intentions made the majority of the Assembly adopt it; they would plant the tree of liberty in a foreign soil, under the shade of a people already free. To the eyes of the people of Belgium it seemed but the mask of a new, foreign tyranny. This opinion was erroneous; I will suppose it for a moment; but still this opinion of Belgium deserv such a disorder destroy all the respect that is due | to superiours, and all the mutual confidence without which success cannot be hoped for? For the spirit of distrust makes the soldier suspicious, and intimidates the general. The first discerns treason in every danger; the second, always placed between the necessity of conquest, and the image of the scaffold, dares not raise himself to bold concep-ed to be considered. In general we have always tion, and those heights of courage which electrify an army and ensure victory. Turenne, in our time, would have carried his head to the scaffold; for he was sometimes beat: but the reason why he more frequently conquered was, that his discipline was severe : it was, that his soldiers, confiding in his How could the Belgick people believe themtalents, never muttered discontent instead of fight-selves free, since we exercise for them, and over ing. Without reciprocal confidence between the soldier and the general, there can be no army, no victory, especially in a free government. considered our own opinions, and our own intentions, rather than the people whose cause we defend. We have given those people a will; that is to say, we have more than ever alienated them from liberty. them, the rights of sovereignty; when without consulting them, we suppress, all in a mass, their ancient usages, their abuses, their prejudices, those Is it not to the same system of anarchy, of equa- classes of society which without doubt are contrary lization, and want of subordination, which has been to the spirit of liberty, but the utility of whose derecommended in some clubs, and defended even instruction was not as yet proved to them? How the Convention, that we owe the pillages, the murders, the enormities of all kinds, which it was difficult for the officers to put a stop to, from the general spirit of insubordination; excesses which have rendered the French name odious to the Belgians? Again, is it not to this system of anarchy, and of robbery, that we are indebted for the revolutionary power, which has so justly aggravated the hatred of the Belgians against France? What did enlightened republicans think before the tenth of August, men who wished for liberty, not only for their own country, but for all Europe? They believed that they could generally establish it, by exciting the governed against the governors, in letting the people see the facility and the advantages of such insurrections. could they believe themselves free, and sovereign, when we made them take such an oath as we thought fit, as a test to give them the right of voting? How could they believe themselves free, when openly despising their religious worship, which religious worship that superstitious people valued beyond their liberty, beyond even their life; when we proscribed their priests; when we banished them from their assemblies, where they were in the practice of seeing them govern; when we seized their revenues, their domains, and riches, to the profit of the nation; when we carried to the very censer those hands which they regarded as profane? Doubtless these operations were founded on principles; but those principles ought to have had the consent of the Belgians before they were carried into practice; otherwise they necessarily become our most cruel enemies. But how can the people be led to that point? By the example of good government established among us; by the example of order; by the care Arrived ourselves at the last bounds of liberty of spreading nothing but moral ideas among them; and equality, trampling under our feet all human to respect their properties and their rights; to superstitions, (after, however, a four years war with respect their prejudices, even when we combat them,) we attempt all at once to raise, to the same them; by disinterestedness in defending the peo-eminence, men, strangers even to the first elemenple, by a zeal to extend the spirit of liberty amongst them. This system was at first followed.* Excellent pamphlets from the pen of Condorcet prepared the people for liberty; the tenth of August, the republican decrees, the battle of Valmy, the retreat of the Prussians, the victory of Jenappe, all spoke in favour of France; all was rapidly destroyed by the revolutionary power. Without doubt, good The most seditious libels upon all governments, in order to excite insurrection in Spain, Holland, and other countries. Translator. † It may not be amiss, once for all, to remark on the style of all the philosophical politicians of France. Without any distinction in the several sects and parties, they agree in treating all nations who will not conform their government, laws, manners, and religion, to the new Franch fashion, as a herd of slaves. They consider the content with which men live under those governments as stupidity, and all attachment to religion as the effects of the grossest ignorance. The people of the Netherlands, by their constitution, are as much entitled to be called free, as any nation upon earth. The Austrian government (until some wild attempts the emperour Joseph made on the French principle, but which have been since abandoned by the court of Vienna) has been remarkably mild. tary principles of liberty, and plunged for fifteen hundred years in ignorance and superstition; we wished to force men to see, when a thick cataract covered their eyes, even before we had removed that cataract; we would force men to see, whose dullness of character had raised a mist before their eyes, and before that character was altered.