CXFCRC
PAPERBACKS
I
GEuRGE RUDE
HISTORY
How were the crowds composed that stormed the Bastille, march�d to Versailles to fetch the King and Queen to the capital in October,
overthrew the monarchy in August 1792, or silently witnessed the downfall of Robespierre in Thermidor? Who led them or influenced
them? What were the motives that prompted them? Here a first attempt is made, with the aid of poli:e records and other research materials, to bring the Parisian revolutiona:)' crowds of 1787 to 1795 to life, by identifying the various social groups that
composed them and the ideas and motives that prompted ar,d i,,· spired them.
'It may seem incredible that in a century and a hall of massive studies nobody before Dr. Rude ever tried to lind out systematically who actually stormed the Bast ille, but it is a fact. ... This is in every respect an excellent book, and an important contribution to the
history 01 the R evolution.'
E. J. Hobsbawm, New Statesman.
'Dr. Rude holds the reader's interest by a masterly handling of a mass of material, and by making the Parisian crowds live again.' The Times Literary Supplement. George Rude is Professor 01 History in the University of Adelaide.
His social study of 1763 to 1773, Wilkes and Liberty, is also avail· able in Oxford Paperbacks.
The engraving used In the cover design is at the march of the
women of Versailles, 5 October 1789. It is reproduced, with permission,
tram the Mansell Collection, London. OXFORD PAPERBACK NO. 129
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS (885014/6/67)
- :. net
U.K. ONLY
THE CROWD
IN THE FRENCH REVOLUTION BY
GEORGE RUDE
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS ,
LONDON
OXFORD
NEW YORK
THE CROWD
IN THE FRENCH REVOLUTION BY
GEORGE RUDE
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS ,
LONDON
OXFORD
NEW YORK
C Olfford Uttionril,1 hus 1959
TO GEORGES LEFEBVRE
I
FIIGT PUBUSIIED BY TilE C....RENDON .. PRESS
1959
FIRST ISSUED AS AN OXFORD U NIVERSITY PRF.SS PAI'ERIiACI> PRINTED IN TilE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
1967
C Olfford Uttionril,1 hus 1959
TO GEORGES LEFEBVRE
I
FIIGT PUBUSIIED BY TilE C....RENDON .. PRESS
1959
FIRST ISSUED AS AN OXFORD U NIVERSITY PRF.SS PAI'ERIiACI> PRINTED IN TilE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
1967
HIS
PREFACE
book is the outcome of frequent visits to Paris and to Parisian archives and libraries during the past nine years. I should like, therefore, to express my warmest apprecia tion to the archivists and staff of the Archives Nationales, Archives de la Prefecture de Police, the departmental archives of the Seine, Seine-et-Oise, and Sdne-et-Mame, and of the Bibliotheque Nationale and Bibliotheque Historique de la Ville
T
de Paris for their never-failing co-operation, sympathetic inter· est, good humour, and goodwill. More particularly my thanks arc due to my friends and
I
collaborators, Richard Cobb and Albert Sohoul, who have always been lavish with ideas, advice, and information and generous in putting at my disposal the fruits of their own re searches. Our collaboration has, indeed, been so close in recent years that it is difficult to determine precisely, in the present instance, where their particular contribution ends and my own begins. In a real sense, therefore, this book is an expression of collective, rather than of purely individual, enterprise. And by no means least has been the contribution made to it by Professor Georges Lefebvre, whose example, wi� counsel, and friendly encouragement have placed me, as countless other students of the French Revolution, deeply in his debt. I also wish to thank Professor Alfred Cobban for his help and guidance over a number of years, and Mr. Alun Davies for much helpful advice and for sharing with me the ungrateful task of proof-reading. And finally, my special gratitude is due to my wife, whose patience, understanding, and concern for my well being have made the writing of this book a pleasure rather than
a burden.
G.R.
HIS
PREFACE
book is the outcome of frequent visits to Paris and to Parisian archives and libraries during the past nine years. I should like, therefore, to express my warmest apprecia tion to the archivists and staff of the Archives Nationales, Archives de la Prefecture de Police, the departmental archives of the Seine, Seine-et-Oise, and Sdne-et-Mame, and of the Bibliotheque Nationale and Bibliotheque Historique de la Ville
T
de Paris for their never-failing co-operation, sympathetic inter· est, good humour, and goodwill. More particularly my thanks arc due to my friends and
I
collaborators, Richard Cobb and Albert Sohoul, who have always been lavish with ideas, advice, and information and generous in putting at my disposal the fruits of their own re searches. Our collaboration has, indeed, been so close in recent years that it is difficult to determine precisely, in the present instance, where their particular contribution ends and my own begins. In a real sense, therefore, this book is an expression of collective, rather than of purely individual, enterprise. And by no means least has been the contribution made to it by Professor Georges Lefebvre, whose example, wi� counsel, and friendly encouragement have placed me, as countless other students of the French Revolution, deeply in his debt. I also wish to thank Professor Alfred Cobban for his help and guidance over a number of years, and Mr. Alun Davies for much helpful advice and for sharing with me the ungrateful task of proof-reading. And finally, my special gratitude is due to my wife, whose patience, understanding, and concern for my well being have made the writing of this book a pleasure rather than
a burden.
G.R.
CONTENTS PART 1
Introduction I. INTRODUCTION II. PARIS ON THE EVE OF THE REVOLUTION
IO
PART 11
The Revolutionary Crowd in Action III. PRELUDE. TO REVOLUTION
'7
IV. JULY 1789
45
V. THE MARCH TO VERSAILLES VI. THE 'MASSACRE' OF THE CHAMP DE MARS VII. THE FALL OF THE MONARCHY
6, 80 95
VIII. THE TRIUMPH OF THE MOUNTAIN
,
IX. THERMIDOR X. GERMiNAL·PRAIRIAL XI. VENDtMIAIRE
PART III
Tlu Anatomy of the Revolutionary Crowd XII. THE COMPOSITION OF REVOLUTIONARY CROWDS, t 787-95
178
Xlii. THE MOTIVES OF REVOLUTIONARY CROWDS
191
XIV. THE GENERATION OF REVOLUTIONARY , ACTIVITY
2 10
XV. THE 'REVOLUTIONARY CROWD' IN HISTORY
232
CONTENTS PART 1
Introduction I. INTRODUCTION II. PARIS ON THE EVE OF THE REVOLUTION
IO
PART 11
The Revolutionary Crowd in Action III. PRELUDE. TO REVOLUTION
'7
IV. JULY 1789
45
V. THE MARCH TO VERSAILLES VI. THE 'MASSACRE' OF THE CHAMP DE MARS VII. THE FALL OF THE MONARCHY
6, 80 95
VIII. THE TRIUMPH OF THE MOUNTAIN
,
IX. THERMIDOR X. GERMiNAL·PRAIRIAL XI. VENDtMIAIRE
PART III
Tlu Anatomy of the Revolutionary Crowd XII. THE COMPOSITION OF REVOLUTIONARY CROWDS, t 787-95
178
Xlii. THE MOTIVES OF REVOLUTIONARY CROWDS
191
XIV. THE GENERATION OF REVOLUTIONARY , ACTIVITY
2 10
XV. THE 'REVOLUTIONARY CROWD' IN HISTORY
232
CONTENTS
•
Paris Sections
APPEN DIXES I. II.
The
of 1790-5
population of the Paris Seclions in 1791-5
III. Paris Sections and Insurgents of 1787--95 IV.
Paris Trades and Insurgents of 1787--95
VI.
The Revolutionary
v. Parisian Insurgents and Rioters of 1775--95
VII.
Calendar
Prices and Wages in Paris '789--93
'4' '44
Introduction
'46 '49 '50
I
'5'
GLOSSARY
'53
BIBLIOGRAPHY
'58
INDEX MAP OF REVOLUTIONARY PARIS
PART I
'4'
at end
NE
O
I N T R O D UCTI O N aspect of the French Revolution that has been largely
neglected by historians is the nature of the revolutionary crowd. It has, of course, long been recognized that the
Revolution was not only a political, but a profound social up heaval, to the course and outcome of which masses of ordinary Frenchmen, both in the towns and countryside, contributed. Not
least in Paris; and, in the history of revolutionary Paris, a parti cular importance has beenjustly ascribed to the greatjournitS, or popular insurrections and demonstrations, which, breaking out
intermittently between I789 and I795, profoundly affected the relations of political parties and groups and drew many thousands of Parisians into activity.
So much is common knowledge and has long been commonly
accepted. But how were the crowds composed that stormed the
Bastille in July 1789, marched to Versailles to fetch the king and queen to the capital in October, that overthrew the monarchy in August 1792, or silently witnessed the downfall of Robespierre
on 9 Thermidor? Who led them or influenced them? What were the motives that prompted them? What was the particular significance and outcome of their intervention? It is not
suggested that the great historians of the Revolution have had no answers to these questions: far from it; but, for lack of more precise inquiry, they have tended to answer them according to their own social ideals, political sympathies, or ideological
preoccupations. In this respect we may distinguish between
those writers who, like Burke and Taine, adopted a distinctly hostile attitude to the Revolution and everything that it stood
for; Republican historians like Michelet and Aulard, for whom
CONTENTS
•
Paris Sections
APPEN DIXES I. II.
The
of 1790-5
population of the Paris Seclions in 1791-5
III. Paris Sections and Insurgents of 1787--95 IV.
Paris Trades and Insurgents of 1787--95
VI.
The Revolutionary
v. Parisian Insurgents and Rioters of 1775--95
VII.
Calendar
Prices and Wages in Paris '789--93
'4' '44
Introduction
'46 '49 '50
I
'5'
GLOSSARY
'53
BIBLIOGRAPHY
'58
INDEX MAP OF REVOLUTIONARY PARIS
PART I
'4'
at end
NE
O
I N T R O D UCTI O N aspect of the French Revolution that has been largely
neglected by historians is the nature of the revolutionary crowd. It has, of course, long been recognized that the
Revolution was not only a political, but a profound social up heaval, to the course and outcome of which masses of ordinary Frenchmen, both in the towns and countryside, contributed. Not
least in Paris; and, in the history of revolutionary Paris, a parti cular importance has beenjustly ascribed to the greatjournitS, or popular insurrections and demonstrations, which, breaking out
intermittently between I789 and I795, profoundly affected the relations of political parties and groups and drew many thousands of Parisians into activity.
So much is common knowledge and has long been commonly
accepted. But how were the crowds composed that stormed the
Bastille in July 1789, marched to Versailles to fetch the king and queen to the capital in October, that overthrew the monarchy in August 1792, or silently witnessed the downfall of Robespierre
on 9 Thermidor? Who led them or influenced them? What were the motives that prompted them? What was the particular significance and outcome of their intervention? It is not
suggested that the great historians of the Revolution have had no answers to these questions: far from it; but, for lack of more precise inquiry, they have tended to answer them according to their own social ideals, political sympathies, or ideological
preoccupations. In this respect we may distinguish between
those writers who, like Burke and Taine, adopted a distinctly hostile attitude to the Revolution and everything that it stood
for; Republican historians like Michelet and Aulard, for whom
INTRODUCTION
great regenerative upsurge of the the: RevaI·' UuOn marked. a · like CarI yIe Wh0, a RomanUc again, h people; and, F Sansculottic World', 'Nether the to sympathetic broadly w was toen between admiration for its 'heroism' and fascinated •
�r;
horror at the 'World-Bedlam' or 'anarchy' that it appeared to unleash. To Burke the revolutionary crowd was purely destructive and
presumed to be composed of the most undesirable social de
menu: the crowds that invaded the ,MuGU of Versailles in
October 1789 are 'a band of cruel ruffians and assassins, reeking with ...blood'; and the royal family, on their return journey
to Paris, are escorted by 'all the unutterable abominations of the funes of hell in the abased shape of the vilest of women'.
The National
ksembly, having transferred
to the capital, is
compelled to deliberate: 'amidst the tumultuous cries of a mixed mob of ferocious men, and of women lost to shame'.l Yet Burke's invective is far outmatched by Taine, the former Liberal of 1848, soured by his experiences of 1871, whose vocabulary of expletives has served the conservative historians of the Revolution ever since. The provincial insurgents of the early summer of 1789 are presented as 'contre·bandiers, faux· 3auniers, braconniers, vagabonds, mendiants, repris de jU!tice'. The Paris revolutionaries and the captors of the Bastille are the lowest social scum:
La lie de la societe monte a la surface ... la capitale ilemble livrec a la derniere plebe et aux bandits Vagabonds, deguenilles, plwieun 'presque nw', la plupart annes comme des sauva �, d'une physionomie effrayante, ils sont 'de ceux qu'on ne se souvlcnt . • .
pas d'avoir renconues au grand jour'.
The market women and others who marched to Versailles in October are thus described:
Les filles du Palais Royal ... ajoutez des blanchWeuses, des
mendiants, des femmes sans soulien, des poissardes raccolecs depuis plusieurs jours a prix d'argent ...Ia troupe s'incorpore les femmes qu'elle rencontre, portieres, couturieres, femmes de menage, et mcme des bourgeoises.Joignez a cela des gens sans aveu, des
rOdeurs de rue, des bandits, des voleurs, toute cette lie qui s'est entassee a Paris et qui !urnage a chaque secousse Voila la fange qui, en arriere, en avant, roule avec Ie Aeuve populaire. . • .
, E. Burke, &jlldi#ms_ 1M Rnt!lut..." ill. F,IIIIU
(London,
1951), pp. 66-6g.
•
INTRODUCTION
August 1792, who drove Louis XVI from The insurgents of the Tuileries, become:
10
Presque tous de la derniere plebe, ou entre tenus par des metiers in· fames, spadassins et sUppOts de mauvais lieux, accoutumes au sang . . . des aventurien intrepides et teroces de toute provenance, Marseillais et etrangen, Savoyards, Italiens, Espagnols, chasses de leur pays.'
Following Taine, such terms as 'la canaille', 'Ia derniere plebe', 'bandits', and 'brigands' have been commonly applied to the participants in these and similar events up to the present day.l On the other hand, Michelet and the upholders of the Re· publican tradition have presented the revolutionary crowd in entirely different terms.Whenever it advanced, or appeared to advance, the aims of the revolutionary
bourgeouei , it has been
presented as the embodiment of all the popular and Republican
virtues. To Michelet the Bastille ceased to be a fortress that had to be reduced by force of arms: it became the personification of evil, over which virtue (in the shape of the People) inevitably triumphs: 'La Bastille ne fut pas prise ... elle se livra. Sa mauvaise conscience la troubla, la rendit folie et lui fit perdre l'esprit.' And who captured it? 'I.e peuple, Ie peuple tout entier.' Similarly, on 5 October, while the revolutionary leaden are groping for a solution to the crisis: 'Le peuple seul trouve un remecle: il va chercher Ie Roi.' The role of the women takes on
a more than merely casual significance: 'Ce qu'it y a dans Ie peuple de plus peuple, je veux dire de plus instinctif, de plus inspire, ce sont,
a coup sur, les femmes.'l Louis Blanc, though
lacking Michelet's exaltation, follows him c1osely;4 and Aulard, the Radical professor of the Sorbonne, for all his sobriety of Ian· guage and wealth of documentary learning, is in the same tradi· tion: 'Paris se leva, tout entier, s'arma, s'empara de la Bastille.'5 , H. Taine, Lu
18]6),
a,itiM. th. u. F,allU umWnfJ4>ttJw. LA RlDDlIOlu."
i. 18,53·54,'30,272.
(3
vob., PariJ,
• See, for example, L. Madelin, who fre.c:ly uses the temu 'bandits' and 'brigandi' in rdation to Ihe Pari, iruurgents ofJuly 178g (JA RJuo/uJiM (Paru, '9'4), pp. 60, 66,68); and P. Gaxotte, fA RJI,)/lI�limaj,lUIftJiu (Pam, 19f8), p.usim. 'J. Michelet, Us RJUDJoaiottj'lUOftJi. (9 vob., Pam, 1868-1900), i. 248, 377-9. The original edtion i dates from 1847 to 18S3. • L. Blanc, Hu",;" de u. RJ!JtIluJu."j,tJ"ftJu, (Ill VOI,., Paris, ,868-70), ii. 352-3; iii. '14. The fint edition is dated 184,-62. , A. Auiard, Hu"';" poIil'l i '" de III RJDOIoaitt"fiUlfllis, {q8g--/&l41 (Pam, I 90S), P· 37·
INTRODUCTION
great regenerative upsurge of the the: RevaI·' UuOn marked. a · like CarI yIe Wh0, a RomanUc again, h people; and, F Sansculottic World', 'Nether the to sympathetic broadly w was toen between admiration for its 'heroism' and fascinated •
�r;
horror at the 'World-Bedlam' or 'anarchy' that it appeared to unleash. To Burke the revolutionary crowd was purely destructive and
presumed to be composed of the most undesirable social de
menu: the crowds that invaded the ,MuGU of Versailles in
October 1789 are 'a band of cruel ruffians and assassins, reeking with ...blood'; and the royal family, on their return journey
to Paris, are escorted by 'all the unutterable abominations of the funes of hell in the abased shape of the vilest of women'.
The National
ksembly, having transferred
to the capital, is
compelled to deliberate: 'amidst the tumultuous cries of a mixed mob of ferocious men, and of women lost to shame'.l Yet Burke's invective is far outmatched by Taine, the former Liberal of 1848, soured by his experiences of 1871, whose vocabulary of expletives has served the conservative historians of the Revolution ever since. The provincial insurgents of the early summer of 1789 are presented as 'contre·bandiers, faux· 3auniers, braconniers, vagabonds, mendiants, repris de jU!tice'. The Paris revolutionaries and the captors of the Bastille are the lowest social scum:
La lie de la societe monte a la surface ... la capitale ilemble livrec a la derniere plebe et aux bandits Vagabonds, deguenilles, plwieun 'presque nw', la plupart annes comme des sauva �, d'une physionomie effrayante, ils sont 'de ceux qu'on ne se souvlcnt . • .
pas d'avoir renconues au grand jour'.
The market women and others who marched to Versailles in October are thus described:
Les filles du Palais Royal ... ajoutez des blanchWeuses, des
mendiants, des femmes sans soulien, des poissardes raccolecs depuis plusieurs jours a prix d'argent ...Ia troupe s'incorpore les femmes qu'elle rencontre, portieres, couturieres, femmes de menage, et mcme des bourgeoises.Joignez a cela des gens sans aveu, des
rOdeurs de rue, des bandits, des voleurs, toute cette lie qui s'est entassee a Paris et qui !urnage a chaque secousse Voila la fange qui, en arriere, en avant, roule avec Ie Aeuve populaire. . • .
, E. Burke, &jlldi#ms_ 1M Rnt!lut..." ill. F,IIIIU
(London,
1951), pp. 66-6g.
•
INTRODUCTION
August 1792, who drove Louis XVI from The insurgents of the Tuileries, become:
10
Presque tous de la derniere plebe, ou entre tenus par des metiers in· fames, spadassins et sUppOts de mauvais lieux, accoutumes au sang . . . des aventurien intrepides et teroces de toute provenance, Marseillais et etrangen, Savoyards, Italiens, Espagnols, chasses de leur pays.'
Following Taine, such terms as 'la canaille', 'Ia derniere plebe', 'bandits', and 'brigands' have been commonly applied to the participants in these and similar events up to the present day.l On the other hand, Michelet and the upholders of the Re· publican tradition have presented the revolutionary crowd in entirely different terms.Whenever it advanced, or appeared to advance, the aims of the revolutionary
bourgeouei , it has been
presented as the embodiment of all the popular and Republican
virtues. To Michelet the Bastille ceased to be a fortress that had to be reduced by force of arms: it became the personification of evil, over which virtue (in the shape of the People) inevitably triumphs: 'La Bastille ne fut pas prise ... elle se livra. Sa mauvaise conscience la troubla, la rendit folie et lui fit perdre l'esprit.' And who captured it? 'I.e peuple, Ie peuple tout entier.' Similarly, on 5 October, while the revolutionary leaden are groping for a solution to the crisis: 'Le peuple seul trouve un remecle: il va chercher Ie Roi.' The role of the women takes on
a more than merely casual significance: 'Ce qu'it y a dans Ie peuple de plus peuple, je veux dire de plus instinctif, de plus inspire, ce sont,
a coup sur, les femmes.'l Louis Blanc, though
lacking Michelet's exaltation, follows him c1osely;4 and Aulard, the Radical professor of the Sorbonne, for all his sobriety of Ian· guage and wealth of documentary learning, is in the same tradi· tion: 'Paris se leva, tout entier, s'arma, s'empara de la Bastille.'5 , H. Taine, Lu
18]6),
a,itiM. th. u. F,allU umWnfJ4>ttJw. LA RlDDlIOlu."
i. 18,53·54,'30,272.
