, as was
said, inundate the outer courts: inundation of young eleutheromaniac
Noblemen in English costume, uttering audacious speeches; of Procureurs,
Basoche-Clerks, who are idle in these days: of Loungers, Newsmongers and
other nondescript classes,--rolls tumultuous there. 'From three to four
thousand persons,' waiting eagerly to hear the Arretes (Resolutions) you
arrive at within; applauding with bravos, with the clapping of from six
to eight thousand hands! Sweet also is the meed of patriotic eloquence,
when your D'Espremenil, your Freteau, or Sabatier, issuing from his
Demosthenic Olympus, the thunder being hushed for the day, is welcomed,
in the outer courts, with a shout from four thousand throats; is borne
home shoulder-high 'with benedictions,' and strikes the stars with his
sublime head.



Chapter 1.3.V.

Lomenie's Thunderbolts.

Arise, Lomenie-Brienne: here is no case for 'Letters of Jussion;' for
faltering or compromise. Thou seest the whole loose fluent population
of Paris (whatsoever is not solid, and fixed to work) inundating these
outer courts, like a loud destructive deluge; the very Basoche of
Lawyers' Clerks talks sedition. The lower classes, in this duel of
Authority with Authority, Greek throttling Greek, have ceased to respect
the City-Watch: Police-satellites are marked on the back with chalk (the
M signifies mouchard, spy); they are hustled, hunted like ferae naturae.
Subordinate rural Tribunals send messengers of congratulation, of
adherence. Their Fountain of Justice is becoming a Fountain of Revolt.
The Provincial Parlements look on, with intent eye, with breathless
wishes, while their elder sister of Paris does battle: the whole Twelve
are of one blood and temper; the victory of one is that of all.

Ever worse it grows: on the 10th of August, there is 'Plainte' emitted
touching the 'prodigalities of Calonne,' and permission to 'proceed'
against him. No registering, but instead of it, denouncing:
of dilapidation, peculation; and ever the burden of the song,
States-General! Have the royal armories no thunderbolt, that thou
couldst, O Lomenie, with red right-hand, launch it among these
Demosthenic theatrical thunder-barrels, mere resin and noise for most
part;--and shatter, and smite them silent? On the night of the 14th of
August, Lomenie launches his thunderbolt, or handful of them. Letters
named of the Seal (de Cachet), as many as needful, some sixscore and
odd, are delivered overnight. And so, next day betimes, the whole
Parlement, once more set on wheels, is rolling incessantly towards
Troyes in Champagne; 'escorted,' says History, 'with the blessings of
all people;' the very innkeepers and postillions looking gratuitously
reverent. (A. Lameth, Histoire de l'Assemblee Constituante (Int. 73).)
This is the 15th of August 1787.

What will not people bless; in their extreme need? Seldom had the
Parlement of Paris deserved much blessing, or received much. An isolated
Body-corporate, which, out of old confusions (while the Sceptre of the
Sword was confusedly struggling to become a Sceptre of the Pen), had got
itself together, better and worse, as Bodies-corporate do, to satisfy
some dim desire of the world, and many clear desires of individuals; and
so had grown, in the course of centuries, on concession, on acquirement
and usurpation, to be what we see it: a prosperous social Anomaly,
deciding Lawsuits, sanctioning or rejecting Laws; and withal disposing
of its places and offices by sale for ready money,--which method
sleek President Henault, after meditation, will demonstrate to be the
indifferent-best. (Abrege Chronologique, p. 975.)

In such a Body, existing by purchase for ready-money, there could not
be excess of public spirit; there might well be excess of eagerness to
divide the public spoil. Men in helmets have divided that, with swords;
men in wigs, with quill and inkhorn, do divide it: and even more
hatefully these latter, if more peaceably; for the wig-method is at once
irresistibler and baser. By long experience, says Besenval, it has been
found useless to sue a Parlementeer at law; no Officer of Justice will
serve a writ on one; his wig and gown are his Vulcan's-panoply, his
enchanted cloak-of-darkness.