† Do you believe that the doctrine which now prevails in France would have found many parti No people were more at their ease than the Flemish subjects, particularly the lower classes. It is curious to hear this great oculist talk of couching the cataract by which the Netherlands were blinded, and hindered from seeing, in its proper colours, the beautiful vision of the French Republick, which he has himself painted with so masterly a hand. That people must needs be dull, blind, and brutalized by fifteen hundred years of superstition, (the time elapsed since the introduction of Christianity amongst them,) who could prefer their former state to the present state of France! The reader will remark, that the only difference between Brissot and his adversaries, is in the mode of bringing other nations into the pale of the French Republick.They would abolish the order and classes of society, and all religion at a stroke; Brissot would have just the same thing done, but with more address and management. Translator. sans among us in 1789? No; a revolution in ideas, and in prejudices, is not made with that rapidity; it moves gradually: it does not escalade. Philosophy does not inspire by violence, nor by seduction, nor is it the sword that begets love of liberty. Joseph the Second also borrowed the language of philosophy, when he wished to suppress the monks in Belgium, and to seize upon their revenues. There was seen on him a mask only of philosophy, covering the hideous countenance of a greedy despot; and the people ran to arms. Nothing better than another kind of despotism has been seen in the revolutionary power. We have seen, in the commissioners of the National Convention, nothing but pro-consuls working the mine of Belgium for the profit of the French nation; seeking to conquer it for the sovereign of Paris; either to aggrandize his empire, or to share the burdens of the debts, and furnish a rich prize to the robbers who domineered in France. Do you believe the Belgians have ever been the dupes of those well-rounded periods, which they vented in the pulpit, in order to familiarize them to the idea of an union with France? Do you believe they were ever imposed upon by those votes and resolutions, made by what is called acclamation, for their union, of which corruption paid one part, and fear forced the remainder? Who, at this time of day, is unacquainted with the springs and wires of their miserable puppet show? Who does not know the farces of primary assemblies, composed of a president, of a secretary, and of some assistants, whose day's work was paid for? No; it is not by means which belong only to thieves and despots, that the foundations of liberty can be laid in an enslaved country. It is not by those means, that a new-born republick, a people who know not yet the elements of republican governments, can be united to us. Even slaves do not suffer themselves to be seduced by such artifices; and if they have not the strength to resist, they have at least the sense to know how to appreciate the value of such an attempt. If we would attach the Belgians to us, we must at least enlighten their minds by good writings; we must send to them missionaries, and not despotick commissioners. We ought to give them time to see; to perceive by themselves the advantages of liberty; the unhappy effects of superstition; the fatal spirit of priesthood. And whilst we waited for this moral revolution, we should have accepted the offers, which they incessantly repeated, to join to the French army an army of 50,000 men; to entertain them at their own expence; and to advance to France the specie of which she stood in need. But have we ever seen those fifty thousand soldiers, who were to join our army as soon as See the Correspondence of Dumourier, especially the letter of the 12th of March. + They have not as yet proceeded farther with regard to the the standard of liberty should be displayed in Belgium? Have we ever seen those treasures which they were to count into our hands? Can we either accuse the sterility of their country, or the penury of their treasure, or the coldness of their love for liberty? No! despotism and anarchy, these are the benefits which we have transplanted into their soil. We have acted, we have spoken like masters; and from that time we have found the Flemings nothing but jugglers, who made the grimace of liberty for money; or slaves, who in their hearts cursed their new tyrants. Our commissioners address them in this sort; 66 you have nobles and "priests among you, drive them out without de'lay, or we will neither be your brethren nor your patrons." They answered, give us but time; only leave to us the care of reforming these institutions. Our answer to them was, "No! it "must be at the moment; it must be on the spot, or we will treat you as enemies; we will aban"don you to the resentment of the Austrians." 66 66 What could the disarmed Belgians object to all this, surrounded as they were by seventy thousand men? They had only to hold their tongues, and to bow down their heads before their masters! They did hold their tongues, and their silence is received as a sincere and free assent. Have not the strangest artifices been adopted to prevent that people from retreating, and to constrain them to an union? It was foreseen, that, as long as they were unable to effect an union, the states would preserve the supreme authority amongst themselves. Under pretence, therefore, of relieving the people, and of exercising the sovereignty in their right, at one stroke they abolished all the duties and taxes, they shut up all the treasuries. From that time no more receipts, no more publick money, no more means of paying the salaries of any man in office appointed by the states. Thus was anarchy organized amongst the people, that they might be compelled to throw themselves into our arms. It became necessary for those who administered their affairs, under the penalty of being exposed to sedition, and in order to avoid their throats being cut, to have recourse to the treasury of France. What did they find in this treasury? ASSIGNATS.These Assignats were advanced at par to Belgium. By these means, on the one hand, they neutralized this currency in that country; and on the other, they expected to make a good pecuniary transaction. Thus it is that covetousness cut its throat with its own hands. The Belgians have seen in this forced