(3
vob., PariJ,
• See, for example, L. Madelin, who fre.c:ly uses the temu 'bandits' and 'brigandi' in rdation to Ihe Pari, iruurgents ofJuly 178g (JA RJuo/uJiM (Paru, '9'4), pp. 60, 66,68); and P. Gaxotte, fA RJI,)/lI�limaj,lUIftJiu (Pam, 19f8), p.usim. 'J. Michelet, Us RJUDJoaiottj'lUOftJi. (9 vob., Pam, 1868-1900), i. 248, 377-9. The original edtion i dates from 1847 to 18S3. • L. Blanc, Hu",;" de u. RJ!JtIluJu."j,tJ"ftJu, (Ill VOI,., Paris, ,868-70), ii. 352-3; iii. '14. The fint edition is dated 184,-62. , A. Auiard, Hu"';" poIil'l i '" de III RJDOIoaitt"fiUlfllis, {q8g--/&l41 (Pam, I 90S), P· 37·
•
,5
INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
schools on Great as has been the influence of these two rival France, in n Revolutio the historiography and teaching of the been has influence greater even an in this country perhaps textbook and teachers, students, of generations exerted on
_that is, from the elevation of the committee room of the Committee of Public Safety, of the rostrum of the National Assembly or Jacobin Club, or of the columns of the revolu tionary press. This being the case, the revolutionary crowd,
writers by the striking imagery of Carlyle. The social forces unleashed by the Revolution and composing the active elements in each one of its decisive phases are variously described as an 'enraged National Tiger'; 'the World Chimera, bearing fire'; 'Victorious Anarchy'; and 'the funeral flame, enveloping all things ... the Death·Bird of a World'. With all this, it is
perhaps not surprising that he should gravely warn his readers against attempting a more precise analysis: 'But to gauge and measure this immeasurable Thing, and what is called account for it, and reduce it to a dead logic-formula, attempt not.'1 f rent as these interpretations arc and the Yet, widely dife influences they have exerted, there is one common thread run ning through them all: whether the revolutionary crowd is rep resented as 'Ia canaille' or 'swinish multitude' by Taine and Burke; as 'Victorious Anarchy' by Carlyle; or as 'Ie peuple' or 'tout Paris' by Michelet and Aulard-it has been treated by one and all as a disembodied abstraction and the personifica tion of good or evil, according to the particular fancy or preju dice of the writer. This should perhaps not surprise us as, in the nineteenth century, to which most of these writers belonged, the debate on the French Revolution was conducted almost exclusively in political or ideological terms. This applied equally to constitutional monarchists like Mignet and Thiers in the 1820'S; to those, like Michelet and Louis Blanc, who drew their inspiration from the events of February 1848; to a dis gruntled Liberal like Taine in the 1870's; and even, though less
obviously, to a Radical of the Third Republic like Aulard. f ring profoundly in their attitude to the revolu Though dife tionary tradition and in their hostility or reverence for the leaders or victims of the great Revolution, they have all been inclined to view these events and their participants 'from above':
• T. C&rlyle, TM F,ettU. &vD/wiDn (, volll., London, 186g), i. 226, 2,58, 264...(; ' fint edition of 1831 bore the mb 303. II is oflome interett to note that Carlyle. title 'A Hillory of Sansculottism'. • The phrase has been frequently used in this connexion by Georgetl Lefcbvr.., molt recently in hU prefaee to W. Markov and A. Soboul, Di. Sanscu/.ollm """ PIJrn (Berlin, 19,57), p. viii.
whose voice was seldom refl«:ted in the speeches of the politicians or the writings of the pamphleteers and journalists, tended to be
lost sight of as a thing of flesh and blood and to assume whatever complexion accorded with the interests, opinions, Or ideals of the revolutionary leaders, their critics, or adherents. During the past half·century, however, the work of a number of eminent historians hall made it possible to approach the subject in a mOre detached, or scientific, spirit. It is not so much that they have unearthed new archival materials that were unknown or inaccessible to their predecessors, This has some times been so, though, in the case of Paris, at least, rather the opposite is true: important materials that were available to Michelet and Mortimer-Ternaux, the historian of the Terror, have subsequently been destroyed, It is rather that the new social patterns and problems of the twentieth century have prompted historians to seek answers to new questions and, as the result of these considerations, to view the history of the Revolu tion from a new angle. An important consequence of their
inquiries has been that the popular elements composing the
Jans-culotw-the peasants, craftsmen,journeymen, and labourers -have begun to appear as social groups with their own dis tinctive identity, interests, and aspirations, whose actions and attitudes can no longer be treated as mere echoes or reflections of the ideas, speeches, and decrees of the journalists, lawyers, orators, and politicians established in the capital.This new conception of the Revolution-seen as it were from below was first given expression by Jaures in his Histoire sociaiiste tit ia
Revolution frllllfaise which, in spite of its tendentious titie, won
the unstinting praise of Aulard, then holding the chair of French Revolution studies at the Sorbonne.1 During the next fifty years this field of inquiry has been enonnously widened by Albert Mathiez's work on the Parisian social movements of 1792-94,: Professor Labrousse's researches on prices and wages
Jaurtl, L'His/oire s«ialisle th fa Rlw/uliQlljra"faist (4 volt" Pari., 1901-4. ReviKa e diton, 8 vols., '922-4), i • A, Mathiez, La V.. ,hir, If U IIICIIU.'tmIIII s«uu sow la Tmlll1' (Paris, 1927)'
'�.
•
,5
INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
schools on Great as has been the influence of these two rival France, in n Revolutio the historiography and teaching of the been has influence greater even an in this country perhaps textbook and teachers, students, of generations exerted on
_that is, from the elevation of the committee room of the Committee of Public Safety, of the rostrum of the National Assembly or Jacobin Club, or of the columns of the revolu tionary press. This being the case, the revolutionary crowd,
writers by the striking imagery of Carlyle. The social forces unleashed by the Revolution and composing the active elements in each one of its decisive phases are variously described as an 'enraged National Tiger'; 'the World Chimera, bearing fire'; 'Victorious Anarchy'; and 'the funeral flame, enveloping all things ... the Death·Bird of a World'. With all this, it is
perhaps not surprising that he should gravely warn his readers against attempting a more precise analysis: 'But to gauge and measure this immeasurable Thing, and what is called account for it, and reduce it to a dead logic-formula, attempt not.'1 f rent as these interpretations arc and the Yet, widely dife influences they have exerted, there is one common thread run ning through them all: whether the revolutionary crowd is rep resented as 'Ia canaille' or 'swinish multitude' by Taine and Burke; as 'Victorious Anarchy' by Carlyle; or as 'Ie peuple' or 'tout Paris' by Michelet and Aulard-it has been treated by one and all as a disembodied abstraction and the personifica tion of good or evil, according to the particular fancy or preju dice of the writer. This should perhaps not surprise us as, in the nineteenth century, to which most of these writers belonged, the debate on the French Revolution was conducted almost exclusively in political or ideological terms. This applied equally to constitutional monarchists like Mignet and Thiers in the 1820'S; to those, like Michelet and Louis Blanc, who drew their inspiration from the events of February 1848; to a dis gruntled Liberal like Taine in the 1870's; and even, though less
obviously, to a Radical of the Third Republic like Aulard. f ring profoundly in their attitude to the revolu Though dife tionary tradition and in their hostility or reverence for the leaders or victims of the great Revolution, they have all been inclined to view these events and their participants 'from above':
• T. C&rlyle, TM F,ettU. &vD/wiDn (, volll., London, 186g), i. 226, 2,58, 264...(; ' fint edition of 1831 bore the mb 303. II is oflome interett to note that Carlyle. title 'A Hillory of Sansculottism'. • The phrase has been frequently used in this connexion by Georgetl Lefcbvr.., molt recently in hU prefaee to W. Markov and A. Soboul, Di. Sanscu/.ollm """ PIJrn (Berlin, 19,57), p. viii.
whose voice was seldom refl«:ted in the speeches of the politicians or the writings of the pamphleteers and journalists, tended to be
lost sight of as a thing of flesh and blood and to assume whatever complexion accorded with the interests, opinions, Or ideals of the revolutionary leaders, their critics, or adherents. During the past half·century, however, the work of a number of eminent historians hall made it possible to approach the subject in a mOre detached, or scientific, spirit. It is not so much that they have unearthed new archival materials that were unknown or inaccessible to their predecessors, This has some times been so, though, in the case of Paris, at least, rather the opposite is true: important materials that were available to Michelet and Mortimer-Ternaux, the historian of the Terror, have subsequently been destroyed, It is rather that the new social patterns and problems of the twentieth century have prompted historians to seek answers to new questions and, as the result of these considerations, to view the history of the Revolu tion from a new angle. An important consequence of their
inquiries has been that the popular elements composing the
Jans-culotw-the peasants, craftsmen,journeymen, and labourers -have begun to appear as social groups with their own dis tinctive identity, interests, and aspirations, whose actions and attitudes can no longer be treated as mere echoes or reflections of the ideas, speeches, and decrees of the journalists, lawyers, orators, and politicians established in the capital.This new conception of the Revolution-seen as it were from below was first given expression by Jaures in his Histoire sociaiiste tit ia
Revolution frllllfaise which, in spite of its tendentious titie, won
the unstinting praise of Aulard, then holding the chair of French Revolution studies at the Sorbonne.1 During the next fifty years this field of inquiry has been enonnously widened by Albert Mathiez's work on the Parisian social movements of 1792-94,: Professor Labrousse's researches on prices and wages
Jaurtl, L'His/oire s«ialisle th fa Rlw/uliQlljra"faist (4 volt" Pari., 1901-4. ReviKa e diton, 8 vols., '922-4), i • A, Mathiez, La V.. ,hir, If U IIICIIU.'tmIIII s«uu sow la Tmlll1' (Paris, 1927)'
'�.
•
,
INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
during the eighteenth century,' and, above all, by Professor Georges Lefebvre's studies on the peasantry, the psychology of revolutionary crowds, and on the revolutionary panics of 1789.1 Without the new direction and stimulus that such work has given to French Revolution studies, the present volume might never have been attempted. Another determining factor has been, of course, the availability of suitable documentation. It is evident that the mass of participants in the great popular movements of the Revolution have, unlike the journalisu and politicians, left few permanent records of their activities and aspirations in the form of letters, pamphlets, speeches, or committee minutes. In the case of Paris, too, a valuable source has been removed by the destruction by fire in 187' of the great bulk of municipal and fiscal records, whose survival might have yielded valuable information on the incomes, tax-assess ments, and working capital of the craftsmen and shopkeepers, from whom the most militant elements among the Parisian sans-culottes were to be drawn. Yet an important source, perhaps even more valuable for the present purpose, remains to us the police records of the Archives Nationales and the Paris Prefecture de Police; these have setved as the main documen tary basis for this volume. The French police system of the eighteenth century was far more developed than that of this country and has consequently left far more substantial archives, In �ddition the method of cross-examination conducted by the police, with its recording in the traditional protts-uerbal, provides the historian with detailed information regarding a prisoner's occupation, address, province of origin, age, and his degree of literacy and previous criminal record. Already fifty years ago Alexandre Tuetey and Marcel Rouff', in a number of studies, illustrated the great value of such records as a source for social history,l Yet, unaccountably, they were neg-
lected by Mathiez and his pupils,l and it is only in recent years that historians have begun to turn to them again. In the present instance, I have drawn largely on the proch-uerbaux drawn up by the commwaires de police of the Paris Chatelet for 1787-go: and of theParis Sections for 1790-5,3 and-to a lesser extent on the equivalent reports of the Committee of General Security of 1793-5,'4 These documents help to throw a new light on several of the popular movements arising on the eve of, and during, the Revolution in Paris, often inadequately treated by previous historians; and, above all, they make it possible to present a fuller and more accurate picture of the varying social elements that took part in them, While, of course, they relate
• C.-K Labrol,USe, EsqllisM all _"",tnt au pI/au rtmIW m Fr(UfU till XYIII' siJd. (� vols., Paris, '933); u. Criu d. l'Iwnomufrtu/flliu .! lafin ddanrim rl,iwutt till "bill a� til RIvollltiOtl (Paris, 19+4). • G. u e bvre, UI Pa,Y11UIS all Nttra pmdtJ1tI ill R/voIutiM frallfaise (Parit-Lille, '924); 'Foulel' livolutionnaira', AnMlu /rislDriql4s d, I.. Rkolutilm fra1l{aise, xi (1934), 1-26; LtJ Grand, />tUT d� 1789 (Paris, 1932).
f
lits SOurcel m41IUJa'ita dl j'/risloi'l Ik Ptuispmdmd ill RJwiu/iMJ'IllIf«iu (II vola., Paris,
•
See, for example, A. Tue,cy's Introduction
to volume I of his RlpntoiTf ,InIr.,J
only to a small minority of the participants-those arrested, killed, or wounded, or against whom information is laid with the police-the samples thus provided are often sufficiently large to allow one to draw general conclusions from them, For the participants in the major revolutionary movements of the period, however-those of July 1789, August 1792, May-June 1793, and the revolts ofPrairial of the Year ]II and Vendc:miaire of the Year IV (1795}-it has been found necessary to tum to other, additional, sources: to the lists of the uainquturs de iaBtlJtille,J to those of the claimants for pensions in August 17926 and for compensation for time lost under arms in June 1793,7 and to the records of the military tribunals set up to judge the insurgents of Prairial and Vendemiaire.8 While the composition of revolutionary crowds may emerge, more or less clearly, from such records, it is, perhaps not surprisingly, more difficult to determine the motives that drew
18g0-1914); also M. Rouff, 'Le Penonnel des prcmi�res bneutes de '8g il Paris', LtJ RkDlulu", F'lUIflliu, Ivii (Igog), �13-31. I Thus, even a great work of tocial history lk i e u. V04 drJr, tI Ie ""'U� soritJ IOIU U. Terrtur is based almost entirely on reports of spea::hes in the National Con. vention, the Paris Commune, and thcJacobin Club. • Archives National"", series Y: archives du Chitde! dc Paris; series Z: juridic_ tion, '¢eiales ct ordinaires. • Auhives dc la P1if«tun: dc Police, series AJ..: sections dc Paris. Prods. verbaux de, commisuira de police. • Arehives National"", series F> (police gtntrale). , The most useful of these is the list of 662 NinqlJ.tll1S d, la BIIS/iU, among the Cuelin papen o f thc Archives Nationalel', ICries T 514(1). • Arch. Nat., F" 3267-74; F" 4426. • Arch. Nat., BB'60. I Auh. Nat., W �6-8, 556-8.
•
,
INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
during the eighteenth century,' and, above all, by Professor Georges Lefebvre's studies on the peasantry, the psychology of revolutionary crowds, and on the revolutionary panics of 1789.1 Without the new direction and stimulus that such work has given to French Revolution studies, the present volume might never have been attempted. Another determining factor has been, of course, the availability of suitable documentation. It is evident that the mass of participants in the great popular movements of the Revolution have, unlike the journalisu and politicians, left few permanent records of their activities and aspirations in the form of letters, pamphlets, speeches, or committee minutes. In the case of Paris, too, a valuable source has been removed by the destruction by fire in 187' of the great bulk of municipal and fiscal records, whose survival might have yielded valuable information on the incomes, tax-assess ments, and working capital of the craftsmen and shopkeepers, from whom the most militant elements among the Parisian sans-culottes were to be drawn. Yet an important source, perhaps even more valuable for the present purpose, remains to us the police records of the Archives Nationales and the Paris Prefecture de Police; these have setved as the main documen tary basis for this volume. The French police system of the eighteenth century was far more developed than that of this country and has consequently left far more substantial archives, In �ddition the method of cross-examination conducted by the police, with its recording in the traditional protts-uerbal, provides the historian with detailed information regarding a prisoner's occupation, address, province of origin, age, and his degree of literacy and previous criminal record. Already fifty years ago Alexandre Tuetey and Marcel Rouff', in a number of studies, illustrated the great value of such records as a source for social history,l Yet, unaccountably, they were neg-
lected by Mathiez and his pupils,l and it is only in recent years that historians have begun to turn to them again. In the present instance, I have drawn largely on the proch-uerbaux drawn up by the commwaires de police of the Paris Chatelet for 1787-go: and of theParis Sections for 1790-5,3 and-to a lesser extent on the equivalent reports of the Committee of General Security of 1793-5,'4 These documents help to throw a new light on several of the popular movements arising on the eve of, and during, the Revolution in Paris, often inadequately treated by previous historians; and, above all, they make it possible to present a fuller and more accurate picture of the varying social elements that took part in them, While, of course, they relate
• C.-K Labrol,USe, EsqllisM all _"",tnt au pI/au rtmIW m Fr(UfU till XYIII' siJd. (� vols., Paris, '933); u. Criu d. l'Iwnomufrtu/flliu .! lafin ddanrim rl,iwutt till "bill a� til RIvollltiOtl (Paris, 19+4). • G. u e bvre, UI Pa,Y11UIS all Nttra pmdtJ1tI ill R/voIutiM frallfaise (Parit-Lille, '924); 'Foulel' livolutionnaira', AnMlu /rislDriql4s d, I.. Rkolutilm fra1l{aise, xi (1934), 1-26; LtJ Grand, />tUT d� 1789 (Paris, 1932).
f
lits SOurcel m41IUJa'ita dl j'/risloi'l Ik Ptuispmdmd ill RJwiu/iMJ'IllIf«iu (II vola., Paris,
•
See, for example, A. Tue,cy's Introduction
to volume I of his RlpntoiTf ,InIr.,J
only to a small minority of the participants-those arrested, killed, or wounded, or against whom information is laid with the police-the samples thus provided are often sufficiently large to allow one to draw general conclusions from them, For the participants in the major revolutionary movements of the period, however-those of July 1789, August 1792, May-June 1793, and the revolts ofPrairial of the Year ]II and Vendc:miaire of the Year IV (1795}-it has been found necessary to tum to other, additional, sources: to the lists of the uainquturs de iaBtlJtille,J to those of the claimants for pensions in August 17926 and for compensation for time lost under arms in June 1793,7 and to the records of the military tribunals set up to judge the insurgents of Prairial and Vendemiaire.8 While the composition of revolutionary crowds may emerge, more or less clearly, from such records, it is, perhaps not surprisingly, more difficult to determine the motives that drew
18g0-1914); also M. Rouff, 'Le Penonnel des prcmi�res bneutes de '8g il Paris', LtJ RkDlulu", F'lUIflliu, Ivii (Igog), �13-31. I Thus, even a great work of tocial history lk i e u. V04 drJr, tI Ie ""'U� soritJ IOIU U. Terrtur is based almost entirely on reports of spea::hes in the National Con. vention, the Paris Commune, and thcJacobin Club. • Archives National"", series Y: archives du Chitde! dc Paris; series Z: juridic_ tion, '¢eiales ct ordinaires. • Auhives dc la P1if«tun: dc Police, series AJ..: sections dc Paris. Prods. verbaux de, commisuira de police. • Arehives National"", series F> (police gtntrale). , The most useful of these is the list of 662 NinqlJ.tll1S d, la BIIS/iU, among the Cuelin papen o f thc Archives Nationalel', ICries T 514(1). • Arch. Nat., F" 3267-74; F" 4426. • Arch. Nat., BB'60. I Auh. Nat., W �6-8, 556-8.