The Parlement of Paris may count itself an unloved body; mean, not
magnanimous, on the political side. Were the King weak, always (as now)
has his Parlement barked, cur-like at his heels; with what popular cry
there might be. Were he strong, it barked before his face; hunting for
him as his alert beagle. An unjust Body; where foul influences have more
than once worked shameful perversion of judgment. Does not, in these
very days, the blood of murdered Lally cry aloud for vengeance? Baited,
circumvented, driven mad like the snared lion, Valour had to sink
extinguished under vindictive Chicane. Behold him, that hapless Lally,
his wild dark soul looking through his wild dark face; trailed on the
ignominious death-hurdle; the voice of his despair choked by a wooden
gag! The wild fire-soul that has known only peril and toil; and, for
threescore years, has buffeted against Fate's obstruction and men's
perfidy, like genius and courage amid poltroonery, dishonesty and
commonplace; faithfully enduring and endeavouring,--O Parlement of
Paris, dost thou reward it with a gibbet and a gag? (9th May, 1766:
Biographie Universelle, para Lally.) The dying Lally bequeathed his
memory to his boy; a young Lally has arisen, demanding redress in the
name of God and man. The Parlement of Paris does its utmost to defend
the indefensible, abominable; nay, what is singular, dusky-glowing
Aristogiton d'Espremenil is the man chosen to be its spokesman in that.

Such Social Anomaly is it that France now blesses. An unclean Social
Anomaly; but in duel against another worse! The exiled Parlement is felt
to have 'covered itself with glory.' There are quarrels in which even
Satan, bringing help, were not unwelcome; even Satan, fighting stiffly,
might cover himself with glory,--of a temporary sort.

But what a stir in the outer courts of the Palais, when Paris finds its
Parlement trundled off to Troyes in Champagne; and nothing left but a
few mute Keepers of records; the Demosthenic thunder become extinct, the
martyrs of liberty clean gone! Confused wail and menace rises from the
four thousand throats of Procureurs, Basoche-Clerks, Nondescripts, and
Anglomaniac Noblesse; ever new idlers crowd to see and hear; Rascality,
with increasing numbers and vigour, hunts mouchards. Loud whirlpool
rolls through these spaces; the rest of the City, fixed to its work,
cannot yet go rolling. Audacious placards are legible, in and about
the Palais, the speeches are as good as seditious. Surely the temper
of Paris is much changed. On the third day of this business (18th of
August), Monsieur and Monseigneur d'Artois, coming in state-carriages,
according to use and wont, to have these late obnoxious Arretes and
protests 'expunged' from the Records, are received in the most marked
manner. Monsieur, who is thought to be in opposition, is met with vivats
and strewed flowers; Monseigneur, on the other hand, with silence; with
murmurs, which rise to hisses and groans; nay, an irreverent Rascality
presses towards him in floods, with such hissing vehemence, that
the Captain of the Guards has to give order, "Haut les armes (Handle
arms)!"--at which thunder-word, indeed, and the flash of the clear
iron, the Rascal-flood recoils, through all avenues, fast enough.
(Montgaillard, i. 369. Besenval, &c.) New features these. Indeed, as
good M. de Malesherbes pertinently remarks, "it is a quite new kind
of contest this with the Parlement:" no transitory sputter, as from
collision of hard bodies; but more like "the first sparks of what, if
not quenched, may become a great conflagration." (Montgaillard, i. 373.)

This good Malesherbes sees himself now again in the King's Council,
after an absence of ten years: Lomenie would profit if not by the
faculties of the man, yet by the name he has. As for the man's opinion,
it is not listened to;--wherefore he will soon withdraw, a second time;
back to his books and his trees. In such King's Council what can a good
man profit? Turgot tries it not a second time: Turgot has quitted France
and this Earth, some years ago; and now cares for none of these things.
Singular enough: Turgot, this same Lomenie, and the Abbe Morellet were
once a trio of young friends; fellow-scholars in the Sorbonne. Forty new
years have carried them severally thus far.