introduction of assignats, nothing but a double robbery ; and they have only the more violently hated the union with France. Recollect the solicitude of the Belgians on that subject. With what earnestness did they conjure you to take off a retroactive effect from these assignats, and to prevent them from being applied English dominions. Here we only see as yet the good writings of Paine, and of his learned associates, and the labours of the missionary clubs, and other zealous instructors. Translator. to the payment of debts that were contracted anterior to the union? Did not this language energetically enough signify that they looked upon the assignats as a leprosy, and the union as a deadly contagion ? And yet what regard was paid to so just a demand? It was buried in the committee of finance. That committee wanted to make anarchy the means of an union. They only busied themselves in making the Belgick provinces subservient to their finances. Cambon said loftily before the Belgians themselves: The Belgian war costs us hundreds of millions. Their ordinary revenues, and even some extraordinary taxes, will not answer to our reimbursements; and yet we have occasion for them. The mortgage of our assignats draws near its end. What must be done? Sell the church property of Brabant. There is a mortgage of two thousand millions (eighty millions sterling). How shall we get possession of them? By an immediate union. Instantly they decreed this union. Men's minds were not disposed to it. What does it signify? Let us make them vote by means of money. Without delay, therefore, they secretly order the minister of foreign affairs to dispose of four or five hundred thousand livres (20,0001. sterling) to make the vagabonds of Brussels drunk, and to buy proselytes to the union in all the states. But even these means, it was said, will obtain but a weak minority in our favour. What does that signify? Revolutions, said they, are made only by minorities. It is the minority which has made the Revolution of France; it is a minority which has made the people triumph. The Belgick provinces were not sufficient to satisfy the voracious cravings of this financial system. Cambon wanted to unite every thing, that he might sell every thing. Thus he forced the union of Savoy; in the war with Holland, he saw nothing but gold to seize on, and assignats to sell at par. Do not let us dissemble, said he one day to the committee of general defence, in presence even of the patriot deputies of Holland, you have no ecclesiastical goods to offer us for our indemnity.-IT IS A REVOLUTION IN THEIR COUNTERS AND IRON CHESTS, + that must be made amongst the DUTCH. The word was said, and the bankers Abema and Vanstaphorst understood it. Do you think that that word has not been worth an army to the Stadtholder, that it has not cooled the ardour of the Dutch patriots, that it has not commanded the vigorous defence of Wil liamstadt? Do you believe that the patriots of Amsterdam, when they read the preparatory decree The same thing will happen in Savoy. The persecution of the clergy has soured people's minds. The Commissaries represent them to us as good Frenchmen. I put them to the proof. Where are the legions? How, thirty thousand Savoyards-are they not armed to defend, in concert with us, their liberty? Brissot. ↑ Portefueille-is the word in the original. It signifies all which gave France an execution on their goods; do you believe, that those patriots would not have liked better to have remained under the government of the Stadtholder, who took from them no more than a fixed portion of their property, than to pass under that of a revolutionary power, which would make a complete revolution in their bureaus and strong boxes, and reduce them to wretchedness and rags ? Robbery, and anarchy, instead of encouraging, will always stifle revolutions. But why, they object to me, have not you and your friends chosen to expose these measures in the rostrum of the National Convention? Why have you not opposed yourself to all these fatal projects of union? There are two answers to make here, one general, one particular. You complain of the silence of honest men! You quite forget, then, honest men are the objects of your suspicion. Suspicion, if it does not stain the soul of a courageous man, at least arrests his thoughts in their passage to his lips. The suspicions of a good citizen freeze those men, whom the calumny of the wicked could not stop in their progress. You complain of their silence! You forget, then, that you have often established an insulting equality between them and men covered with crimes, and made up of ignominy. You forget, then, that you have twenty times left them covered with opprobrium by your galleries. You forget, then, that you have not thought yourselves sufficiently powerful to impose silence upon these galleries. What ought a wise man to do in the midst of these circumstances? He is silent. He waits the moment when the passions give way; he waits till reason shall preside, and till the multitude shall listen to her voice. What have been the tacticks displayed during all these unions? Cambon, incapable of political calculation, boasting his ignorance in the diplomatick, flattering the ignorant multitude, lending his name and popularity to the anarchists, seconded by their vociferations, denounced incessantly as counter-revolutionists, those intelligent persons who were desirous, at least, of having things discussed. To oppose the acts of union, appeared to Cambon an overt act of treason. The wish so much as to reflect and to deliberate, was in his eyes a great crime. He calumniated our intentions. The voice of every deputy, especially my voice, would infallibly have been stifled. There were spies on the very monosyllables that escaped our lips. movable property which may be represented in bonds, notes, bills, stocks, or any sort of publick or private securities. I do not know of a single word in English that answers it: I have therefore substituted that of Iron Chests, as coming nearest to the idea. Translator. 1 In the original letter, les reduire à la Sansculoterie. END OF VOL. I. |