8
INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
•
them together and led thousands of Parisians to participate in
Revolution in Paris singularly unmarked by mass political
these movements. For this purpose, too, the police records have
In the present volume, while dealing in the main with the revolutionary movements of 1789-95, I have attempted to bring into the picture the popular movements of the years 1787 and 1788 which, th� ugh precedi� g the outbr� ak of 1789, . ferment were a significant expresSion of the SOCial and pohtlcal
been a far more fruitful source than the usually tendentious i ts, deputies, and government accounts of memorialists, journals reporters. In addition to the police archivesjust cited, a valuable source is provided by the collections of rapports, or public-opinion surveys, of police agents of the Paris Commune, the Central Bureau oCPelice and the Ministry of the Interior, variously com piled by Schmidt, Caron, and Aulard for the period 1792 to 1795.' These reports are a mine of information on the reactions of small property-owners and wage-earners, in particular, to the events of these years, For the earlier years, there is no exact equivalent,
though Hardy's manuscript Journal is more than an adequate
substitute for the eve and outbreak of the Revolution.1
The police surveys are, besides, a useful source for the move ments of prices and wages, which play a considerable part in the present volume. The main source for these, however, are the various statistical lists and occasional data found in series Fu and Fil of the Archives Nationales.l
disturbance.
out of which the Revolution arose. Earlier historians, while appreciating the role of � he rivoltt nobiliairt of those � ears as a . curtain-raiser (if not an mtegral part) of the Revolution Itself, have tended to neglect these movements-as they have tended, a t the other end of the story, to neglect that of Vendemiaire of the Year IV (October 1795) which, though essentially a rising of middle-class property-owners, yet provoked a significant response from the Parisian sans-culottes. The present study may therefore p�rhaps claim to be original in so far as it attempts to present the Parisian revolutionary crowd (in its broadest sense) throughout the period 787-95-showing how it behaved, how it was composed, how it was drawn into activity, what it set
I
It may perhaps seem surprising that fuller use has not been
out to achieve, and how far its aims were realized. To do this
'Year II') used to such good advantage by Albert Soboul.. But it must be remembered that the sans-culottes, from whom the great bulk of rioters and insurgents were drawn, had little
in which a decisive factor was the mass intervention, in streets
made of the callin's de doliancts of 1789 and of the papers of the Paris Sections of 1790-5. which have been listed and (for the
to say in the drafting of the cahitrs-least of all in Paris. Again, they played little or no part in the general assemblies or com mittees of the Sections until after August 1792 and a pre dominant part only during the brief period June 1793 to July
1794; and this, being a period of strong government, was, with the single exception of September 1793, a phase of the
, A. Schmidt, TdktlllZ t4 u. RllIIIlldion /rmrtoiu (4 vob., Leipzig, 1867-71); P. Caron, Puis jJeIIdmIl u. TurWT. &P/I«ts du oKmU J«r.1s d", MiN,I,.,u flllllri,..,. (4 vob., Paris, 1910-49); A. Aulard, Pflris pnu/4rrJ u. """'ion tJrmnidtw,mn. It JtlIlS U Dim/Qi,. (5 vob., Pam, 18g8-190'), • S. Hardy, /I{os lam,l, �",jMmusI d',r:InnnmJ.s his q",'iis /HJnMnNnl d mtl ((mM.-ssone< (MS.in8YOu.,Paris, 1"£4-8g.BibliolhtqueNationale, fonds fran�ail, nOl. 6680-7). , For a fuller record o{lOurces ICC Bibliography. 4 A. Soboul, Lu Ptlpins dos s.cliDIII,u Ptlris (I7!JCH1" IV) (Pari., '9�); Ln $/IJU_ CuIDI/'S parisiens ttl I'an fl. lI[ou<"
it is proposed, in the first place, to relate those episodes of the Revolution in Paris, and of the years immediately preceding, and markets, of mainly ordinary men and women: these out bursts were, with the exception of the year 1790 (a period of remarkable social calm), an almost continuous feature of the life of the capital during the first six years of the Revolution and for nearly two years before its outbreak, Following this, some general conclusions will be dravm from the composition, be haviour, springs of action, and aims of the crowds engaged in these various movements. But first the reader must be introduced, if only briefly, to the social and historical background against which the events of the Revolution in Paris took place.
8
INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
•
them together and led thousands of Parisians to participate in
Revolution in Paris singularly unmarked by mass political
these movements. For this purpose, too, the police records have
In the present volume, while dealing in the main with the revolutionary movements of 1789-95, I have attempted to bring into the picture the popular movements of the years 1787 and 1788 which, th� ugh precedi� g the outbr� ak of 1789, . ferment were a significant expresSion of the SOCial and pohtlcal
been a far more fruitful source than the usually tendentious i ts, deputies, and government accounts of memorialists, journals reporters. In addition to the police archivesjust cited, a valuable source is provided by the collections of rapports, or public-opinion surveys, of police agents of the Paris Commune, the Central Bureau oCPelice and the Ministry of the Interior, variously com piled by Schmidt, Caron, and Aulard for the period 1792 to 1795.' These reports are a mine of information on the reactions of small property-owners and wage-earners, in particular, to the events of these years, For the earlier years, there is no exact equivalent,
though Hardy's manuscript Journal is more than an adequate
substitute for the eve and outbreak of the Revolution.1
The police surveys are, besides, a useful source for the move ments of prices and wages, which play a considerable part in the present volume. The main source for these, however, are the various statistical lists and occasional data found in series Fu and Fil of the Archives Nationales.l
disturbance.
out of which the Revolution arose. Earlier historians, while appreciating the role of � he rivoltt nobiliairt of those � ears as a . curtain-raiser (if not an mtegral part) of the Revolution Itself, have tended to neglect these movements-as they have tended, a t the other end of the story, to neglect that of Vendemiaire of the Year IV (October 1795) which, though essentially a rising of middle-class property-owners, yet provoked a significant response from the Parisian sans-culottes. The present study may therefore p�rhaps claim to be original in so far as it attempts to present the Parisian revolutionary crowd (in its broadest sense) throughout the period 787-95-showing how it behaved, how it was composed, how it was drawn into activity, what it set
I
It may perhaps seem surprising that fuller use has not been
out to achieve, and how far its aims were realized. To do this
'Year II') used to such good advantage by Albert Soboul.. But it must be remembered that the sans-culottes, from whom the great bulk of rioters and insurgents were drawn, had little
in which a decisive factor was the mass intervention, in streets
made of the callin's de doliancts of 1789 and of the papers of the Paris Sections of 1790-5. which have been listed and (for the
to say in the drafting of the cahitrs-least of all in Paris. Again, they played little or no part in the general assemblies or com mittees of the Sections until after August 1792 and a pre dominant part only during the brief period June 1793 to July
1794; and this, being a period of strong government, was, with the single exception of September 1793, a phase of the
, A. Schmidt, TdktlllZ t4 u. RllIIIlldion /rmrtoiu (4 vob., Leipzig, 1867-71); P. Caron, Puis jJeIIdmIl u. TurWT. &P/I«ts du oKmU J«r.1s d", MiN,I,.,u flllllri,..,. (4 vob., Paris, 1910-49); A. Aulard, Pflris pnu/4rrJ u. """'ion tJrmnidtw,mn. It JtlIlS U Dim/Qi,. (5 vob., Pam, 18g8-190'), • S. Hardy, /I{os lam,l, �",jMmusI d',r:InnnmJ.s his q",'iis /HJnMnNnl d mtl ((mM.-ssone< (MS.in8YOu.,Paris, 1"£4-8g.BibliolhtqueNationale, fonds fran�ail, nOl. 6680-7). , For a fuller record o{lOurces ICC Bibliography. 4 A. Soboul, Lu Ptlpins dos s.cliDIII,u Ptlris (I7!JCH1" IV) (Pari., '9�); Ln $/IJU_ CuIDI/'S parisiens ttl I'an fl. lI[ou<"
it is proposed, in the first place, to relate those episodes of the Revolution in Paris, and of the years immediately preceding, and markets, of mainly ordinary men and women: these out bursts were, with the exception of the year 1790 (a period of remarkable social calm), an almost continuous feature of the life of the capital during the first six years of the Revolution and for nearly two years before its outbreak, Following this, some general conclusions will be dravm from the composition, be haviour, springs of action, and aims of the crowds engaged in these various movements. But first the reader must be introduced, if only briefly, to the social and historical background against which the events of the Revolution in Paris took place.
PARIS ON THE EVE OF THE REVOLUTION
Its importance in this respect may be judged by the fact t at . in 1,89 the Paris customs yielded no I� than 26-30 ��on of a national total of 70 millions.I ThiS, of course, did hule
•
II
ARD LY, on the eve ortbe Revolution, Paris was being
radically transfonned. It was not the first time in her his tory. The medieval city, once enclosed by the stout walls
erected by Philippe-Auguste in the thirteenth century, had been pushed farther outwards by Charles V who, in the four teenth, had built tbe Bastille to guard its eastern approaches. Under Louis XIII, a new
ttluinJe, or barrier of customs posts,
to mark the official point of entry into the city, had been con structed along the line of the present Inner Boulevards.1 I n the eighteenth century the rapid pace of building and enhanced tempo of commercial and social life had necessitated further changes: the houses on the old bridges were pulled down or allowed to crumble; work was begun on the new Pont LoUIS XVI-the present Pont de la Concordc; medieval cemetries were cleared from the city centre; street lamps began to replace the grim old /tmlmres on the street-comers; and pavements were slowly beginning to appear in imitation of London.: Above all, the boundaries of the city were further extended; and, in 1785, work was completed on the new mctinu, a ring of fifty-four
customs posts, linked by a wall ten feet high, which encircled
the capital over a span of eighteen miles. Not only did it push the city limits outwards to enclose the Faubourg Saint-Antoine to the east and the Faubourgs Saint-Martin and Saint-Denis to the north; but, for the first time, it added to the capital the
faubourgs
villages of Passy and Chaillot to the west and the old of Saint-Victor, Saint-Marcel, Saint-Jacques, and Saint-Ger main to thesouth.l But the new barrier was intended to do more than merely mark the new contours of the city: its prime object was to tighten up the system of internal customs and, by checking smuggling, to increase substantially the royal revenues. I A. Dcmangeon, P(1.rU. La Yill . II S(1. banti.tu (Paris, '933). p. 16 . A. Babeau, Ptuis In 'llig (Pam, ISSg), p. 113; H. Monin, L'tltJI. J. Ptuis
•
17* (Pam, 188g),
pp.
'0-'3.
, Dcmangeon,iO(;. cit.
?
livrts
PARIS O N T H E EVE O F THE REVOLUTION
UTW O
II
til
to add to the popularity of CaIonne, the ministe� promoting the scheme, or of the Fanners General to whom Its construc tion and its administration had been entrust , 'Le mur mu�a:nt . Paris rend Paris murmurant', wrote the Wits.: ThIS hOSbhty
�
de of the clergy was soon to be voiced in the Paris 'beyond the walls' and by the Third t a of !e of several electoral districts.] It was also to find expression In the more
cllhiers doUanets
:::S
menu ptuplt,
borriires
and the violent action of the Parisian were to fall a victim to popular fury bef?re even the hated Bastille.4
The new limits of Paris enclosed a population, whose size, for all the statistical experiments that marked the period, has defied calculation: the most reliable estimates range between 5'4000 and 660 OOO,S One of the great difficulties, as Necker " e popuIaUon Id · ' saw, was to determine not only the relauve . Iy sett (variously computed according to births and deaths, hou se . holds, bread cards, or police reports), but the far mo,re e1us�ve floating population of the hotels and which
chombres gornus,
I M. Marion, DiclioMD.irf tks ll i ltilutions .u III Fr/IIIU
'923). pp. 402-4. • Babeau, op. cit., p. 28.
(Paris,
aIL\"
• C..L. Chassin, Us thelions d us ,d/rin",.u PDris,1I '7*
XVII'
tI
XYIII' siklu
.
.. "' A.........--:I ) (4 vols., Pans, ' ....
410. 4�;u, 425, 432, 4411-3, 444. 448, 45.5, ¥is, .519 ; iv. +06, 4.5" 4 See pp. 4B-49 below. • The census of 178U-g, bued on thc eou� ti � g of hou�holds, yiclded .5�4,186 . inhabitants (StaJisli'ltu.u III F,_" vol. 3: T,", /Di¥,. PapuJlJl_ (P1om, 1837,)' p. 277)· Neckcr's privatc calculation of 1784 had been 640,�,ooo (J. Necker. D, l'''''minisl,lJlitn! du fiNSNU d. 113 F,/IIIU (3 vois., Paris, 1784). i. 277)· A cc�us of '79"a gavt: a population of 635,504 (N. �cv� L4 Dauiu .u III ;<>pllltJtum Ju dijfirtllul J"lions d. PD,;r pnu1�nJ l� RlllDiu/,01I (Pans, '912), pp. 14�1.5). Two c�n SUlCI of 179.5, thc on� partly bU«! on rcgUU"ations for brcad-car?s' th� othcr on �� number of eonsum�n, yi�lded 6-a6,582 and 636.772 � pccl1,:dy {Po MC"Uro�I, VII R".numtll/ .u I'.AII Jl (Paris, 1918), pp. 33-34. ArchiVes Nal1onal<:ll, F" 3688 ). For a discussion of the possi bl� reliability of these �.,.rious estimates � C. Rud4!, ii.
Tiv
P(1.ri,illll W"g••&r,ulll PopuwliDft
""" 1M
•
illSU""lioMry "JII'�' ?f IJB[;-gt
[hercafter citro as PmisWI W"l"'&rn<:r'} (unpublished Ph, D. thesn m 2 �., . London Univ., '950), i. 34-43' For estlmales of the population of thc forty-c>ght Parisian Sections in '7gG--,600 � Appendix II below. • Thc tcrm 'ICtded' is, of COUrJC. used only in a "dative 1ICf\IC. Thcre was � eon.inuOUJ movement of population to and from Paris (th�ugh mostly to Pa�1 from'the provinces) throughout the century. Rccords of poh� and other �bhc authorities reveal the high proportion of provincial·bom among the rcadent Parisian population or thc revolutionary period.
PARIS ON THE EVE OF THE REVOLUTION
Its importance in this respect may be judged by the fact t at . in 1,89 the Paris customs yielded no I� than 26-30 ��on of a national total of 70 millions.I ThiS, of course, did hule
•
II
ARD LY, on the eve ortbe Revolution, Paris was being
radically transfonned. It was not the first time in her his tory. The medieval city, once enclosed by the stout walls
erected by Philippe-Auguste in the thirteenth century, had been pushed farther outwards by Charles V who, in the four teenth, had built tbe Bastille to guard its eastern approaches. Under Louis XIII, a new
ttluinJe, or barrier of customs posts,
to mark the official point of entry into the city, had been con structed along the line of the present Inner Boulevards.1 I n the eighteenth century the rapid pace of building and enhanced tempo of commercial and social life had necessitated further changes: the houses on the old bridges were pulled down or allowed to crumble; work was begun on the new Pont LoUIS XVI-the present Pont de la Concordc; medieval cemetries were cleared from the city centre; street lamps began to replace the grim old /tmlmres on the street-comers; and pavements were slowly beginning to appear in imitation of London.: Above all, the boundaries of the city were further extended; and, in 1785, work was completed on the new mctinu, a ring of fifty-four
customs posts, linked by a wall ten feet high, which encircled
the capital over a span of eighteen miles. Not only did it push the city limits outwards to enclose the Faubourg Saint-Antoine to the east and the Faubourgs Saint-Martin and Saint-Denis to the north; but, for the first time, it added to the capital the
faubourgs
villages of Passy and Chaillot to the west and the old of Saint-Victor, Saint-Marcel, Saint-Jacques, and Saint-Ger main to thesouth.l But the new barrier was intended to do more than merely mark the new contours of the city: its prime object was to tighten up the system of internal customs and, by checking smuggling, to increase substantially the royal revenues. I A. Dcmangeon, P(1.rU. La Yill . II S(1. banti.tu (Paris, '933). p. 16 . A. Babeau, Ptuis In 'llig (Pam, ISSg), p. 113; H. Monin, L'tltJI. J. Ptuis
•
17* (Pam, 188g),
pp.
'0-'3.
, Dcmangeon,iO(;. cit.
?
livrts
PARIS O N T H E EVE O F THE REVOLUTION
UTW O
II
til
to add to the popularity of CaIonne, the ministe� promoting the scheme, or of the Fanners General to whom Its construc tion and its administration had been entrust , 'Le mur mu�a:nt . Paris rend Paris murmurant', wrote the Wits.: ThIS hOSbhty
�
de of the clergy was soon to be voiced in the Paris 'beyond the walls' and by the Third t a of !e of several electoral districts.] It was also to find expression In the more
cllhiers doUanets
:::S
menu ptuplt,
borriires
and the violent action of the Parisian were to fall a victim to popular fury bef?re even the hated Bastille.4
The new limits of Paris enclosed a population, whose size, for all the statistical experiments that marked the period, has defied calculation: the most reliable estimates range between 5'4000 and 660 OOO,S One of the great difficulties, as Necker " e popuIaUon Id · ' saw, was to determine not only the relauve . Iy sett (variously computed according to births and deaths, hou se . holds, bread cards, or police reports), but the far mo,re e1us�ve floating population of the hotels and which
chombres gornus,
I M. Marion, DiclioMD.irf tks ll i ltilutions .u III Fr/IIIU
'923). pp. 402-4. • Babeau, op. cit., p. 28.
(Paris,
aIL\"
• C..L. Chassin, Us thelions d us ,d/rin",.u PDris,1I '7*
XVII'
tI
XYIII' siklu
.
.. "' A.........--:I ) (4 vols., Pans, ' ....
410. 4�;u, 425, 432, 4411-3, 444. 448, 45.5, ¥is, .519 ; iv. +06, 4.5" 4 See pp. 4B-49 below. • The census of 178U-g, bued on thc eou� ti � g of hou�holds, yiclded .5�4,186 . inhabitants (StaJisli'ltu.u III F,_" vol. 3: T,", /Di¥,. PapuJlJl_ (P1om, 1837,)' p. 277)· Neckcr's privatc calculation of 1784 had been 640,�,ooo (J. Necker. D, l'''''minisl,lJlitn! du fiNSNU d. 113 F,/IIIU (3 vois., Paris, 1784). i. 277)· A cc�us of '79"a gavt: a population of 635,504 (N. �cv� L4 Dauiu .u III ;<>pllltJtum Ju dijfirtllul J"lions d. PD,;r pnu1�nJ l� RlllDiu/,01I (Pans, '912), pp. 14�1.5). Two c�n SUlCI of 179.5, thc on� partly bU«! on rcgUU"ations for brcad-car?s' th� othcr on �� number of eonsum�n, yi�lded 6-a6,582 and 636.772 � pccl1,:dy {Po MC"Uro�I, VII R".numtll/ .u I'.AII Jl (Paris, 1918), pp. 33-34. ArchiVes Nal1onal<:ll, F" 3688 ). For a discussion of the possi bl� reliability of these �.,.rious estimates � C. Rud4!, ii.
Tiv
P(1.ri,illll W"g••&r,ulll PopuwliDft
""" 1M
•
illSU""lioMry "JII'�' ?f IJB[;-gt
[hercafter citro as PmisWI W"l"'&rn<:r'} (unpublished Ph, D. thesn m 2 �., . London Univ., '950), i. 34-43' For estlmales of the population of thc forty-c>ght Parisian Sections in '7gG--,600 � Appendix II below. • Thc tcrm 'ICtded' is, of COUrJC. used only in a "dative 1ICf\IC. Thcre was � eon.inuOUJ movement of population to and from Paris (th�ugh mostly to Pa�1 from'the provinces) throughout the century. Rccords of poh� and other �bhc authorities reveal the high proportion of provincial·bom among the rcadent Parisian population or thc revolutionary period.
PARIS ON THE EVE OF THE REVOLUTION
INTRODUCTION
"
varied from one season to another and for which official re� tums only rarely provided.' Bearing this in mind, Necker's
private estimate o f a population of between 640,000 and 66o,oooJ may be nearer to the truth than the lower figure of 524,000
yielded by the census of 1788--9 and accepted by several writers as a reasonable computation,l In either case, the privileged, or wealthier classes, formed but
a small proportion of the population as a whole. Leon Cahen, who made some attempt to calculate the size of the various social groups or orders inhabiting Paris in the mid-eighteenth century, concluded that the clergy numbered about 10,000, the nobility 5,000, and the financial, commercial, manufactur
bourgeoisie about 40,000;4 the rest-the great majority-were the small shopkeepers, petty traden, craftsmen, journeymen, labourers, vagrants, and city poor,
ing, and professional
who formed what later became known as the
stmS-cuiottes.J
To a large extent it was to promote the economic interests and to flatter the social ambitions of the nobility and wealthy bourgeoisie that the outward face of Paris was being transformed and its fashionable centre was moving westwards; the clergy had too large a stake in the 140 religious houses that still lay scattered over the old city and Jau.bourgsfJ to indulge in large scale plans of extension: it was even said that Louis XV's inten
,
tion to demolish and rebuild the Cite had been blocked by clerical obstruction.1 Aristocrats, banken, and wealthy mer-
, Thl:' numbcrof"",.-t!(//tIuiliis-thOSl:' Jiving in MJeu ,amis and lodgings ofvariou.l typ<";S-aTl:' rewrd<:d in the lint of thl:' IWO ccnsusa of 179,S, but only in thl:' case of • Neckc-r, Gp. cit. i. 277. 2,S of thl:' ¥I Sections (Mcuriol. op. Cil., p. 32). , Sec, for ex&mpl�, F. Bnach, /...4 Comm..,., tIu '0 Moit '79!l (Pari., 1911). p. 14j A. Landry, 'La mmognphil:' dl:' l'anci�n Paris', ]oU¥NJI tU Ia loculi tU JIi1.IUr;qw tU
Paru, lxxvi (1935), 34-45·
MeuriOI,
however, favoun the higher figure (op. cit.,
• L. Clhen, 'La Population parisienne au milieu du 18Ii�de', /...4 Rmw.u PtIris, 19'9, pp. 146-7°. and to be . • MIce June 1792,this lerm was to lake on a political sense, as ....ell, appli<:d 10 CXlrem': Republicans in gene,al--cven 10 those of penonal wealth. I
PP·34-3 5)·
have tried, however, in the course of thililudy, to usc il in alOCial sense only. • Ae<:ording 10 Edmt Vemiquet'l map of Pari. in 178g {published by the Paris Municip.al Council in 188g} there were, at this lim�, 68 'COUVCOQ <:1 communautb'
fot men and 73 for women. 7 Ba�au, op. cit., p. 19. There wo:re, however, "",,eeplions: thw, the abbess and communny of Ihl:' Abbaye Royale de Saint-Anloine_da_Champo buill a new
,treel, a market, and fountain on their atate, lying can of the liastiUe (Monin.
