XI. 1821. in the vente or lodge, which had been put into their CHAP. hands by Lareche, an agent of Lafayette. From the declarations of these prisoners, and others apprehended with them, a clue was obtained to the whole organisation of the Carbonari in France, ascending, through various intermediate stages, to the central committee in Paris, presided over by Lafayette himself. These revelations were justly deemed of such importance that the trial of the accused was transferred to the capital, and conducted by M. Marchangy, the King's Advocate, himself. The oath taken by the affiliated bound them to face any peril, even death itself, in support of liberty, and to abandon, at a moment's warning, their own brothers by blood to succour their brethren among the Carbonari.* The object of the association was to overturn the existing government in every country, and establish purely republican forms of government. To carry it into complete effect, there was a central committee of three persons at Paris, whose mandates were supreme, and which all the inferior lodges throughout the kingdom were bound instantly, and at all hazards, to obey; and subordinate committees of nine members, whose mandates were equally supreme within their respective districts. A more formidable conspiracy never was brought to light, or one more calculated, if successful, to tear society in pieces, and elevate the most ambitious and unscrupulous characters to its 1 Procès de direction. It is melancholy to think that Lafayette, Bories, &c.; d'Argenson, Manuel, and the leaders of the Liberal party v. 777, 802; in the legislature, were at the head of such a perilous and 46, 47. destructive association.1 + Bories and his associates made a gallant defence when * The oath was in these terms: "Je jure de tenir avant toute chose à la liberté; d'affronter la mort en toutes les occasions pour les Carbonari; d'abandonner au premier signal le trésor de mon propre sang, pour aider et secourir mes frères."-Annuaire Historique, v. 777. "Il existe à Paris un grand comité d'orateurs, qui entretient des correspondances avec tous les départements. Il y a dans chaque département, un comité de neuf membres, dont l'un est président. "Ce comité correspond avec ceux de l'arrondissement, et avec le grand Ann. Hist. Lam. vii. XI. 1821. 21. and execu tion. CHAP. brought to trial; and the former melted every heart by the noble effort which he made, when the case had obviously become desperate, to draw to himself the whole Their trial responsibility of the proceedings, and exculpate entirely his unhappy associates. "You have seen," said he, in the conclusion of his address to the jury, "whether the evidence has produced anything which could justify the severity of the public prosecutor in my instance. You have heard him yesterday pronounce the words, All the powers of oratory will prove unavailing to withdraw Bories from public justice;' the King's Advocate has never ceased to present me as the chief of the plot : well, gentlemen, I accept the responsibility-happy if my head, in falling from the scaffold, can save the life of my comrades." The trial, which took place at Paris, lasted several days, during the course of which the public interest was wound up to the very highest pitch, and every effort was made, by crowds surrounding the court-house, anonymous threatening letters to the jury, and other means, to avert a conviction. But all was unavailing ; Bories, Gouben, Pommier, and Rautre, were convicted, and sentenced to death. They received the sentence with calmness and intrepidity. Determined to make a great example of persons deeply implicated in so wide comité. Il y a dans chaque arrondissement un comité composé de cinq membres, dont l'un est président. "Les chevaliers de l'ordre doivent être pris: 1. Parmi les jeunes gens instruits des villes et des campagnes. 2. Les étudiants de colléges, et des écoles de droit, de médecine et d'autres. 3. Les anciens militaires réformés, retraités ou à demi-solde. 4. Les possesseurs de biens nationaux. 5. Les gros propriétaires dont les opinions sont parfaitement connues. 6. Ceux qui professent les arts libéraux, avocats, médecins, et autres. 7. Les sous-officiers de l'armée active, rarement les officiers, à moins qu'ils n'aient donné des preuves non équivoques de leur manière de penser. "Le récipiendaire sera instruit verbalement de l'existence de la société, du but qu'elle se propose, ensuite il prêtera le serment suivant : "Je jure d'être fidèle aux statuts de l'ordre des chevaliers de la liberté. Si je viens à les trahir, la mort sera ma punition. "C. signifie chevalier; V., vente; V. H., haute vente; V. C., vente centrale; V. P., vente particulière; P., Paris; B. C., bon cousin.”—Procès de Bories, &c., No. ix. Annuaire Historique, v. 801, 802. XI. 1821. spread and dangerous a conspiracy, Government was in- CHAP. exorable to all applications for mercy. An effort was made, with the approbation of Lafayette, to procure their escape by corrupting the jailer; he agreed, and the money was raised, and brought to the prison gates: but the persons in the plot were seized by the police at the very moment when it was counting out. As a last resource, twelve thousand of the Carbonari of Paris bound themselves by an oath to station themselves behind the files of gendarmes who lined the streets as the accused were led to execution, armed with poniards, and to effect their deliverance by each stabbing one of the executors of the law. They were on the streets, accordingly, on the day of execution, and the unhappy men went to the scaffold expecting every moment to be delivered. But the preparations of Government were so complete that the conspirators were overawed; not an arm was raised in their defence; and the assembled multitude had pain of beholding four gallant young men, the victims of deluded enthusiasm, beheaded on the scaffold, testifying Lam. vii. 45, 47; Lac. with their last breath their devotion to the cause for iii. 262,264. which they suffered.1 the Procès de Ann. Hist. Bories, &c.; v. 776, 807; 22. on these It is impossible to read the