Meanwhile the Parlement sits daily at Troyes, calling cases; and daily
adjourns, no Procureur making his appearance to plead. Troyes is as
hospitable as could be looked for: nevertheless one has comparatively
a dull life. No crowds now to carry you, shoulder-high, to the immortal
gods; scarcely a Patriot or two will drive out so far, and bid you be of
firm courage. You are in furnished lodgings, far from home and domestic
comfort: little to do, but wander over the unlovely Champagne fields;
seeing the grapes ripen; taking counsel about the thousand-times
consulted: a prey to tedium; in danger even that Paris may forget you.
Messengers come and go: pacific Lomenie is not slack in negotiating,
promising; D'Ormesson and the prudent elder Members see no good in
strife.

After a dull month, the Parlement, yielding and retaining, makes truce,
as all Parlements must. The Stamp-tax is withdrawn: the Subvention
Land-tax is also withdrawn; but, in its stead, there is granted, what
they call a 'Prorogation of the Second Twentieth,'--itself a kind of
Land-tax, but not so oppressive to the Influential classes; which lies
mainly on the Dumb class. Moreover, secret promises exist (on the part
of the Elders), that finances may be raised by Loan. Of the ugly word
States-General there shall be no mention.

And so, on the 20th of September, our exiled Parlement returns:
D'Espremenil said, 'it went out covered with glory, but had come back
covered with mud (de boue).' Not so, Aristogiton; or if so, thou surely
art the man to clean it.



Chapter 1.3.VI.

Lomenie's Plots.

Was ever unfortunate Chief Minister so bested as Lomenie-Brienne? The
reins of the State fairly in his hand these six months; and not the
smallest motive-power (of Finance) to stir from the spot with, this
way or that! He flourishes his whip, but advances not. Instead
of ready-money, there is nothing but rebellious debating and
recalcitrating.

Far is the public mind from having calmed; it goes chafing and fuming
ever worse: and in the royal coffers, with such yearly Deficit
running on, there is hardly the colour of coin. Ominous prognostics!
Malesherbes, seeing an exhausted, exasperated France grow hotter and
hotter, talks of 'conflagration:' Mirabeau, without talk, has, as we
perceive, descended on Paris again, close on the rear of the Parlement,
(Fils Adoptif, Mirabeau, iv. l. 5.)--not to quit his native soil any
more.

Over the Frontiers, behold Holland invaded by Prussia; (October, 1787.
Montgaillard, i. 374. Besenval, iii. 283.) the French party oppressed,
England and the Stadtholder triumphing: to the sorrow of War-Secretary
Montmorin and all men. But without money, sinews of war, as of work, and
of existence itself, what can a Chief Minister do? Taxes profit little:
this of the Second Twentieth falls not due till next year; and will
then, with its 'strict valuation,' produce more controversy than
cash. Taxes on the Privileged Classes cannot be got registered; are
intolerable to our supporters themselves: taxes on the Unprivileged
yield nothing,--as from a thing drained dry more cannot be drawn. Hope
is nowhere, if not in the old refuge of Loans.

To Lomenie, aided by the long head of Lamoignon, deeply pondering this
sea of troubles, the thought suggested itself: Why not have a Successive
Loan (Emprunt Successif), or Loan that went on lending, year after year,
as much as needful; say, till 1792? The trouble of registering such Loan
were the same: we had then breathing time; money to work with, at
least to subsist on. Edict of a Successive Loan must be proposed. To
conciliate the Philosophes, let a liberal Edict walk in front of it, for
emancipation of Protestants; let a liberal Promise guard the rear of it,
that when our Loan ends, in that final 1792, the States-General shall be
convoked.