���..
·s
chants had no such qualms and had long vied with one another in building new town houses in the more fashionable western quarters of the Palais Royal, the Cours-Ia-Reine, and the Faubourg Saint.Honore, which had begun to spring up with the court's removal to Venailles under Louis XIV.' The Marais, the old aristocratic quarter of the Right Bank which,
in the time of Henri IV and Louis XIII, had been the centre of fashion, was becoming deserted; in the 1780's Sebastien Mercier described it as 'un triste quartier',: where the tower of the Hotel de Bourgogne and the Hotels de Sens and de Cluny, both converted to commercial uses, bore witness to past, rather than present, glories.] Meanwhile, wrote Mercier, in the last twenty-five years, 10,000 houses had been constructed and one-third of Paris had been rebuilt.4 Regiments of building workers had been enrolled from the central provinces and the speed of construction was often phenomenal: the Opera was built in seventy-five days
and the Chateau de Bagatelle in six weeks_s Whole new streets were being opened up, specially in the northern and western districts_ MoDin, the historian of Paris in 1789, gives us some idea of the scale and speed of this development during the last fifteen years of the old regime. Off the Champs Elysees, which then marked the extreme western fringe of the new fashionable residential areas, the Comte d'Artois, the king's younger brother, opened up the rues de Berry and d'Angouleme, which were soon followed by the rues du Colisee and Milet (the present
("de Matignon). In the adjoining Faubourg Saint-Honore, the rue d'Astorg was planned-though uncompleted by 1789; farther north and east beyond the boulevards, the banker Laborde obtair).ed letters patent for building the rues de Pro vence, d'Artois (today's rue Laffitte), Taitbout, and Houssaye; and, farther eastwards still, followed the rues Martel, Richer,
Saint-Nicolas, Montholon, de Buffault, and de Lancry. Near the Palais Royal, the Marquis de Chabanais and the Marquis de Louvois gave their names to streets constructed on the site of their town howes. The sale of a part af the Due de ChoiseuI's • Dcmangron, op. cit., p.
j •
L. S_ Mercier, TlIliuau.u Parir (12 vob., Amsterdam, Babeau, op. cit., p. lB.
16.
Mercier, op. cil., viii. 19o. • Babeau, op. dL, p. 17.
17B3). i. 25B-fi1-
PARIS ON THE EVE OF THE REVOLUTION
INTRODUCTION
"
varied from one season to another and for which official re� tums only rarely provided.' Bearing this in mind, Necker's
private estimate o f a population of between 640,000 and 66o,oooJ may be nearer to the truth than the lower figure of 524,000
yielded by the census of 1788--9 and accepted by several writers as a reasonable computation,l In either case, the privileged, or wealthier classes, formed but
a small proportion of the population as a whole. Leon Cahen, who made some attempt to calculate the size of the various social groups or orders inhabiting Paris in the mid-eighteenth century, concluded that the clergy numbered about 10,000, the nobility 5,000, and the financial, commercial, manufactur
bourgeoisie about 40,000;4 the rest-the great majority-were the small shopkeepers, petty traden, craftsmen, journeymen, labourers, vagrants, and city poor,
ing, and professional
who formed what later became known as the
stmS-cuiottes.J
To a large extent it was to promote the economic interests and to flatter the social ambitions of the nobility and wealthy bourgeoisie that the outward face of Paris was being transformed and its fashionable centre was moving westwards; the clergy had too large a stake in the 140 religious houses that still lay scattered over the old city and Jau.bourgsfJ to indulge in large scale plans of extension: it was even said that Louis XV's inten
,
tion to demolish and rebuild the Cite had been blocked by clerical obstruction.1 Aristocrats, banken, and wealthy mer-
, Thl:' numbcrof"",.-t!(//tIuiliis-thOSl:' Jiving in MJeu ,amis and lodgings ofvariou.l typ<";S-aTl:' rewrd<:d in the lint of thl:' IWO ccnsusa of 179,S, but only in thl:' case of • Neckc-r, Gp. cit. i. 277. 2,S of thl:' ¥I Sections (Mcuriol. op. Cil., p. 32). , Sec, for ex&mpl�, F. Bnach, /...4 Comm..,., tIu '0 Moit '79!l (Pari., 1911). p. 14j A. Landry, 'La mmognphil:' dl:' l'anci�n Paris', ]oU¥NJI tU Ia loculi tU JIi1.IUr;qw tU
Paru, lxxvi (1935), 34-45·
MeuriOI,
however, favoun the higher figure (op. cit.,
• L. Clhen, 'La Population parisienne au milieu du 18Ii�de', /...4 Rmw.u PtIris, 19'9, pp. 146-7°. and to be . • MIce June 1792,this lerm was to lake on a political sense, as ....ell, appli<:d 10 CXlrem': Republicans in gene,al--cven 10 those of penonal wealth. I
PP·34-3 5)·
have tried, however, in the course of thililudy, to usc il in alOCial sense only. • Ae<:ording 10 Edmt Vemiquet'l map of Pari. in 178g {published by the Paris Municip.al Council in 188g} there were, at this lim�, 68 'COUVCOQ <:1 communautb'
fot men and 73 for women. 7 Ba�au, op. cit., p. 19. There wo:re, however, "",,eeplions: thw, the abbess and communny of Ihl:' Abbaye Royale de Saint-Anloine_da_Champo buill a new
,treel, a market, and fountain on their atate, lying can of the liastiUe (Monin.
���..
·s
chants had no such qualms and had long vied with one another in building new town houses in the more fashionable western quarters of the Palais Royal, the Cours-Ia-Reine, and the Faubourg Saint.Honore, which had begun to spring up with the court's removal to Venailles under Louis XIV.' The Marais, the old aristocratic quarter of the Right Bank which,
in the time of Henri IV and Louis XIII, had been the centre of fashion, was becoming deserted; in the 1780's Sebastien Mercier described it as 'un triste quartier',: where the tower of the Hotel de Bourgogne and the Hotels de Sens and de Cluny, both converted to commercial uses, bore witness to past, rather than present, glories.] Meanwhile, wrote Mercier, in the last twenty-five years, 10,000 houses had been constructed and one-third of Paris had been rebuilt.4 Regiments of building workers had been enrolled from the central provinces and the speed of construction was often phenomenal: the Opera was built in seventy-five days
and the Chateau de Bagatelle in six weeks_s Whole new streets were being opened up, specially in the northern and western districts_ MoDin, the historian of Paris in 1789, gives us some idea of the scale and speed of this development during the last fifteen years of the old regime. Off the Champs Elysees, which then marked the extreme western fringe of the new fashionable residential areas, the Comte d'Artois, the king's younger brother, opened up the rues de Berry and d'Angouleme, which were soon followed by the rues du Colisee and Milet (the present
("de Matignon). In the adjoining Faubourg Saint-Honore, the rue d'Astorg was planned-though uncompleted by 1789; farther north and east beyond the boulevards, the banker Laborde obtair).ed letters patent for building the rues de Pro vence, d'Artois (today's rue Laffitte), Taitbout, and Houssaye; and, farther eastwards still, followed the rues Martel, Richer,
Saint-Nicolas, Montholon, de Buffault, and de Lancry. Near the Palais Royal, the Marquis de Chabanais and the Marquis de Louvois gave their names to streets constructed on the site of their town howes. The sale of a part af the Due de ChoiseuI's • Dcmangron, op. cit., p.
j •
L. S_ Mercier, TlIliuau.u Parir (12 vob., Amsterdam, Babeau, op. cit., p. lB.
16.
Mercier, op. cil., viii. 19o. • Babeau, op. dL, p. 17.
17B3). i. 25B-fi1-
14
PARIS ON THE EVE OF THE REVOLUTION
INTRODUCTION
estates on the boulevards paved the way for the erection of the Comedie Italienne and the opening of the rues Neuve Saint Marc, Toumante, d'Amboise, and de la Terrasse. Two years before the Revolution. the rues de Breteuil, Baynes. and Crosne were built in the former grounds of the Hotel de Boynes.' Even more spectacular was the construction by the Duke of Orleans, wealthiest and most popular of the princes of the blood, of the magnificent arcades and gardens of the Palais Royal, shortly to become a centre of lavish entertainment and a meeting place ofjoumalists. pamphleteers, and political gossipsj while, on the Left Bank, the Theatre Franfijais (the later Odeon) was built in 1789 on the site of the Hotel Conde, recently purchased for
3 million Livres.1 Yet from all this feverish construction, Jaures noted, it was the wealthy hourgeoisie that emerged as the largest holders of real estate in the capital : 'Sauf quelques centaines de grandes familIes: he wrote, 'Ia noblesse elle-meme etait locataire de la bourgeoisie'; and he concluded: 'La bourgeoisie parisienne etait, a 1a veille de 1 789, la force souveraine de propriete. de
production et de consommation.'l
Yet, for all these changes, the old medieval Paris remained substantially intact, and was to remain so for seventy-five years to come. The splendours ofNotre Dame and the Sainte-Chapelle still dominated the approaches to the Cite; the numerous religious houses and the Temple and Chatelet prisons vied with the Bastille, with its eight towers and eighty-foot walls, as survival, from a feudal past. Above all there still remained the old tenements. the courtyards and alleys, workshops, and lodging houses in which nine out of every ten Parisians lived and worked-in the Cite and central market districts and in the
fauhourgs lying east of the great pilgrims'
way and thoroughfare,
formed by the rues Saint-Martin, Saint-Jacques, and their ex tensions and cutting the city in two from the barriere Saint Martin in the north to the barriere Saint-Jacques in the south. There were as yet no distinctive working-class areas: these only fully emerged under the Second Empire.• At most, there
, Monin, op. cit., pp. 15-16. See abo Babcau, op. cil., pp. 1-3S, • Babcau, op. cil., p. il4. rllnflJw (8 vob., ParU, 19i1�-4), i. I J. Jaurb, L'HiJkIi" -wiJt. u III RJIJIIlIllUirr/ 149-50. • L. Chevalier, fA FormatWn d, /IJPOPWIJJ;OflpilriJinurI IJII X/){I IiJeh (Pam, 1 950) pp. lil� el aeq.
,
1.5
es, like the rue were streets of lodging houses and chamhres gami de la MorteUerie, adjoining the Hotel de Ville, or the rues Galande and des Jardins, a stone's throw from Notre Dame, where riverside work('fS, porters, stonemasons, and other seasonal workers lived closely huddled in lodgings at one to four sous a night.1 But, generally, small masters, independent crafts
)
men, and journeymen lived cheek by owl: during the Paris . revolution, we shall find masters and Journeymen settmg out from the same house in the rue de Lappe or in the rue du Faubourg Saint-Antoine to join in the siege o� the Bas i11e.l In this fauhourg even wealthy manufacturers hke Revelllon, who owned a 'manufactory' employing 350 workers in the rue de Montreuil, and the famous brewer, Antoine-Joseph San�
�
terre, lived in close proximity to their workpeople. In such districts. it was not so much the wage-earners, but the whole menu peuple of shopkeepers, craftsmen, and labourers, who could, broadly speaking, be identified by their lodging, speech. and
dress their mode of living, and their weekly outings to the wine:shops and taverns of La Courtille, Les POTcherons, or La
Nouvelle France.l Yet certain districts had taken on a distinctive character from the trades and occupations of their inhabitants. There were. of course, the famous fish-wives or market-women, the poissardes
or dames de La halle, of the Place Maubert and the central markets· there were the goldsmiths andjewellers of the quai de
�
I'Horlo e, the quai des Orfevres, and the Place Dauphine in the Cite, or in the arcades of the Palais Royal. The newly developed Faubourg de Chaillot was famous for the PerieT Brothers' Compagnie des Eaux de Paris, equipped with steam power and the first firm in France to manufacture steam engines based on James Watt's mode1.4 The area north of the markets formed by the rue des Lombards, the rue Saint-Denis, and the rue des Gravilliers was the main commercial centre, where lived also a large proportion of the city's home-workers,
, These amounts appear in various police reports (or Ihe period 1 7B9-9�; s<:c aho Babcau, op. cit., p. ISS. 1 See pp. 58-59 below. • A. Soboul, 'La SaN-CUlottCl pa...weru en I'an II', /IIir,,;r dl fltiJlqjrt.July 1956, PP· 9 1'"'99. • By 1791, Ihey had produced forty and had begun to export {A. Malhiez, fA FrIJ"', 'dlnomiqlll dtuu IIJ " roM, lI'IfIiliJ
14
PARIS ON THE EVE OF THE REVOLUTION
INTRODUCTION
estates on the boulevards paved the way for the erection of the Comedie Italienne and the opening of the rues Neuve Saint Marc, Toumante, d'Amboise, and de la Terrasse. Two years before the Revolution. the rues de Breteuil, Baynes. and Crosne were built in the former grounds of the Hotel de Boynes.' Even more spectacular was the construction by the Duke of Orleans, wealthiest and most popular of the princes of the blood, of the magnificent arcades and gardens of the Palais Royal, shortly to become a centre of lavish entertainment and a meeting place ofjoumalists. pamphleteers, and political gossipsj while, on the Left Bank, the Theatre Franfijais (the later Odeon) was built in 1789 on the site of the Hotel Conde, recently purchased for
3 million Livres.1 Yet from all this feverish construction, Jaures noted, it was the wealthy hourgeoisie that emerged as the largest holders of real estate in the capital : 'Sauf quelques centaines de grandes familIes: he wrote, 'Ia noblesse elle-meme etait locataire de la bourgeoisie'; and he concluded: 'La bourgeoisie parisienne etait, a 1a veille de 1 789, la force souveraine de propriete. de
production et de consommation.'l
Yet, for all these changes, the old medieval Paris remained substantially intact, and was to remain so for seventy-five years to come. The splendours ofNotre Dame and the Sainte-Chapelle still dominated the approaches to the Cite; the numerous religious houses and the Temple and Chatelet prisons vied with the Bastille, with its eight towers and eighty-foot walls, as survival, from a feudal past. Above all there still remained the old tenements. the courtyards and alleys, workshops, and lodging houses in which nine out of every ten Parisians lived and worked-in the Cite and central market districts and in the
fauhourgs lying east of the great pilgrims'
way and thoroughfare,
formed by the rues Saint-Martin, Saint-Jacques, and their ex tensions and cutting the city in two from the barriere Saint Martin in the north to the barriere Saint-Jacques in the south. There were as yet no distinctive working-class areas: these only fully emerged under the Second Empire.• At most, there
, Monin, op. cit., pp. 15-16. See abo Babcau, op. cil., pp. 1-3S, • Babcau, op. cil., p. il4. rllnflJw (8 vob., ParU, 19i1�-4), i. I J. Jaurb, L'HiJkIi" -wiJt. u III RJIJIIlIllUirr/ 149-50. • L. Chevalier, fA FormatWn d, /IJPOPWIJJ;OflpilriJinurI IJII X/){I IiJeh (Pam, 1 950) pp. lil� el aeq.
,
1.5
es, like the rue were streets of lodging houses and chamhres gami de la MorteUerie, adjoining the Hotel de Ville, or the rues Galande and des Jardins, a stone's throw from Notre Dame, where riverside work('fS, porters, stonemasons, and other seasonal workers lived closely huddled in lodgings at one to four sous a night.1 But, generally, small masters, independent crafts
)
men, and journeymen lived cheek by owl: during the Paris . revolution, we shall find masters and Journeymen settmg out from the same house in the rue de Lappe or in the rue du Faubourg Saint-Antoine to join in the siege o� the Bas i11e.l In this fauhourg even wealthy manufacturers hke Revelllon, who owned a 'manufactory' employing 350 workers in the rue de Montreuil, and the famous brewer, Antoine-Joseph San�
�
terre, lived in close proximity to their workpeople. In such districts. it was not so much the wage-earners, but the whole menu peuple of shopkeepers, craftsmen, and labourers, who could, broadly speaking, be identified by their lodging, speech. and
dress their mode of living, and their weekly outings to the wine:shops and taverns of La Courtille, Les POTcherons, or La
Nouvelle France.l Yet certain districts had taken on a distinctive character from the trades and occupations of their inhabitants. There were. of course, the famous fish-wives or market-women, the poissardes
or dames de La halle, of the Place Maubert and the central markets· there were the goldsmiths andjewellers of the quai de
�
I'Horlo e, the quai des Orfevres, and the Place Dauphine in the Cite, or in the arcades of the Palais Royal. The newly developed Faubourg de Chaillot was famous for the PerieT Brothers' Compagnie des Eaux de Paris, equipped with steam power and the first firm in France to manufacture steam engines based on James Watt's mode1.4 The area north of the markets formed by the rue des Lombards, the rue Saint-Denis, and the rue des Gravilliers was the main commercial centre, where lived also a large proportion of the city's home-workers,
, These amounts appear in various police reports (or Ihe period 1 7B9-9�; s<:c aho Babcau, op. cit., p. ISS. 1 See pp. 58-59 below. • A. Soboul, 'La SaN-CUlottCl pa...weru en I'an II', /IIir,,;r dl fltiJlqjrt.July 1956, PP· 9 1'"'99. • By 1791, Ihey had produced forty and had begun to export {A. Malhiez, fA FrIJ"', 'dlnomiqlll dtuu IIJ " roM, lI'IfIiliJ
,.