account of four young men suffering death for purely political offences, under a Reflections Government founded on moderation and equity, without events. deep regret, and the warmest commiseration for their fate. Yet must justice consider what is to be said on the other side, and admit the distinction between persons openly levying regular war against their sovereign, who may be perhaps entitled to claim the right of prisoners taken in external warfare, and those who, like these unhappy young men, belong to secret societies, having for their object to overturn Government by murder, and sudden and unforeseen outbreaks, veiled in their origin in studious obscurity. It is the very essence of such secret societies to be veiled in the deepest darkness, and to accomplish their objects by assassination, fire-raising, and VOL. II. 2 N XI. 1821. CHAP. treason. Every man who enters into them surrenders his conscience and freedom of action to an unseen and unknown authority, whose mandates he is bound instantly to obey, be they what they may. He is never to hesitate to plunge a dagger in the heart of his king, his father, his wife, his benefactor, or his son, if the orders of this unseen authority require him to do so. Such institutions convert the society which they regulate into a disciplined band of bravoes, ready to murder any man, burn any house, fire any arsenal, or commit any other atrocious act that may be enjoined. It is impossible to hold that death is too severe a penalty for the chiefs who establish in any country so atrocious and demoralising a conspiracy; and the example of the Ribbonmen in Ireland, and some of the trades' unions in Great Britain, too clearly prove to what abominable excesses, when once established, they inevitably lead. The only thing to be regretted is, that these chiefs so often escape themselves, while the penalty of the law falls upon their inferior and less guilty agents. But their guilt remains the same; and it was not the less in this instance that those chiefs were Lafayette, Manuel, d'Argenson, Benjamin Constant, and the other leaders of the Liberal party in France, whose declamations were so loud in the legislature in favour of the great principles of public morality.* The insurrections at Béfort, Thouars, and La Rochelle It is fully admitted now by the French historians of both parties, that these men were the chiefs of the Carbonari in France, and that the statements of M. Marchangy on the subject, in the trial of the Rochelle prisoners, were entirely well founded: "Le réquisitoire de M. de Marchangy restera comme un monument de vérité historique et de courage; son tableau du carbonarisme n'était point un roman, comme on le disait alors, mais de l'histoire, comme on l'avoue aujourd'hui. Il avait parfaitement pénétré dans le mystère des sociétés secrètes ; il en avait compris la portée et les desseins."-CAPEFIGUE, Histoire de la Restauration, vii. 312. "Le voile longtemps épais par la dissimulation parlementaire des orateurs de 1822 à 1829, qui couvraient des conspirations actives du nom d'opposition loyale et inoffensive, s'est déchiré depuis 1830. Les meneurs, les plans, les complots, les instigateurs, les acteurs, les siéges, les vic‐ times de ces conspirations ont apparu dans toute la franchise de leurs rôles. Les Casernes, les sociétés secrètes, les prisons, les échafauds mêmes, ont parlé. Sous cette opposition à haute voix, et à visage découvert, qui luttait contre 1 XI. 1821. 23. tion at Marseilles, were not the only ones that Lafayette and the Car- CHAP. bonari committee projected, and tried to carry into execution during this eventful year. A few days after the outbreak at Befort had failed, Colonel Caron, a half- Insurreci pay officer, deeply implicated in their designs, with the Colmar, aid of Roger, another discontented ex-military man, and Toulon. 1. attempted to excite an insurrection in a regiment of July 1. dragoons stationed at Colmar. It in effect received him with cries of "Vive Napoléon II.!" and Caron led them from village to village for some time trying to excite an insurrection; but they everywhere failed, and the regiment which had revolted, seeing the affair was hopeless, ended by arresting him, and delivering him over to the police, who were all along privy to the design. He was brought, after the manner of Napoleon, before a military council, by whom he was condemned, and shot in one of the ditches of the citadel of Colmar. Similar attempts, attended with no better success, were made about the same time at Marseilles and Toulon, but they were all frustrated by the vigilance of the police and military, and terminated in similar judicial tragedies, which every friend of humanity must deeply regret, but which were absolutely necessary to extinguish the mania for secret societies and conspiracies which had so long been the scourge of France, and had been encouraged in so flagitious a man les ministres, an affichant le respect et l'inviolabilité de la royauté des Bourbons, on a vu quelles trames obstinées et implacables s'ourdissaient pour la renverser, les unes au profit de Napoléon II., les autres au profit de la république, celles-ci au profit des prétoriens subalternes, celles-là au profit d'un Prince étranger, d'autres au profit d'un Prince de la Maison Royale, d'autres enfin au hasard de toutes les anarchies pouvant élever ou engloutir de téméraires dictateurs comme M. de La Fayette. Nous-mêmes nous avons reçu d'acteurs principaux, une partie de ces mystérieuses confidences. Nous empruntons le reste à des historiens initiés par eux-mêmes ou leur parti à ces conspirations, où ils furent confidents, instruments, ou complices: surtout à un historien consciencieux, exacte, et pour ainsi dire juridique, M. de Vaulabelle, témoignage d'autant moins récusable que ses jugements sur la Restauration sont plus sévères, et que son opinion et ses sentiments conspiraient involontairement avec les opinions et les sentiments des conspirateurs, pour lesquels il réclame la gloire et la reconnaissance devant la postérité."-LAMARTINE, Histoire de la Restauration, vii. 21, 22. |