INTRODUCTION
PARIS ON THE EVE OF THE REVOLUTION
like those '20,000' ribbon-weavers who, in November 179', petitioned the Legislative Assembly in protest against the introduction of mechanical frames,' The greater number of the
poor-relief that were dilItributed from time to time during both the old regime and the Revolution, When, for example, in
Porters, dockers, and seasonal building workers gave a distinc
Saint-Marcel and Saint-Jacques; 5,300 liures to the Val-de-Grace and Saint-Jacques-du-Haut-Pas Districts in the Faubourg
Vj!le and the Place de Greve. The Faubourg Saint-Antoine,
to the Enfants-Trouves and Sainte-Marguerite Districtll of the
new textile manufactories, several of which employed 400 or 5�ven 800-workpeople, lay in the northemftmbourgs on either side of the rue Saint-Martin and the rue Saint-Denis.' tive quality to the busy, teeming streets around the Hotel de the traditional focal point of popular agitation,] had several brewtries and a glassworks employing 500, but was, above all,
a typical centre of petty crafts-particularly of small workshops engaged in furnishing and upholstery.•
More variegated and (some thought) even more turbulent was the population composing the Faubourg Saint-Marcel and
the adjoining faubourgs of Saint-Jacques and Saint-Victor. For long its most conspicuous industry had been the tanneries,
expelled by Colbert from the quays of the Cite to the slopes of the Montagne Sainte-Genevieve a hundred years previously;
yet they appear to have declined in the yean before the Revolu
tion, as a return of 179' records the exi3tence ofa mere dozen masters employing less than 200 assistants.5 Other trades included dyeing, cloth-making and laundries, besides the famous
,
Gobelins tapestry works installed by Louis XIV in 1662.6
Many of the dyers and cloth-makers were of Flemish or Dutch origin, and beer flowed freely in the ale-houses dotted along the
faubourg's main thoroughfare, the rue Mouffetard, which wound its way up from the barriere de Fontainebleau to the place
Contrescarpe on the Montagne Sainte-Genevieve. 'Ce peuple boit pour huit jours,' wrote Mercier, who thought them dangerous-'plus mechant, plus inflammable, plw querelleur,
& plus dispose a la mutinerie que dans les autres quartiers.'7
These faubou.rgs included some of the poorest districts in the city and were frequently the recipients of me largest amounts of • Arc:h. NaL, F"
1430; cited by F. Braetch, La C-_ liN IOaoGl I7!P, p. 24' � F. BraClCh, 'Un Eaai do: .tatistiquo: do: la population ouvrihe de Paris vcrs 1791', La RJuHulianfrwlfgiJf, lxi ii (1912), 269-321. I C. Ldeuve, Lu AMifMu m4iSDftl th Paril. L'nuf(1i" th Paris, rw par nil, tMiJOfI j1Qr lnII iJ
"
February 1790 the Paris Commune voted 64,000 liures for distribution to the poor, 7,000 liurts were allotted to the Dis trict of Saint-ttienne-du-Mont, lying between the Faubourgs
Saint-Jacques; and sums of 5,100 and 4,800 liures respectively
Faubourg Saint-Antoine: these were by far the largest alloca tions.' And, in nearly one-quarter of all those receiving
179I,
poor-relief resided in the four sections of the Faubourg Saint Marcel.l
It may be considerations such as these that have led even
recent historians to speak of these faubourgs, soon to play so prominent a part in the Revolution, as working-class suburbs.) The term is misleading for more than one reason. In the first
place, as M. Braesch has shown, the largest concentrations of wage-earners were to be found in the central market area and the nonhernfaubourgs of the capital-and not in the Faubourg Saint-Marcel, still less in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine, or any
other district in which the petty crafts predominated, This
emerges from the results of an inquiry which the Paris Muni to determine the number of cipality conducted in early workers employed by each industrial undertaking in the forty eight Sections of the capital." The retums-though not fully com plete-suggest that the total wage-eaming population (workers and their families) at this time fell little short of 300,000. By
1791
relating the figures for each Section to those yielded by the
, A. Tuelcy, L'Asrul4Nf pllbliqw d Paril pmJanJ la RlooirdiOfl (4 VOII., Paril, 1895-7), vol. i, pp. cxxxiii-v. • 27,'58 out of 118,784 (Chabrol de Volvic, R,rMrrMS s/atisliq!l# J, la vilu dI Paris (4 VOII., Paris, 1821-9), vol. i, Table 43). In April 1794 it Wall reporled that 15,000 of 68,000 recipients of poor·rcIicf"rcsided in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine alone (Sohoul, op. cil., p. g6).
s 5«, e.g., J. M. Thompson, TM FrOlCIt RenNIlI«m (Oxford, '9-13), pp. 49, 66 . • F. BraClCh, 'Un Es.a.i de atatistique de la population ouvntre de Paria vers 1791', La Rluolulilmjr41ltdiH, heiii (1912), 28g-3�1. M. Braach'l findings are based
asn"gMu
on the returns made by 4' of the 4B ScctiOIll n i response to a request by the Paris Municipality late in
'790 for information
as to the numbCT of
(rcvolu·
tiona,), pIper-money) oflow denomination required for dislribution to employers. The returns are in Arch. Nat., F'o, nos. 109"""24, 129, 13 [-4. 13&-60. For a docw•
siou of Braesch's calculations and a�umplions secl'ariJilm
Wage-Eanu-fs i. 46-51.
,.
INTRODUCTION
PARIS ON THE EVE OF THE REVOLUTION
like those '20,000' ribbon-weavers who, in November 179', petitioned the Legislative Assembly in protest against the introduction of mechanical frames,' The greater number of the
poor-relief that were dilItributed from time to time during both the old regime and the Revolution, When, for example, in
Porters, dockers, and seasonal building workers gave a distinc
Saint-Marcel and Saint-Jacques; 5,300 liures to the Val-de-Grace and Saint-Jacques-du-Haut-Pas Districts in the Faubourg
Vj!le and the Place de Greve. The Faubourg Saint-Antoine,
to the Enfants-Trouves and Sainte-Marguerite Districtll of the
new textile manufactories, several of which employed 400 or 5�ven 800-workpeople, lay in the northemftmbourgs on either side of the rue Saint-Martin and the rue Saint-Denis.' tive quality to the busy, teeming streets around the Hotel de the traditional focal point of popular agitation,] had several brewtries and a glassworks employing 500, but was, above all,
a typical centre of petty crafts-particularly of small workshops engaged in furnishing and upholstery.•
More variegated and (some thought) even more turbulent was the population composing the Faubourg Saint-Marcel and
the adjoining faubourgs of Saint-Jacques and Saint-Victor. For long its most conspicuous industry had been the tanneries,
expelled by Colbert from the quays of the Cite to the slopes of the Montagne Sainte-Genevieve a hundred years previously;
yet they appear to have declined in the yean before the Revolu
tion, as a return of 179' records the exi3tence ofa mere dozen masters employing less than 200 assistants.5 Other trades included dyeing, cloth-making and laundries, besides the famous
,
Gobelins tapestry works installed by Louis XIV in 1662.6
Many of the dyers and cloth-makers were of Flemish or Dutch origin, and beer flowed freely in the ale-houses dotted along the
faubourg's main thoroughfare, the rue Mouffetard, which wound its way up from the barriere de Fontainebleau to the place
Contrescarpe on the Montagne Sainte-Genevieve. 'Ce peuple boit pour huit jours,' wrote Mercier, who thought them dangerous-'plus mechant, plus inflammable, plw querelleur,
& plus dispose a la mutinerie que dans les autres quartiers.'7
These faubou.rgs included some of the poorest districts in the city and were frequently the recipients of me largest amounts of • Arc:h. NaL, F"
1430; cited by F. Braetch, La C-_ liN IOaoGl I7!P, p. 24' � F. BraClCh, 'Un Eaai do: .tatistiquo: do: la population ouvrihe de Paris vcrs 1791', La RJuHulianfrwlfgiJf, lxi ii (1912), 269-321. I C. Ldeuve, Lu AMifMu m4iSDftl th Paril. L'nuf(1i" th Paris, rw par nil, tMiJOfI j1Qr lnII iJ
"
February 1790 the Paris Commune voted 64,000 liures for distribution to the poor, 7,000 liurts were allotted to the Dis trict of Saint-ttienne-du-Mont, lying between the Faubourgs
Saint-Jacques; and sums of 5,100 and 4,800 liures respectively
Faubourg Saint-Antoine: these were by far the largest alloca tions.' And, in nearly one-quarter of all those receiving
179I,
poor-relief resided in the four sections of the Faubourg Saint Marcel.l
It may be considerations such as these that have led even
recent historians to speak of these faubourgs, soon to play so prominent a part in the Revolution, as working-class suburbs.) The term is misleading for more than one reason. In the first
place, as M. Braesch has shown, the largest concentrations of wage-earners were to be found in the central market area and the nonhernfaubourgs of the capital-and not in the Faubourg Saint-Marcel, still less in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine, or any
other district in which the petty crafts predominated, This
emerges from the results of an inquiry which the Paris Muni to determine the number of cipality conducted in early workers employed by each industrial undertaking in the forty eight Sections of the capital." The retums-though not fully com plete-suggest that the total wage-eaming population (workers and their families) at this time fell little short of 300,000. By
1791
relating the figures for each Section to those yielded by the
, A. Tuelcy, L'Asrul4Nf pllbliqw d Paril pmJanJ la RlooirdiOfl (4 VOII., Paril, 1895-7), vol. i, pp. cxxxiii-v. • 27,'58 out of 118,784 (Chabrol de Volvic, R,rMrrMS s/atisliq!l# J, la vilu dI Paris (4 VOII., Paris, 1821-9), vol. i, Table 43). In April 1794 it Wall reporled that 15,000 of 68,000 recipients of poor·rcIicf"rcsided in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine alone (Sohoul, op. cil., p. g6).
s 5«, e.g., J. M. Thompson, TM FrOlCIt RenNIlI«m (Oxford, '9-13), pp. 49, 66 . • F. BraClCh, 'Un Es.a.i de atatistique de la population ouvntre de Paria vers 1791', La Rluolulilmjr41ltdiH, heiii (1912), 28g-3�1. M. Braach'l findings are based
asn"gMu
on the returns made by 4' of the 4B ScctiOIll n i response to a request by the Paris Municipality late in
'790 for information
as to the numbCT of
(rcvolu·
tiona,), pIper-money) oflow denomination required for dislribution to employers. The returns are in Arch. Nat., F'o, nos. 109"""24, 129, 13 [-4. 13&-60. For a docw•
siou of Braesch's calculations and a�umplions secl'ariJilm
Wage-Eanu-fs i. 46-51.
19
INTRODUCTION
PARIS ON THE EVE OF THE REVOLUTION
census of 1792 1 we find that the wage-earners and their families
for their living on a wage, still rented their frames from their employers and worked in their own homes; 1 and, in August
.8
accounted for some two-thirds of the resident population in seven northern and north-central Sectionsz and for nearly half the population in four Sections of the central market area,J while accounting for only one-third to one-half the population of the Faubourgs Saint-Antoine and Saint-Marcel.4 But, even when they formed a majority of the local popula
1789, we shall find a substantial body of hairdressers' journey
men in Paris insisting on their right to set up in business on their own irrespective of their masters' wishes.1
About one-third of all the wage-earners recorded in the 1791
return were in the building trades ;l they were largely composed
tion, the wage-earners lacked the attributes of a distinctive
of seasonal workers or recent immigrants from the Creuse and
social class. In eighteenth-century France, the term ournin- might
barely furnished rooms in the rue Mouffetard or the city centre.4
be applied as readily to independent craftsmen, small work shop masters--or even, on occasion, to substantial manu facturers-as to ordinary wage-earners; in its most frequent use itwas synonymous with artisan.s Such usage corresponded to the social realities of the time, when the wage-earner had as yet no defined and distinctive status as a producer and there were often numerous intermediate stages between workman and employer. The typical unit of production was still the small workshop, which generally employed but a small number of journeymen and apprentices. Even in Paris, where the propor� rion of workers to employers was larger and the restrictions imposed by the guild-system had become more relaxed than
elsewhere,6 the journeyman still often ate at his master's table
and slept under his roof.' The distinction between a wage earning journeyman and an independent craftsman, or even a
workshop master, was ill defined: the 2,000 Parisian stocking� weavers who struck against wage-cuts in 1724, while depending , N. Karf:iev, op. cit., pp. '4-15.
These a.n:: Bcaubourg, Gravillicn, Ponttau, Mauoonseil, Bonne Nouvelle, PoiDonnim, Faubourg Saini-Denis. 1 The,e are: Louvre, Oratoire, March9 des Innocents (later Hailes), Lombards. • See Paririatc Wap-EameTs, i. 52-53, 1I17-80 (Appendix A). I The D;dimrMi" de j'A,tldlmu. FrlUlflJiu (17711 ed.) defines an 1JIUlIi" as 'ttlui qui travaille de la main et fait que1que ouvrage'; and Diderot'l Encydopidu explains that the term 'se dit en genual de tout artisan qui travaille de que1que �tier que i df rArodimu which defines the term tt lOit'. The earliest edition of the DietimuuJu in ib modem sense of a wage-eamer is that of 1935. For a recent discus&on of the difficulties of definition in the Itudy of $OCial history see Alfred Cobban, 'The Vocabulary ofSocial History', Polilid &imt;. QUII,lerg, Ixxi ( 1956), 14. • A. Franklin, La VU privle d'tlul,ifDil; WIII1mTI/ on d'!!mil;1 pa1roII (Paris, 1889), pp. 1I8'-4· 7 Besides the evidence of the poliee rl:COnh we find the assertion in a Motion .us arlislls, artis/IIU 1/ ouurins du dislrid .us WpuriM tU Itl Ciliuml, d'Allti.. of July 178g: 'Nolr<: domicile est chez nOl maitrel, nOlI pecCI ou en chambre gamie' (Bibliothl:que Nationale, nouvel.les acqW$itioou fra�aisa, no. la6411, fols. 13-15). •
Limoges-hence their nick-name of
limousins-and
lodged in
Among them, too, we find the joumeyman�employer, or maitre-ouuner who, while himself living on a wage paid by the building contractor, hired his own
compagnons
or
garfons
at a
daily or seasonal rate.S The great mass of porters, carriers, and riverside workers, often recent immigrants from Picardy, Savoy, or Auvergne, and lodging around the markets or in the neighbourhood of the docks, are harder to define ; yet there must have been numerous grades and distinctions separating
communautis de la halle or the more aristocratic of the various types of gagne-denins.'> Even more variegated were the 14,000 inmates of the hOpiltlJJX and alms�houses,7 soon to be
the common labourers from such highly organized as formed by the forts
reinforced by the many thousands of workless peasants, small tradesmen, and country-workers who flocked into the capital on the eve of revolution and were herded into the ateliers de chan'U on the hill of Montmartre and elsewhere.s It is, in fact, only
I F. Fund,-Brentana, 'La Ql.Iestion ouvriere soW! l'Ancien R�me', JUuw • Arch. Nat., T 5'4 ('). l For this and other categories ofwockeC$ in Paris at this time I« PIJrisilJ1l WIJgt_ £amm, ii. 1177-80 (Appendix A). • G. Mauco, La Afigral;olU ou.,. • i/ruell FrtlllCe au dlbw du X/){I file/, (Paris, 19311), pp. la9-3'· , J..J. Letrait, 'La Communaut� dr:s maitre! ma�ons de Paris au XVII" et au XVIII· sitele', JU/JUI his/Qr;tpa d. droit /rDrlfais II /tranger, '94:', pp. 1156-7; ' 948, pp. 1 13-' 7· • For the latter, see M. Rouff, 'Une GN:ve de gagne-denieC$ en 1786 a Paria', RtvUl hisloriq..., ev (1910), 3311-48. None of the,e categories of workers appear in the returna of '791 analysed by Braesch. ;. This is the figure far 179' (C. Bloch and A. Tuetey, Pr��s'lJIf/uJ.wc II rapports du cam,l/ de mnrdiril/ d. la Co..s/;tumI1e, 17!JfrlJ9r (Paris, 1911), p. ¥Jla). I Lafayette estimated the number of 'brangers OU gens sans aveu' in Paris in 1he wetk following the eaptun: of the Ba�nil!e at 'over 30,000'; yet thia may have been exaggerated for partisan enw (MbN;;rts, rorrtspondana II 1/IlUUI.UT;ls du GmirIJ/ La/aft/Ie (6 vok, Paris, 1837), i. la7la-3). rllTo.pecl;w, xvii ( 1 8911). l-la4.
19
INTRODUCTION
PARIS ON THE EVE OF THE REVOLUTION
census of 1792 1 we find that the wage-earners and their families
for their living on a wage, still rented their frames from their employers and worked in their own homes; 1 and, in August
.8
accounted for some two-thirds of the resident population in seven northern and north-central Sectionsz and for nearly half the population in four Sections of the central market area,J while accounting for only one-third to one-half the population of the Faubourgs Saint-Antoine and Saint-Marcel.4 But, even when they formed a majority of the local popula
1789, we shall find a substantial body of hairdressers' journey
men in Paris insisting on their right to set up in business on their own irrespective of their masters' wishes.1
About one-third of all the wage-earners recorded in the 1791
return were in the building trades ;l they were largely composed
tion, the wage-earners lacked the attributes of a distinctive
of seasonal workers or recent immigrants from the Creuse and
social class. In eighteenth-century France, the term ournin- might
barely furnished rooms in the rue Mouffetard or the city centre.4
be applied as readily to independent craftsmen, small work shop masters--or even, on occasion, to substantial manu facturers-as to ordinary wage-earners; in its most frequent use itwas synonymous with artisan.s Such usage corresponded to the social realities of the time, when the wage-earner had as yet no defined and distinctive status as a producer and there were often numerous intermediate stages between workman and employer. The typical unit of production was still the small workshop, which generally employed but a small number of journeymen and apprentices. Even in Paris, where the propor� rion of workers to employers was larger and the restrictions imposed by the guild-system had become more relaxed than
elsewhere,6 the journeyman still often ate at his master's table
and slept under his roof.' The distinction between a wage earning journeyman and an independent craftsman, or even a
workshop master, was ill defined: the 2,000 Parisian stocking� weavers who struck against wage-cuts in 1724, while depending , N. Karf:iev, op. cit., pp. '4-15.
These a.n:: Bcaubourg, Gravillicn, Ponttau, Mauoonseil, Bonne Nouvelle, PoiDonnim, Faubourg Saini-Denis. 1 The,e are: Louvre, Oratoire, March9 des Innocents (later Hailes), Lombards. • See Paririatc Wap-EameTs, i. 52-53, 1I17-80 (Appendix A). I The D;dimrMi" de j'A,tldlmu. FrlUlflJiu (17711 ed.) defines an 1JIUlIi" as 'ttlui qui travaille de la main et fait que1que ouvrage'; and Diderot'l Encydopidu explains that the term 'se dit en genual de tout artisan qui travaille de que1que �tier que i df rArodimu which defines the term tt lOit'. The earliest edition of the DietimuuJu in ib modem sense of a wage-eamer is that of 1935. For a recent discus&on of the difficulties of definition in the Itudy of $OCial history see Alfred Cobban, 'The Vocabulary ofSocial History', Polilid &imt;. QUII,lerg, Ixxi ( 1956), 14. • A. Franklin, La VU privle d'tlul,ifDil; WIII1mTI/ on d'!!mil;1 pa1roII (Paris, 1889), pp. 1I8'-4· 7 Besides the evidence of the poliee rl:COnh we find the assertion in a Motion .us arlislls, artis/IIU 1/ ouurins du dislrid .us WpuriM tU Itl Ciliuml, d'Allti.. of July 178g: 'Nolr<: domicile est chez nOl maitrel, nOlI pecCI ou en chambre gamie' (Bibliothl:que Nationale, nouvel.les acqW$itioou fra�aisa, no. la6411, fols. 13-15). •
Limoges-hence their nick-name of
limousins-and
lodged in
Among them, too, we find the joumeyman�employer, or maitre-ouuner who, while himself living on a wage paid by the building contractor, hired his own
compagnons
or
garfons
at a
daily or seasonal rate.S The great mass of porters, carriers, and riverside workers, often recent immigrants from Picardy, Savoy, or Auvergne, and lodging around the markets or in the neighbourhood of the docks, are harder to define ; yet there must have been numerous grades and distinctions separating
communautis de la halle or the more aristocratic of the various types of gagne-denins.'> Even more variegated were the 14,000 inmates of the hOpiltlJJX and alms�houses,7 soon to be
the common labourers from such highly organized as formed by the forts
reinforced by the many thousands of workless peasants, small tradesmen, and country-workers who flocked into the capital on the eve of revolution and were herded into the ateliers de chan'U on the hill of Montmartre and elsewhere.s It is, in fact, only
I F. Fund,-Brentana, 'La Ql.Iestion ouvriere soW! l'Ancien R�me', JUuw • Arch. Nat., T 5'4 ('). l For this and other categories ofwockeC$ in Paris at this time I« PIJrisilJ1l WIJgt_ £amm, ii. 1177-80 (Appendix A). • G. Mauco, La Afigral;olU ou.,. • i/ruell FrtlllCe au dlbw du X/){I file/, (Paris, 19311), pp. la9-3'· , J..J. Letrait, 'La Communaut� dr:s maitre! ma�ons de Paris au XVII" et au XVIII· sitele', JU/JUI his/Qr;tpa d. droit /rDrlfais II /tranger, '94:', pp. 1156-7; ' 948, pp. 1 13-' 7· • For the latter, see M. Rouff, 'Une GN:ve de gagne-denieC$ en 1786 a Paria', RtvUl hisloriq..., ev (1910), 3311-48. None of the,e categories of workers appear in the returna of '791 analysed by Braesch. ;. This is the figure far 179' (C. Bloch and A. Tuetey, Pr��s'lJIf/uJ.wc II rapports du cam,l/ de mnrdiril/ d. la Co..s/;tumI1e, 17!JfrlJ9r (Paris, 1911), p. ¥Jla). I Lafayette estimated the number of 'brangers OU gens sans aveu' in Paris in 1he wetk following the eaptun: of the Ba�nil!e at 'over 30,000'; yet thia may have been exaggerated for partisan enw (MbN;;rts, rorrtspondana II 1/IlUUI.UT;ls du GmirIJ/ La/aft/Ie (6 vok, Paris, 1837), i. la7la-3). rllTo.pecl;w, xvii ( 1 8911). l-la4.
INTRODUCTION
PARIS ON THE EVE OF THE REVOLUTION
among the workers in the new textile manufactories of the
argued with Lenoir, the lieutenant of police, and others had marched in search of the king at the chiiteau de Bounoy.1 The following year, Sebastien Hardy, the bookseller-diarist, reported
.0
northemfaubourgs, who may have amounted to a quarter or a
fifth of the total working population, I that we begin to find the distinctive characteristics of a modem industrial working class; but, as we shall see, unlike the small craftsmen andjourneymen, they were to play a relatively minor role in the events of the Revolution. Yet, for all their lack of cohesion as a social class, the Parisian
journeymen and labourers had long since learned to express their particular economic demanrls-often by violent means.
With the break-down in the purposes and organization of the old medieval guild, the journeyman had found himself reduced to the status of a wage-earner with nothing but the slenderest chance of ever becoming a master.1 This gradual divergence in the material interests of masters and journeymen is reflected
"
a far wider movement embracing carpenters, farriers, lock smiths, bakers, and stonemasons;1 and, the same year, striking parten and carriers, protesting against a rival monopoly set up by court favourites, marched to Versailles to petition the king and aroused widespread popular sympathy) In June 1789. on the very eve of the Paris revolution, there was a further
strike ofhatters-this time over rivaljourneymen's associations.4 Such movements may, as Marcel Rouff has suggested, have contributed to the revolutionary temper of 1 789;5 but they were
not decisive. In the conditions of the time conflicts between capital and labour were generally of secondary importance and the wage�earner was usually more concerned with the price of
in the increasingly bitter strikes and social movements of the
food-particularly of bread-than with the amount of his
century, becoming aU the more bitter as prices tended pro
earnings. This was partly due to the absence of large-scale
gressively to outstrip wages.l To take a few examples. In 17'24 there was a strike of stocking-frame weavers against a reduction
of wages, which was broken by the arrest of their leaders.4 In 1737 the journeymen weavers rebelled against the new regula
t.:...ns governing, and restricting. entry to the maitrise.5 In 1 749 the journeymen hatters were forbidden by an arTlt of the Paris
Par/emenl
to interfere with their employers' freedom to hire
labour;6 and, in 1765, a similar arrlt forbade these workers to carry swords and hunting-knives.' In 1776 there was a feneral strike among bookbinders for a fourteen-hour day.' In 1 785
workers in the building trades, striking against a wage-cut
imposed by the cont�actors. won a notable victory: the Parle
menl declared in their favour after several hundred of them had , PMi.tillll
W�g....Eanrns, i. 58, and nOle 83.
Profeuor ubrowae h.u .hown that whereas the prices 01 food and other eatentiaJ. of popular eoruumption increased by 6� per ccnt. betwccn the periods '7�6-4' and 177,-8g, nomina.! waga increased by only �� IX'r cent. between the .ame periodt (C.·E. ubrowae, EslJuisu tIu mollMllflll du prix II Ju "lit"'" 0/1 Fr4IIU _.. XVlIl' Si�e/I, ii. 597-&8). • Routl', op. cit., p. 333. • Funek.BN:ntano, cp. cit. 6 A. Franklin, DiJ:IWMiJi,. JIS lITis, milins II P"'flSSions until JaIlS P.ris J,pui.t II ' Ibid., p. 573· XliI' .iull (Paria, '(06). p. 37�. I S. Hardy, Mu wi.tirs, oujounuJ J'IMwmmls .uts qu'iis plUllimNm a /II
A. Franklin, cp. cit., pp. 90-95, 173-'217.
capitalist industry and of a national trade union movement: more particularly, it was due to the large part played by bread in the budget of the wage-earners, as of all small property_ owners. In Paris, in 1789. a labourer's daily wage might bt
20 30 sous,
40 sous,
to a journeyman mason might earn and a carpenter or locksmith 50 According to Professor Labrousse an eighteenth-century French worker would nor
sous.6
mally spend something like 50 per cent. of his income on bread; 1 6 per cent. on vegetables, fau, and wine; 15 per cent. on
clothing; 5 per cent. on fuel; and I per cent. on lighting.' Thus the wage-earners, and other sma11 income-earners, were
vitally interested in the price of bread which, in Paris, in
sous
'normal' times, would be eight or nine for the 4-lb. loaf. Should its price, as all too frequently happened, rise sharply to I Ibid. vi. 149-50.
• Ibid. vi. 31,5. Rouff, cp. cit., p. 3].4. 4 Arch. Nat., Y 13016 (li: June '769). I Routl', op. cit., p. 3-4.7. • G. Ru
INTRODUCTION
PARIS ON THE EVE OF THE REVOLUTION
among the workers in the new textile manufactories of the
argued with Lenoir, the lieutenant of police, and others had marched in search of the king at the chiiteau de Bounoy.1 The following year, Sebastien Hardy, the bookseller-diarist, reported
.0
northemfaubourgs, who may have amounted to a quarter or a
fifth of the total working population, I that we begin to find the distinctive characteristics of a modem industrial working class; but, as we shall see, unlike the small craftsmen andjourneymen, they were to play a relatively minor role in the events of the Revolution. Yet, for all their lack of cohesion as a social class, the Parisian
journeymen and labourers had long since learned to express their particular economic demanrls-often by violent means.
With the break-down in the purposes and organization of the old medieval guild, the journeyman had found himself reduced to the status of a wage-earner with nothing but the slenderest chance of ever becoming a master.1 This gradual divergence in the material interests of masters and journeymen is reflected
"
a far wider movement embracing carpenters, farriers, lock smiths, bakers, and stonemasons;1 and, the same year, striking parten and carriers, protesting against a rival monopoly set up by court favourites, marched to Versailles to petition the king and aroused widespread popular sympathy) In June 1789. on the very eve of the Paris revolution, there was a further
strike ofhatters-this time over rivaljourneymen's associations.4 Such movements may, as Marcel Rouff has suggested, have contributed to the revolutionary temper of 1 789;5 but they were
not decisive. In the conditions of the time conflicts between capital and labour were generally of secondary importance and the wage�earner was usually more concerned with the price of
in the increasingly bitter strikes and social movements of the
food-particularly of bread-than with the amount of his
century, becoming aU the more bitter as prices tended pro
earnings. This was partly due to the absence of large-scale
gressively to outstrip wages.l To take a few examples. In 17'24 there was a strike of stocking-frame weavers against a reduction
of wages, which was broken by the arrest of their leaders.4 In 1737 the journeymen weavers rebelled against the new regula
t.:...ns governing, and restricting. entry to the maitrise.5 In 1 749 the journeymen hatters were forbidden by an arTlt of the Paris
Par/emenl
to interfere with their employers' freedom to hire
labour;6 and, in 1765, a similar arrlt forbade these workers to carry swords and hunting-knives.' In 1776 there was a feneral strike among bookbinders for a fourteen-hour day.' In 1 785
workers in the building trades, striking against a wage-cut
imposed by the cont�actors. won a notable victory: the Parle
menl declared in their favour after several hundred of them had , PMi.tillll
W�g....Eanrns, i. 58, and nOle 83.
Profeuor ubrowae h.u .hown that whereas the prices 01 food and other eatentiaJ. of popular eoruumption increased by 6� per ccnt. betwccn the periods '7�6-4' and 177,-8g, nomina.! waga increased by only �� IX'r cent. between the .ame periodt (C.·E. ubrowae, EslJuisu tIu mollMllflll du prix II Ju "lit"'" 0/1 Fr4IIU _.. XVlIl' Si�e/I, ii. 597-&8). • Routl', op. cit., p. 333. • Funek.BN:ntano, cp. cit. 6 A. Franklin, DiJ:IWMiJi,. JIS lITis, milins II P"'flSSions until JaIlS P.ris J,pui.t II ' Ibid., p. 573· XliI' .iull (Paria, '(06). p. 37�. I S. Hardy, Mu wi.tirs, oujounuJ J'IMwmmls .uts qu'iis plUllimNm a /II
A. Franklin, cp. cit., pp. 90-95, 173-'217.
capitalist industry and of a national trade union movement: more particularly, it was due to the large part played by bread in the budget of the wage-earners, as of all small property_ owners. In Paris, in 1789. a labourer's daily wage might bt
20 30 sous,
40 sous,
to a journeyman mason might earn and a carpenter or locksmith 50 According to Professor Labrousse an eighteenth-century French worker would nor
sous.6
mally spend something like 50 per cent. of his income on bread; 1 6 per cent. on vegetables, fau, and wine; 15 per cent. on
clothing; 5 per cent. on fuel; and I per cent. on lighting.' Thus the wage-earners, and other sma11 income-earners, were
vitally interested in the price of bread which, in Paris, in
sous
'normal' times, would be eight or nine for the 4-lb. loaf. Should its price, as all too frequently happened, rise sharply to I Ibid. vi. 149-50.
• Ibid. vi. 31,5. Rouff, cp. cit., p. 3].4. 4 Arch. Nat., Y 13016 (li: June '769). I Routl', op. cit., p. 3-4.7. • G. Ru
INTRODUCTION
PARIS ON THE EVE OF THE REVOLUTION
12 or 15 (or even to 20) sow, it is evident that the bulk of the wage-earners faced sudden disaster. It is not surprising, there
that the price of bread had risen higher than in 1 709 and that to appease popular anger ('iI y avait eu a Paris des seditions
"
fore, that they tended to think in terms of cheaper and more plentiful bread-rather than in terms of higher wages and better workshop conditions; and, with rare exceptions, this continued to be the case during the Revolution as wel!.1 In consequence it was the food riot rather than the strike that was still the traditional and typical form of popular protest; and in this not only journeymen, labourers, and city poor, but small shopkeepers, craftsmen, and workshop masters joined in com mon opposition to farmers, millers, bakers, hoarders, grain merchants, and city authorities. This basic identityofinterest was to prove one of the most solid of the links that bound together the social groups forming the sans-culottes of the Revolution. Paris, like other big cities, had, throughout the century, been continually threatened with such outbreaks. To avert them an elaborate system had been devised to ensure the regular and adequate supply of wheat to suburban millers and flour to the Paris bakers-often at the expense of the supplying areas them selves, or at the reputed expense of the villages lying on the rivers and roads along which food-convoys bound for the capital travelled.1 But the margin ofsafety was rarely sufficient to withstand the onslaught or vagaries of bad harvests, drought, hail, frost, poor communications, or the peculations of grain monopolists and speculators. In such cases the system broke down and panic-buying led to steep rises in the price of bread and outbursts of anger and violence by the Parisian menu peuple.
In the great famine year of '709 the break-down had been so nearly complete and so protracted that hundreds had died of
starvation.' In August 1 725 the Marquis d'Argenson recorded
, Thil lendeney it cleuly rdla:ted in lhe few provincial win. tit dOUllJlt# of wage_urnen; that have come down to us. In Pam .here ;s no such evidcnce, in view of the special regulations drawn up to exclude wage�amcn and small properly-ownen from the Parisian preliminary �mblics (ChUllin, op. cit. i.
• L. Cahen, 'La Quotion du pain a Paris a l a fin du XVIII" si�cJe', Cahi"s tit la RllltJlulioq/rllllfaUt, no. t (1934), pp. 51-76. For the Parisian supply-routo and Ihe frequent attacks on Paris-hound convO)'ll by road and river in the period t75�119, tee R. C. Cobb, 'Lea DiRtto de \'an II et de I'an III dans Ie district de Manta et la yall�e de la Basse-Seine', Mtmhim dt la fUtmliOll dts soci/lis Ju'swriquts 1/ DrelrJologiqtJtlS d, Pllris tI dt 1'f1t-d._Franu, iii (1954), pp. 227-:J:J. ) A. de Boi,lille, 'Le Grand Hiver et la di3eue de 1709', R,vld dtS quutiDJU historiqllU, luiii (June '!/OJ), 44l1-509; IxxiY (Da:embc:r 19(3), 486-54�.
373�)·
'3
serieuses') M. d'Ombreval, the minister responsible, had been relieved of his post.1 In September 1 740 the price of the 4-lb.
loaf rose to 20 SOIlS (equivalent to the daily wage of an unskilled
worker) ; the king was assailed with cries of 'Misere! du pain! du pain !'; Cardinal Fleury was mobbed by a crowd of angry women; and fifty prisoners at Bicetre were shot dead after rioting in protest against a reduction in their bread-ration.� In December 1752 bread riots were coupled with angry demon
strations against the Archbishop of Paris who had refused the sacrament to a dying nun suspected ofJansenism;l six months later the price of bread was still abnormally high and seditious leaflets were circulated, bearing the inscription, 'Vive Ie Parle ment! meurent Ie Roi et Ies eveques!'4 It was the same king Louis XV-who was popularly believed to have devised the sinister pacte defamine.s More widespread and even more alarming to the authorities were the food riots that broke out in Paris and its adjoining
provinces in the spring of 1775. Turgot had been appointed
Comptroller-General in August 1774. He started with no
particular record of unpopularity as far as the common people were concerned: in fact, his predecessor and most vocal oppo nent, the abbe Terray, was, soon after his appointment, burned in effigy in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine.' Yet, to the delight of his enemies at court, he was soon to lose any sem blance of popular favour by his over-haste in applying Physio cratic doctrine to the grain-trade : an
arrll
of
'3 September
, }tnn'IUll d mImoirtJ du Marquis d'ArpIUOJI (9 vol,., Pari., ,859), i. 54. According to another memonali3t, the lawyer Barbier, the price of the 4-1b. loaf had risen to the almost fantastic sum of lIB-:!lI SlItIS (E. J. F. Barbier, ]IIIITfW hutorif{W �I a1l«dotiqut du rtgM de lAuis XV (4 vois., Paris, ,847), i. �24-5). • D'A�nson, op. cit. iii. 169-73. 1 Ibid. vii. 353, 3::'7. • Ibid. viii. 35. , L. Biollay, u PDi:� dtfami". ti ltS ophll/iDJU Sur lu ,rai"s (Pari., ,885), 6 M
INTRODUCTION
PARIS ON THE EVE OF THE REVOLUTION
12 or 15 (or even to 20) sow, it is evident that the bulk of the wage-earners faced sudden disaster. It is not surprising, there
that the price of bread had risen higher than in 1 709 and that to appease popular anger ('iI y avait eu a Paris des seditions
"
fore, that they tended to think in terms of cheaper and more plentiful bread-rather than in terms of higher wages and better workshop conditions; and, with rare exceptions, this continued to be the case during the Revolution as wel!.1 In consequence it was the food riot rather than the strike that was still the traditional and typical form of popular protest; and in this not only journeymen, labourers, and city poor, but small shopkeepers, craftsmen, and workshop masters joined in com mon opposition to farmers, millers, bakers, hoarders, grain merchants, and city authorities. This basic identityofinterest was to prove one of the most solid of the links that bound together the social groups forming the sans-culottes of the Revolution. Paris, like other big cities, had, throughout the century, been continually threatened with such outbreaks. To avert them an elaborate system had been devised to ensure the regular and adequate supply of wheat to suburban millers and flour to the Paris bakers-often at the expense of the supplying areas them selves, or at the reputed expense of the villages lying on the rivers and roads along which food-convoys bound for the capital travelled.1 But the margin ofsafety was rarely sufficient to withstand the onslaught or vagaries of bad harvests, drought, hail, frost, poor communications, or the peculations of grain monopolists and speculators. In such cases the system broke down and panic-buying led to steep rises in the price of bread and outbursts of anger and violence by the Parisian menu peuple.
In the great famine year of '709 the break-down had been so nearly complete and so protracted that hundreds had died of
starvation.' In August 1 725 the Marquis d'Argenson recorded
, Thil lendeney it cleuly rdla:ted in lhe few provincial win. tit dOUllJlt# of wage_urnen; that have come down to us. In Pam .here ;s no such evidcnce, in view of the special regulations drawn up to exclude wage�amcn and small properly-ownen from the Parisian preliminary �mblics (ChUllin, op. cit. i.
• L. Cahen, 'La Quotion du pain a Paris a l a fin du XVIII" si�cJe', Cahi"s tit la RllltJlulioq/rllllfaUt, no. t (1934), pp. 51-76. For the Parisian supply-routo and Ihe frequent attacks on Paris-hound convO)'ll by road and river in the period t75�119, tee R. C. Cobb, 'Lea DiRtto de \'an II et de I'an III dans Ie district de Manta et la yall�e de la Basse-Seine', Mtmhim dt la fUtmliOll dts soci/lis Ju'swriquts 1/ DrelrJologiqtJtlS d, Pllris tI dt 1'f1t-d._Franu, iii (1954), pp. 227-:J:J. ) A. de Boi,lille, 'Le Grand Hiver et la di3eue de 1709', R,vld dtS quutiDJU historiqllU, luiii (June '!/OJ), 44l1-509; IxxiY (Da:embc:r 19(3), 486-54�.
373�)·
'3
serieuses') M. d'Ombreval, the minister responsible, had been relieved of his post.1 In September 1 740 the price of the 4-lb.
loaf rose to 20 SOIlS (equivalent to the daily wage of an unskilled
worker) ; the king was assailed with cries of 'Misere! du pain! du pain !'; Cardinal Fleury was mobbed by a crowd of angry women; and fifty prisoners at Bicetre were shot dead after rioting in protest against a reduction in their bread-ration.� In December 1752 bread riots were coupled with angry demon
strations against the Archbishop of Paris who had refused the sacrament to a dying nun suspected ofJansenism;l six months later the price of bread was still abnormally high and seditious leaflets were circulated, bearing the inscription, 'Vive Ie Parle ment! meurent Ie Roi et Ies eveques!'4 It was the same king Louis XV-who was popularly believed to have devised the sinister pacte defamine.s More widespread and even more alarming to the authorities were the food riots that broke out in Paris and its adjoining
provinces in the spring of 1775. Turgot had been appointed
Comptroller-General in August 1774. He started with no
particular record of unpopularity as far as the common people were concerned: in fact, his predecessor and most vocal oppo nent, the abbe Terray, was, soon after his appointment, burned in effigy in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine.' Yet, to the delight of his enemies at court, he was soon to lose any sem blance of popular favour by his over-haste in applying Physio cratic doctrine to the grain-trade : an
arrll
of
'3 September
, }tnn'IUll d mImoirtJ du Marquis d'ArpIUOJI (9 vol,., Pari., ,859), i. 54. According to another memonali3t, the lawyer Barbier, the price of the 4-1b. loaf had risen to the almost fantastic sum of lIB-:!lI SlItIS (E. J. F. Barbier, ]IIIITfW hutorif{W �I a1l«dotiqut du rtgM de lAuis XV (4 vois., Paris, ,847), i. �24-5). • D'A�nson, op. cit. iii. 169-73. 1 Ibid. vii. 353, 3::'7. • Ibid. viii. 35. , L. Biollay, u PDi:� dtfami". ti ltS ophll/iDJU Sur lu ,rai"s (Pari., ,885), 6 M
PARIS ON THE EVE OF THE REVOLUTION
restored freedom of trade in grain and flour. This, combined with a bad haIVest, led to a shortage and a rapid increase in the
Paris, referred to the dangers ofa repetition ofthe scenes enacted in May 1 775.1 In Paris, at least, this was the last ofthe great popular revolts
price of corn, flour, and bread in the following spring and summer. The price of the 4-1b. loaf in Paris ros.e to I i �olLS in early March and to lsi sous at the end of Apnl. Gram nots
�
had already broken out at Bordeaux, Dijon, Tours, Meu, Rheims, and Montauban-and in their wake sprang up that
particular series of riots known to history as 'la guerre des
farines'. The movement spread from market to market and took the form of a popular price-control of wheat, flour, and bread the price of bread being generally fixed at 2 sous a pound, that of flour at 20 sous a bushel, and wheat at 12 francs a setitT (two quintals) . Starting on 27 April at Beaumont-�ur-Oise, twenty
miles north of the capital, it reached PontOise on the 29th, Saint-Germain on 1 May, Versailles on the 2nd, and Paris itself on the srd. Here the central flour and bread-markets
were ransacked and bakers in the city centre and faubourgs pillaged or compelled to sell at the popular price, before the troops were called out and order was restored. The movement then spread eastwards and southwards up the valleys of the Seine and Marne, lingered for several days in the markets and villages of Brie, reached Beaumont-en-Gatinais (fifty miles south of Paris) on the 9th, and petered out somewhere near Melun on the IOth.1
,
lI5
INTRODUCTION
"
These riots gave a remarkable foretaste of certain episodes of the Revolution-notably of popular price-control, or laxa tion populajre, of essential commodities, which became a regular . feature of the years 1789 to 1793. Yet they were far from belng . directed against the existing order: they were rather a massIVe protest against the new-fangled principle ofallowi�g food-prices to find their natural or market level, Instead ofbemg regulated by considerations of social justice. It is perhaps hardly sur
�
prising that the movement yielded no tangi le results. I � was illage essentially a movement of wage-earners, artisans, and V and city poor : neither the bourgeoisie nor the bulk ofthe peasantry played any part. However, it gave a severe jolt to the govern ment and 'respectable' classes : twelve years later, Hardy, w o
�
had witnessed the invasion of markets and bakers' shops In • G. Rud�, 'La Taxation populaire de m:ai 1775 a Pari. et danl la rtgion 1956, pp. lI39-79.
l -June p arUienne',ANIllles hutoriquu
of the old regime. The twelve yean that followed were years of comparatively stable food·prices and social peace.' The most that Hardy records are protests against the newly erected
bam'tw,
some grumbling in the markets about the price of
meat and firewood, and a few significant incidents expressive of anti·clerical feeling.l For all their latent turbulence the inhabi tants of the central markets and the faubourgs were no more prone to violence and disorder than the contemporary popula tion ofSouthwark, Westminster, and the metropolitan parishes of Middlesex, who had rioted against Excise and the Gin Act under Walpole and, in the 60's and 70'S, acclaimed 'Wilkes and Liberty'. Paris, at all events, had a far more efficient and centralized police system, with considerably larger forces at its beck and call, than the cities of London and Westminster and the county of Middlesex, where the limited powers ofmagis trates and constables and the scattered and unwieldy machinery of repression were an almost standing invitation to riot and disorder. In Paris, on the other hand, the lieutenant of police, whose jurisdiction extended over the whole area of the capital, and the forty-eight commissioners of the Chatelet, who exercised powers of police in the various quarters of the city, had at their disposal substantial forces to deal with both crime and civil commotion. These included the 150 archers du Cult; three com panies of the Garde de Paris, amounting to nearly 1,000 men; and 300 to 400 exempts-in all, some 1,500 men at their im. mediate command; with a further military reseIVe of 5,000 to 6,000 Gardes Fran�aises, Suisses, and Musketeers-the great majority stationed in the capital-who could be called upon in an emergency.4 While these combined forces were greatly inferior to those later available to the revolutionary authorities, , Hardy, ]DIlTfIIl,l vii. 123. • During this period, the price of the 4·lb. loaf remained remarkably Itcady, generally ranging between 8 and 9 SOUSj it rote to loi or II UJUS only {or briefspell,
in 1784 (ibid., vok 3-7, prusim). J Ibid. v. 322-3, 394-5, 410; vi. 16, 35, 330, 3 2, 435, 479. 3 • H!de Montb:as, La PoIu, paririntM sour Louu XVI (Puis, 1(49), 93-101. See abo Monin,op. cit.,pp. 479, :143.
pp. 7a-s...,
PARIS ON THE EVE OF THE REVOLUTION
restored freedom of trade in grain and flour. This, combined with a bad haIVest, led to a shortage and a rapid increase in the
Paris, referred to the dangers ofa repetition ofthe scenes enacted in May 1 775.1 In Paris, at least, this was the last ofthe great popular revolts
price of corn, flour, and bread in the following spring and summer. The price of the 4-1b. loaf in Paris ros.e to I i �olLS in early March and to lsi sous at the end of Apnl. Gram nots
�
had already broken out at Bordeaux, Dijon, Tours, Meu, Rheims, and Montauban-and in their wake sprang up that
particular series of riots known to history as 'la guerre des
farines'. The movement spread from market to market and took the form of a popular price-control of wheat, flour, and bread the price of bread being generally fixed at 2 sous a pound, that of flour at 20 sous a bushel, and wheat at 12 francs a setitT (two quintals) . Starting on 27 April at Beaumont-�ur-Oise, twenty
miles north of the capital, it reached PontOise on the 29th, Saint-Germain on 1 May, Versailles on the 2nd, and Paris itself on the srd. Here the central flour and bread-markets
were ransacked and bakers in the city centre and faubourgs pillaged or compelled to sell at the popular price, before the troops were called out and order was restored. The movement then spread eastwards and southwards up the valleys of the Seine and Marne, lingered for several days in the markets and villages of Brie, reached Beaumont-en-Gatinais (fifty miles south of Paris) on the 9th, and petered out somewhere near Melun on the IOth.1
,
lI5
INTRODUCTION
"
These riots gave a remarkable foretaste of certain episodes of the Revolution-notably of popular price-control, or laxa tion populajre, of essential commodities, which became a regular . feature of the years 1789 to 1793. Yet they were far from belng . directed against the existing order: they were rather a massIVe protest against the new-fangled principle ofallowi�g food-prices to find their natural or market level, Instead ofbemg regulated by considerations of social justice. It is perhaps hardly sur
�
prising that the movement yielded no tangi le results. I � was illage essentially a movement of wage-earners, artisans, and V and city poor : neither the bourgeoisie nor the bulk ofthe peasantry played any part. However, it gave a severe jolt to the govern ment and 'respectable' classes : twelve years later, Hardy, w o
�
had witnessed the invasion of markets and bakers' shops In • G. Rud�, 'La Taxation populaire de m:ai 1775 a Pari. et danl la rtgion 1956, pp. lI39-79.
l -June p arUienne',ANIllles hutoriquu
of the old regime. The twelve yean that followed were years of comparatively stable food·prices and social peace.' The most that Hardy records are protests against the newly erected
bam'tw,
some grumbling in the markets about the price of
meat and firewood, and a few significant incidents expressive of anti·clerical feeling.l For all their latent turbulence the inhabi tants of the central markets and the faubourgs were no more prone to violence and disorder than the contemporary popula tion ofSouthwark, Westminster, and the metropolitan parishes of Middlesex, who had rioted against Excise and the Gin Act under Walpole and, in the 60's and 70'S, acclaimed 'Wilkes and Liberty'. Paris, at all events, had a far more efficient and centralized police system, with considerably larger forces at its beck and call, than the cities of London and Westminster and the county of Middlesex, where the limited powers ofmagis trates and constables and the scattered and unwieldy machinery of repression were an almost standing invitation to riot and disorder. In Paris, on the other hand, the lieutenant of police, whose jurisdiction extended over the whole area of the capital, and the forty-eight commissioners of the Chatelet, who exercised powers of police in the various quarters of the city, had at their disposal substantial forces to deal with both crime and civil commotion. These included the 150 archers du Cult; three com panies of the Garde de Paris, amounting to nearly 1,000 men; and 300 to 400 exempts-in all, some 1,500 men at their im. mediate command; with a further military reseIVe of 5,000 to 6,000 Gardes Fran�aises, Suisses, and Musketeers-the great majority stationed in the capital-who could be called upon in an emergency.4 While these combined forces were greatly inferior to those later available to the revolutionary authorities, , Hardy, ]DIlTfIIl,l vii. 123. • During this period, the price of the 4·lb. loaf remained remarkably Itcady, generally ranging between 8 and 9 SOUSj it rote to loi or II UJUS only {or briefspell,
in 1784 (ibid., vok 3-7, prusim). J Ibid. v. 322-3, 394-5, 410; vi. 16, 35, 330, 3 2, 435, 479. 3 • H!de Montb:as, La PoIu, paririntM sour Louu XVI (Puis, 1(49), 93-101. See abo Monin,op. cit.,pp. 479, :143.
pp. 7a-s...,
26
INTRODUCTION
as long as they remained loyal to the government and its local agents they constituted a far more formidable force than that
PART II
which lay within easy call of the London magistrates.
So, when the Gordon Riots broke out in June 1780 and large
The Revolutionary Crowd in Action
parts of London were, for several days on end, at the mercy of the 'No Popery' rioters, French observers could afford to be complacent. Being wise after the event, we may laugh at the
nailltte of Sebastien Mercier who, commenting on the London
III
disturbances, wrote nine years before the assault on the Bastille that such terrors and alarms as were spread by Lord George
P R E L U D E T O R E V O LUTI O N
Gordon in London would be inconceivable in a city as well policed as Paris ;' yet, at the time of writing, he appeared to have reasonable grounds for self-satisfaction. However, behind the apparent calm there were forces matur. ing, not immediately discernible to even the most enlightened and far-seeing observers, that would soon shatter these illusions and involve Parisians in events far more cataclysmic than any experienced in the preceding century. Though, in their out come, these events left the outward appearance of Paris singularly untouched/ they drastically disturbed the lives and properties of its citizens.
, Mercier, op. cil., vi. 2�-25. Monin, op. cil. pp. 11-12. The one notable exception w.,., of cou.-.e, the 8aJtille, which WIIlI I)'II<:malically drnlQlished in 178g-g .. •
T
RADITIONALLY
the French Revolution has been treated
�
as one single protracted episode, whic opened with the . meeting of the States General at Versrulles m May 1789,
or with the fall of the Bastille in July. In recent years, however, historians have tended to revise this view and both to present the Revolution as a series of distinct, though interrelated,
episodes and to ante-date its outbreak by two years-to May 1787, when the dismissal of the Assembly of Notables unleashed the 'revolte nobiliaire' or 'revolution aristocratique'.1 The arguments in favour of presenting the Revolution as a gradual unfolding of minor revolutions, by a sort of chain-reaction of revolutionary explosions, need not detain us here; but a word should be said about the date of its outbreak. The 'revolte nobiliaire', it has been urged, must be seen as an intrinsic part of the Revolution, as it was the aristocracy and the Parlnnmts the nohlesse de rohe-that forced the king to convene the States
General, without which there would have been no revolution of 1789; and it was they also who, by their open challenge to the monarchy, drew into activity the classes mainly engaged in
the Revolution-the hourgeoisU and the peasant and urban masses.l 'Les patriciens', wrote Chateaubriand, 'commencerent la revolution, Ies plebeiens l'acheverent.'l This thesis contains an important general truth in so far as every great revolution is attended by deep divisions and crises within the governing classes: students of the seventeenth century will find interesting
, � A. Mathiez, fA. RillOluli()IIfTlJIIfiJiJ, (3 vob., PatU, 1922-7), vol. i, chaps: and 2; G. Lefebvre, Q/IiJln-vi",t-M�f (Paril, 1939), pp. II ff. • Mathia, loc. cit. ' Cited. by Lefebvre, op. cit., p. 7.
I
r
26
INTRODUCTION
as long as they remained loyal to the government and its local agents they constituted a far more formidable force than that
PART II
which lay within easy call of the London magistrates.
So, when the Gordon Riots broke out in June 1780 and large
The Revolutionary Crowd in Action
parts of London were, for several days on end, at the mercy of the 'No Popery' rioters, French observers could afford to be complacent. Being wise after the event, we may laugh at the
nailltte of Sebastien Mercier who, commenting on the London
III
disturbances, wrote nine years before the assault on the Bastille that such terrors and alarms as were spread by Lord George
P R E L U D E T O R E V O LUTI O N
Gordon in London would be inconceivable in a city as well policed as Paris ;' yet, at the time of writing, he appeared to have reasonable grounds for self-satisfaction. However, behind the apparent calm there were forces matur. ing, not immediately discernible to even the most enlightened and far-seeing observers, that would soon shatter these illusions and involve Parisians in events far more cataclysmic than any experienced in the preceding century. Though, in their out come, these events left the outward appearance of Paris singularly untouched/ they drastically disturbed the lives and properties of its citizens.
, Mercier, op. cil., vi. 2�-25. Monin, op. cil. pp. 11-12. The one notable exception w.,., of cou.-.e, the 8aJtille, which WIIlI I)'II<:malically drnlQlished in 178g-g .. •
T
RADITIONALLY
the French Revolution has been treated
�
as one single protracted episode, whic opened with the . meeting of the States General at Versrulles m May 1789,
or with the fall of the Bastille in July. In recent years, however, historians have tended to revise this view and both to present the Revolution as a series of distinct, though interrelated,
episodes and to ante-date its outbreak by two years-to May 1787, when the dismissal of the Assembly of Notables unleashed the 'revolte nobiliaire' or 'revolution aristocratique'.1 The arguments in favour of presenting the Revolution as a gradual unfolding of minor revolutions, by a sort of chain-reaction of revolutionary explosions, need not detain us here; but a word should be said about the date of its outbreak. The 'revolte nobiliaire', it has been urged, must be seen as an intrinsic part of the Revolution, as it was the aristocracy and the Parlnnmts the nohlesse de rohe-that forced the king to convene the States
General, without which there would have been no revolution of 1789; and it was they also who, by their open challenge to the monarchy, drew into activity the classes mainly engaged in
the Revolution-the hourgeoisU and the peasant and urban masses.l 'Les patriciens', wrote Chateaubriand, 'commencerent la revolution, Ies plebeiens l'acheverent.'l This thesis contains an important general truth in so far as every great revolution is attended by deep divisions and crises within the governing classes: students of the seventeenth century will find interesting
, � A. Mathiez, fA. RillOluli()IIfTlJIIfiJiJ, (3 vob., PatU, 1922-7), vol. i, chaps: and 2; G. Lefebvre, Q/IiJln-vi",t-M�f (Paril, 1939), pp. II ff. • Mathia, loc. cit. ' Cited. by Lefebvre, op. cit., p. 7.
I
r
18
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
PRELUDE TO REVOLUTION
parallels in our own national history. Yet the argument is not
Sens and Toulouse, and soon to be promoted Cardinal. Brienne's proposals being nomoreacceptable than Calonne's and being met with similar obstruction, the Notables in turn were dismissed on
fully convincing: the divisions between the monarchy and privileged orders who launched the 'revolte nobiliaire', though deep, were not fundamental; and these divisions were rapidly healed as soon as the Third Estate----<:omprising both the
bourgeoisie and the masses of town and countryside-joined forces in support of their own, more far·reaching, claims, as they began to do in the spring of '78g. According to this view, the real point of revolutionary outbreak was only reached when the separate and scattered actions of peasants, urban craHsmen and bourgeois journalists, lawyers. and deputies merged in common struggle in July 1 789,I In this study, therefore, the 'revolte nobiliaire' is presented as a prelude or curtain-raiser, rather than as the opening act of the revolutionary drama. Yet its profound significance and its particular importance for the present subject are not denied : not only did it pave the way directly for the triumph of the Third Estate but, by drawing the urban masses into activity, it ended the period of social peace which, in the case of Paris, had lasted, more or less undisturbed, since the 'guerre des farines' twelve years before. This new period. of intense social struggle was to include both six years of revolution and the two years preceding it. This is therefore the point at which our study of the
,
Parisian revolutionary crowd, in its wider context, must begin. Ever since the American War, in which France became engaged in 1778, the country's finances had been in a desperate condition. In February 1787 an almost empty exchequer and a mounting deficit compelled the government to resort to drastic remedies : the Assembly of Notables was convened with the express purpose of finding some immediate solution to the financial crisis. Calonne, as Comptroller-General, proposed a number of far-reaching measures, including an extension of the stamp-duty and a new general tax on landed estates: the privi leged orders were, in fact being invited, as by Turgot and Necker on earlier occasions, to make a belated contribution to save the State from bankruptcy. The Notables, with grievances and pre tensions of their own, refused to co-operate. Calonne was dismissed on 8 April and succeeded by Lomenie de Brienne, Archbishop of
Pul and Pru'�I, November 1955, pp.
, For .. fuller treatmenl lee G. RlId�, 'The Outbreak of the Yn:nch Revolution
',
28-42.
29
25 May, and the 'revolte nobiliaire' followed. k so often in the
past, it was the Paro Parlemrnt, with its vaguely defined consti
tutional powers, that fired the opening shot. While accepting Brienne's plan to relax controls on the sale and export of grain and endorsing, under protest, the stamp-duty, the Pa,lnnrnJ re fused categorically to tegister the decree on the land-tax and demanded that the States General be convened to deal with the matter. When the decrees were, none the less, promulgated in a in August, the provincial Par/mlenu rallied to the
lit dt justue
support of Paris, and Brienne was forced to capitulate: the decrees on the land-tax and stamp·duty were withdrawn on 21 September and the Paris
Par/mlent,
whose memben had
been exiled, was reinstated a few days later.t The return of the Parlmlenl to the capital was the occasion of wildscenesofjubilationin the Place Dauphine, the ruedu Harlay, and other approaches to the Law Courts. Anti-royalist tracts had begun to appear in AugusP and the authorities were prepared for trouble: the Palais de Justice was ringed with 500 Gardes de Paris, supported by a regiment of Gardes Frantyaises. Hardy, himself a supporter of the Parlemrnt, tells us that 'une jeunesse eA'rc�nee', composed of the clerks of the Palais and the appren tices and journeymen ofthe luxury trades ofthe Place Dauphine. crowded the Pont Neuf and its approaches. fired squibs and fireworks, and pelted the troops with stones. On 28 September, the climax of the disturbances, some soldien were stung to open fire; the order was given by a sergeant of the Gardes Frantyaises in the brutally eloquent phrase : 'f--moi du plomb dans les fesses de cette canaille'. There were no casualties, though a passing lawyer had his coat pierced by a stray bullet. Five young men were arrested and were escorted, to the accompani ment ofjeers and further volleys of stones, to the office of Com missioner Ferrand in the rue des Lombards for cross-examina tion.3 From his report we learn that the prisoners, four of whom
, For a general account of the 'n!volte nobiliaire' tee Malhie;:, op. cit., vol. " chaps. '-2; Lefebvre, op. cil., pp. 24-42; A. Goodwin, Tho FmlCh R,lXllulio" (Lonpon (953), pp. 27-42· I Hardy, vii. '78. ' ibid. �5O-I. According to Hardy the IOldiert who had opened fire Were put .In cells. ,
18
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
PRELUDE TO REVOLUTION
parallels in our own national history. Yet the argument is not
Sens and Toulouse, and soon to be promoted Cardinal. Brienne's proposals being nomoreacceptable than Calonne's and being met with similar obstruction, the Notables in turn were dismissed on
fully convincing: the divisions between the monarchy and privileged orders who launched the 'revolte nobiliaire', though deep, were not fundamental; and these divisions were rapidly healed as soon as the Third Estate----<:omprising both the
bourgeoisie and the masses of town and countryside-joined forces in support of their own, more far·reaching, claims, as they began to do in the spring of '78g. According to this view, the real point of revolutionary outbreak was only reached when the separate and scattered actions of peasants, urban craHsmen and bourgeois journalists, lawyers. and deputies merged in common struggle in July 1 789,I In this study, therefore, the 'revolte nobiliaire' is presented as a prelude or curtain-raiser, rather than as the opening act of the revolutionary drama. Yet its profound significance and its particular importance for the present subject are not denied : not only did it pave the way directly for the triumph of the Third Estate but, by drawing the urban masses into activity, it ended the period of social peace which, in the case of Paris, had lasted, more or less undisturbed, since the 'guerre des farines' twelve years before. This new period. of intense social struggle was to include both six years of revolution and the two years preceding it. This is therefore the point at which our study of the
,
Parisian revolutionary crowd, in its wider context, must begin. Ever since the American War, in which France became engaged in 1778, the country's finances had been in a desperate condition. In February 1787 an almost empty exchequer and a mounting deficit compelled the government to resort to drastic remedies : the Assembly of Notables was convened with the express purpose of finding some immediate solution to the financial crisis. Calonne, as Comptroller-General, proposed a number of far-reaching measures, including an extension of the stamp-duty and a new general tax on landed estates: the privi leged orders were, in fact being invited, as by Turgot and Necker on earlier occasions, to make a belated contribution to save the State from bankruptcy. The Notables, with grievances and pre tensions of their own, refused to co-operate. Calonne was dismissed on 8 April and succeeded by Lomenie de Brienne, Archbishop of
Pul and Pru'�I, November 1955, pp.
, For .. fuller treatmenl lee G. RlId�, 'The Outbreak of the Yn:nch Revolution
',
28-42.
29
25 May, and the 'revolte nobiliaire' followed. k so often in the
past, it was the Paro Parlemrnt, with its vaguely defined consti
tutional powers, that fired the opening shot. While accepting Brienne's plan to relax controls on the sale and export of grain and endorsing, under protest, the stamp-duty, the Pa,lnnrnJ re fused categorically to tegister the decree on the land-tax and demanded that the States General be convened to deal with the matter. When the decrees were, none the less, promulgated in a in August, the provincial Par/mlenu rallied to the
lit dt justue
support of Paris, and Brienne was forced to capitulate: the decrees on the land-tax and stamp·duty were withdrawn on 21 September and the Paris
Par/mlent,
whose memben had
been exiled, was reinstated a few days later.t The return of the Parlmlenl to the capital was the occasion of wildscenesofjubilationin the Place Dauphine, the ruedu Harlay, and other approaches to the Law Courts. Anti-royalist tracts had begun to appear in AugusP and the authorities were prepared for trouble: the Palais de Justice was ringed with 500 Gardes de Paris, supported by a regiment of Gardes Frantyaises. Hardy, himself a supporter of the Parlemrnt, tells us that 'une jeunesse eA'rc�nee', composed of the clerks of the Palais and the appren tices and journeymen ofthe luxury trades ofthe Place Dauphine. crowded the Pont Neuf and its approaches. fired squibs and fireworks, and pelted the troops with stones. On 28 September, the climax of the disturbances, some soldien were stung to open fire; the order was given by a sergeant of the Gardes Frantyaises in the brutally eloquent phrase : 'f--moi du plomb dans les fesses de cette canaille'. There were no casualties, though a passing lawyer had his coat pierced by a stray bullet. Five young men were arrested and were escorted, to the accompani ment ofjeers and further volleys of stones, to the office of Com missioner Ferrand in the rue des Lombards for cross-examina tion.3 From his report we learn that the prisoners, four of whom
, For a general account of the 'n!volte nobiliaire' tee Malhie;:, op. cit., vol. " chaps. '-2; Lefebvre, op. cil., pp. 24-42; A. Goodwin, Tho FmlCh R,lXllulio" (Lonpon (953), pp. 27-42· I Hardy, vii. '78. ' ibid. �5O-I. According to Hardy the IOldiert who had opened fire Were put .In cells. ,
,.
PRELUDE TO REVOLUTION
were committed to the Force jail, included two apprentices in
down the Law Courts. 1 A new phase of violence followed-at
small crafts, two journeymen goldsmiths and a master tailor;
first mainly in the provinces : there were mass riots in Gre noble and Rennes in June; in Dauphine nobility and Third
two Jived in the immediate vicinity of the Palais, two other! in the university quarter across the river. ' The disorders continued for a week, during which bonfires were lit in the square before the Palais, anti-royalist tracts were distributed, and Calonne and the Comtesse de Polignac, the
Estate joined forces against the Crown in July. Early that month, angry placards threatening the king with mass revolt appeared in the Cite : 'Tremblez, Tyrans, votre Regne va finir' ; and Hardy feared that a serious popular outbreak was
governess of the royal children, were burned in effigy.a Finally, on 3 October, the Parltmtnt issued an arrit, solemnly proscribing
pending.i Anticipating further trouble, the government began, in early August, to draft new regiments into the villages
all gatherings and firework displays in the neighbourhood of the
adjoining the capital-this time not so much for fear of the clerks and apprentices of the Palais as of the menu peuple of the
Palais,3 and the movement subsided-although Hardy recorded a further minor outbreak and the mustering of 600 troops as late as November.4 Though thus protracted, this had been
12
markets and faubourgs. l
These fears proved well founded. The government, com
a localized affair without widespread repercussions : only a small part of the bourgeoi sie was engaged ; and the faubourgs and
pelled to bow before the storm, promised that the States General should be called in May 1789; on 24 August Brienne
markets, perhaps because the price of bread remained stable,
was replaced by Necker and the Parlemtnt was recalled soon after. This double victory was greeted two days later with
were not yet involved.
!
,.
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD I N ACTION
In the following months, however, the crisis deepened-not
another outburst of celebrations in the Place Dauphine and its
least because the return to Turgot's free-trade measures had
neighbourhood : under the noses of the guards fireworks were
led to a sharp rise in the price of grain. To reach a settlement
let off in profusion, bonfires were lit, and the occupants of
of the financial crisis Brienne fell back on the expedient of raising a loan, which the Paris PaTUmtnt was willing to accept provided that the Stales General be summoned. But negotia tions broke down again in November; the popular Duke of
coaches crossing the Pont Neuf were made to bow low to the
Orleans and two consnllns were exiled; on his return in April the duke was welcomed with another round of fireworks.5 In May 1788 the
Parlement
won further popularity by issuing a
declaration condemning the whole system of arbitrary govern ment, including the
[litres de cachet.
The government riposted
by once more ringing the Palais with troops, forced the parle men/aires to surrender their ringleaders to royal justice, and
promulgated six edicts, drafted by Lamoignon, the garde des sceaux, which restricted the jurisdiction of the Parltments, reduced the number of corunllers, and vested the royal courts and officials with greater legal powers; on this occasion only the presence of troops prevented an angry crowd from burning , Arch. Nat., Y ' 30 14. In addition, a domestic leTV;mt had been brought before Commissioner Uger on :I September, charged with inciling the crowd agaiout the Garde de Pari& (Arch. Nal., Y 10634, fol. 6,). J Brit. MUI., :17 d ' 3 (43). , Hardy, vii. :1.5:1-.5 I Ibid. 4'1. • Hardy, vii. :167.
equestrian statue of Henri IV and to shout 'A bas Lamoignon!' A new factor, however, was to extend these disturbances far beyond the scope and limits ofthe previous year. On 1 7 August
the price of the 4-lb. loaf, after long remaining at 9 SOUS, rose to 9t sow, on the 20th to 0 SOUS, on 2 September to lOt SOUS,
1
and on 7 September to I I SOUS.4 After the first increase Hardy noted. a slight commotion in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine;5 and, on 28 August, the ouvn·ns and menu peuple of the markets and faubourgs joined the riots started two days earlier by the
Palais clerks in the Place Dauphine, and changed their wh('le character.6 The next day they became more violent and spread into other districts : guard-posts on the Pont Neuf and on both sides of the river were ransacked and burned to the ground. Meanwhile supreme command of all troops stationed in the
I Ibid. 470. Th� wa.. another minor dilturbance in the rue del Lombards ten daya later (ibid. 4B'). ' Ibid. viii. 10-1/. , Ibid. 35, 7�-7J. I Ibid. 49. • Ibid. 4g-66. � Ibid. 6,-6:1. In HardY'1 words: 'La populace du fbg St. Antoine et celie du fbg St. Marcel, �tant venue augmenter Ie nombn: del polu.c.ou du quarlier, Ie d60rdn: ne fail qu'augmenler progl"Qll;vement.'
,.
PRELUDE TO REVOLUTION
were committed to the Force jail, included two apprentices in
down the Law Courts. 1 A new phase of violence followed-at
small crafts, two journeymen goldsmiths and a master tailor;
first mainly in the provinces : there were mass riots in Gre noble and Rennes in June; in Dauphine nobility and Third
two Jived in the immediate vicinity of the Palais, two other! in the university quarter across the river. ' The disorders continued for a week, during which bonfires were lit in the square before the Palais, anti-royalist tracts were distributed, and Calonne and the Comtesse de Polignac, the
Estate joined forces against the Crown in July. Early that month, angry placards threatening the king with mass revolt appeared in the Cite : 'Tremblez, Tyrans, votre Regne va finir' ; and Hardy feared that a serious popular outbreak was
governess of the royal children, were burned in effigy.a Finally, on 3 October, the Parltmtnt issued an arrit, solemnly proscribing
pending.i Anticipating further trouble, the government began, in early August, to draft new regiments into the villages
all gatherings and firework displays in the neighbourhood of the
adjoining the capital-this time not so much for fear of the clerks and apprentices of the Palais as of the menu peuple of the
Palais,3 and the movement subsided-although Hardy recorded a further minor outbreak and the mustering of 600 troops as late as November.4 Though thus protracted, this had been
12
markets and faubourgs. l
These fears proved well founded. The government, com
a localized affair without widespread repercussions : only a small part of the bourgeoi sie was engaged ; and the faubourgs and
pelled to bow before the storm, promised that the States General should be called in May 1789; on 24 August Brienne
markets, perhaps because the price of bread remained stable,
was replaced by Necker and the Parlemtnt was recalled soon after. This double victory was greeted two days later with
were not yet involved.
!
,.
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD I N ACTION
In the following months, however, the crisis deepened-not
another outburst of celebrations in the Place Dauphine and its
least because the return to Turgot's free-trade measures had
neighbourhood : under the noses of the guards fireworks were
led to a sharp rise in the price of grain. To reach a settlement
let off in profusion, bonfires were lit, and the occupants of
of the financial crisis Brienne fell back on the expedient of raising a loan, which the Paris PaTUmtnt was willing to accept provided that the Stales General be summoned. But negotia tions broke down again in November; the popular Duke of
coaches crossing the Pont Neuf were made to bow low to the
Orleans and two consnllns were exiled; on his return in April the duke was welcomed with another round of fireworks.5 In May 1788 the
Parlement
won further popularity by issuing a
declaration condemning the whole system of arbitrary govern ment, including the
[litres de cachet.
The government riposted
by once more ringing the Palais with troops, forced the parle men/aires to surrender their ringleaders to royal justice, and
promulgated six edicts, drafted by Lamoignon, the garde des sceaux, which restricted the jurisdiction of the Parltments, reduced the number of corunllers, and vested the royal courts and officials with greater legal powers; on this occasion only the presence of troops prevented an angry crowd from burning , Arch. Nat., Y ' 30 14. In addition, a domestic leTV;mt had been brought before Commissioner Uger on :I September, charged with inciling the crowd agaiout the Garde de Pari& (Arch. Nal., Y 10634, fol. 6,). J Brit. MUI., :17 d ' 3 (43). , Hardy, vii. :1.5:1-.5 I Ibid. 4'1. • Hardy, vii. :167.
equestrian statue of Henri IV and to shout 'A bas Lamoignon!' A new factor, however, was to extend these disturbances far beyond the scope and limits ofthe previous year. On 1 7 August
the price of the 4-lb. loaf, after long remaining at 9 SOUS, rose to 9t sow, on the 20th to 0 SOUS, on 2 September to lOt SOUS,
1
and on 7 September to I I SOUS.4 After the first increase Hardy noted. a slight commotion in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine;5 and, on 28 August, the ouvn·ns and menu peuple of the markets and faubourgs joined the riots started two days earlier by the
Palais clerks in the Place Dauphine, and changed their wh('le character.6 The next day they became more violent and spread into other districts : guard-posts on the Pont Neuf and on both sides of the river were ransacked and burned to the ground. Meanwhile supreme command of all troops stationed in the
I Ibid. 470. Th� wa.. another minor dilturbance in the rue del Lombards ten daya later (ibid. 4B'). ' Ibid. viii. 10-1/. , Ibid. 35, 7�-7J. I Ibid. 49. • Ibid. 4g-66. � Ibid. 6,-6:1. In HardY'1 words: 'La populace du fbg St. Antoine et celie du fbg St. Marcel, �tant venue augmenter Ie nombn: del polu.c.ou du quarlier, Ie d60rdn: ne fail qu'augmenler progl"Qll;vement.'
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
PRELUDE TO REVOLUTION
capital had been given to the Marc::chal de Biron, 'hero' of the
craftsmen; and 16 were small traders and shopkeepers. The great majority came from the main centres of disturbance
3'
pacification of May 1775, and the Guards were orderr:d to meet force by force. That night a party of6oo demonstrators, oper�t
the Cite, the Faubourg Saint-Germain, and the central and
ing in the Place de Greve, was fired on by the Garde de Pam;
northern districts of the capital ; surprisingly, not one was from
seven or eight were killr:d1 and the rest were put to flight. For a
the Faubourg Saint-Antoine, in spite of Hardy's insistence that the mmu peuple of theJaubourg had joined the riots at the end of August.. In short these records suggest that the Parisian SQn.s cu[olhs had entered the struggle against the Government as a
fortnight Paris was comparatively calm. But the dismissal, on 14 Scptember, of the unpopular
Lamoignon touched off a new round of disturbances that con
decisive force, but not yet as the ally of the
tinued intermittently until the end of the month. The crowds were allowoo., more or less unmolested, to voice their sati c
s�a
revolutionary crisis was still to come.
tion by acclaiming Henri IV on the Pont Neuf and burrung
attack the town house of the Chevalier Dubois, commander of
generally bad and, in the Paris region, crops had been flattened by a freak hailstorm in July. There followed a winter ofpheno
the Garde de Paris, off the rue Saint-Martin, led to an ugly
slaughter, when troops fired on a crowd hemmed in the narrow
menal severity which threw thousands out of work and brought further thousands ofvillagers flocking to the capital ; in December
rue de Meslai : according to Hardy, fifty were killed and
twenty-five taken prisoner; yet this appears to be an exaggera disorders : this time, there was a bloody affray in the university
quarter, when 200 young people, carrying lighted torch� and laurel-branches and chanting 'Vive Henri Quatre ! VlVe Ie Parlement et au diable les trisles a patte !',l were set upon by the Gardes Fram;aises in the rue de la Harpe, resulting in
several casualties.4 On 30 September the Chevalier Dubois tendered his resignation, having been rewarded with a sum of 10,000 liores and the lieutenancy of Peronne, and the distur bances came to an end.s
The lists of persons wounde:d, arrested, and sentenced as the result of these riots, later drawn up by the Par/ement and the Chatelet, give us some idea of the sort of people taking pa�t in them and of the districts from which they came. Occupations
appear in some 50 cases : of these, 24 were journeymen, apprentices, labourers, and other wage-earners ; 10 were master
t Arch Noll., X Ib B98g: extrait du Parlement du 24 scptembre 1788; cited by Monln, op. cil., pp. 41�-7. • Hardy, viii. 80. According to the police, however, there we...: no deaths, 1+ were wounded in the rue Saint-Martin and the Faubourg Saint·Germain (where another collision took place) and 18 (of which 8 we...: wounded) we...: taken pruaner (Monin, op. cit., p. 486). I A common, unflatluing, term for the cavalry. I Monin, op. cit., p. 489. • Arch. Nat., Y 1 1�06; Hardy, viii. too. .
bourgeoisie; the real
This developed in the winter of 1 788-9 and was to bring about a radical realin(:ment of classes. The harvest was
Lamoignon in effigy in the Place de Greve; but an attempt to
tion.1 The return ofthe Pariement a week later provoked further
33
Hardy wrote of 80,000 unemployed. The price of the 4-lb. loaf
in the Paris markets rose to 1 2 sow on 8 November, to 1 3 .sow December and, finally, to 141 sous on the 28th, to 14 sow on on I February; it was to remain at this level until after the fall of the Bastille.:
IJ
Meanwhile, the
bourgeoisie had
made its entry on the revolu
tionary stage. The cause of conflict had its roots deep in the old
regime: while colonial trade, land-values, and luxury spending had enormously increased in the course of the cemury. capital
investment and expansion of manufacture were everywhere im peded by the restrictions imposed by privileged corporations,
feudal landowners. and government on the elementary capitalist freedoms : the freedom to hire labour, the freedom to produce, a�d the freedom to buy and sdl. Yet, while the ensuing con
fllc� owed its eventual sharpness and finality to these deeper SOCIal antagonisms, the clash between the bourgeoisie and the privileged orders arose, in the first instance, over representation and voting in the States General. Already in September the . Pans Parlement had begun to lose its reputation as the spokesman for popular liberties by demanding that the States General be constituted as in 1 6 1 4-i.e. that each order should have equal I
Bib: Nat., Collection Joly de Fleury, dou. 1113; Arch. Nat., Y 9"91, 9989, 517, 15309-', 18751, ,8795; X Ib B98g {cited by Monin, op. cit., p . 48g. ardy, viii. '54-5, 168,408, 426.
r:�, " [
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
PRELUDE TO REVOLUTION
capital had been given to the Marc::chal de Biron, 'hero' of the
craftsmen; and 16 were small traders and shopkeepers. The great majority came from the main centres of disturbance
3'
pacification of May 1775, and the Guards were orderr:d to meet force by force. That night a party of6oo demonstrators, oper�t
the Cite, the Faubourg Saint-Germain, and the central and
ing in the Place de Greve, was fired on by the Garde de Pam;
northern districts of the capital ; surprisingly, not one was from
seven or eight were killr:d1 and the rest were put to flight. For a
the Faubourg Saint-Antoine, in spite of Hardy's insistence that the mmu peuple of theJaubourg had joined the riots at the end of August.. In short these records suggest that the Parisian SQn.s cu[olhs had entered the struggle against the Government as a
fortnight Paris was comparatively calm. But the dismissal, on 14 Scptember, of the unpopular
Lamoignon touched off a new round of disturbances that con
decisive force, but not yet as the ally of the
tinued intermittently until the end of the month. The crowds were allowoo., more or less unmolested, to voice their sati c
s�a
revolutionary crisis was still to come.
tion by acclaiming Henri IV on the Pont Neuf and burrung
attack the town house of the Chevalier Dubois, commander of
generally bad and, in the Paris region, crops had been flattened by a freak hailstorm in July. There followed a winter ofpheno
the Garde de Paris, off the rue Saint-Martin, led to an ugly
slaughter, when troops fired on a crowd hemmed in the narrow
menal severity which threw thousands out of work and brought further thousands ofvillagers flocking to the capital ; in December
rue de Meslai : according to Hardy, fifty were killed and
twenty-five taken prisoner; yet this appears to be an exaggera disorders : this time, there was a bloody affray in the university
quarter, when 200 young people, carrying lighted torch� and laurel-branches and chanting 'Vive Henri Quatre ! VlVe Ie Parlement et au diable les trisles a patte !',l were set upon by the Gardes Fram;aises in the rue de la Harpe, resulting in
several casualties.4 On 30 September the Chevalier Dubois tendered his resignation, having been rewarded with a sum of 10,000 liores and the lieutenancy of Peronne, and the distur bances came to an end.s
The lists of persons wounde:d, arrested, and sentenced as the result of these riots, later drawn up by the Par/ement and the Chatelet, give us some idea of the sort of people taking pa�t in them and of the districts from which they came. Occupations
appear in some 50 cases : of these, 24 were journeymen, apprentices, labourers, and other wage-earners ; 10 were master
t Arch Noll., X Ib B98g: extrait du Parlement du 24 scptembre 1788; cited by Monln, op. cil., pp. 41�-7. • Hardy, viii. 80. According to the police, however, there we...: no deaths, 1+ were wounded in the rue Saint-Martin and the Faubourg Saint·Germain (where another collision took place) and 18 (of which 8 we...: wounded) we...: taken pruaner (Monin, op. cit., p. 486). I A common, unflatluing, term for the cavalry. I Monin, op. cit., p. 489. • Arch. Nat., Y 1 1�06; Hardy, viii. too. .
bourgeoisie; the real
This developed in the winter of 1 788-9 and was to bring about a radical realin(:ment of classes. The harvest was
Lamoignon in effigy in the Place de Greve; but an attempt to
tion.1 The return ofthe Pariement a week later provoked further
33
Hardy wrote of 80,000 unemployed. The price of the 4-lb. loaf
in the Paris markets rose to 1 2 sow on 8 November, to 1 3 .sow December and, finally, to 141 sous on the 28th, to 14 sow on on I February; it was to remain at this level until after the fall of the Bastille.:
IJ
Meanwhile, the
bourgeoisie had
made its entry on the revolu
tionary stage. The cause of conflict had its roots deep in the old
regime: while colonial trade, land-values, and luxury spending had enormously increased in the course of the cemury. capital
investment and expansion of manufacture were everywhere im peded by the restrictions imposed by privileged corporations,
feudal landowners. and government on the elementary capitalist freedoms : the freedom to hire labour, the freedom to produce, a�d the freedom to buy and sdl. Yet, while the ensuing con
fllc� owed its eventual sharpness and finality to these deeper SOCIal antagonisms, the clash between the bourgeoisie and the privileged orders arose, in the first instance, over representation and voting in the States General. Already in September the . Pans Parlement had begun to lose its reputation as the spokesman for popular liberties by demanding that the States General be constituted as in 1 6 1 4-i.e. that each order should have equal I
Bib: Nat., Collection Joly de Fleury, dou. 1113; Arch. Nat., Y 9"91, 9989, 517, 15309-', 18751, ,8795; X Ib B98g {cited by Monin, op. cit., p . 48g. ardy, viii. '54-5, 168,408, 426.
r:�, " [
"
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
�
PRELUDE TO REVOLUTION
t?
even more for right representation and vote separately. . was vOiced In the pnvdege of insistence on the maintenance Manifesto of the princes of the blood in D«ember. Necker, Es t however, persuaded the Council to low the .Thi � double representation; but the question of voung par tete (as demanded by the bourgeoisie) or 'par orore' (as insisted by
:u
�
�
the nobility and clergy) remained open and led to bloody clashes between nobles and commoners at Rennes. By January the new alinement of forces was becoming clear and Mallet du Pan noted that it was no longer a question of constitutional
conflict between the king and the priviUgits but a 'war between the Thlrd Estate and the two other orders'.' In February the conflict was raised to a higher pitch by the publication of the e abbe Sieyes's pamphlet Q!4'est-ce qut Ie tiers tWa, in which . bourgeoisie for the first time laid claim to control the desumes
�
of the nation irrespective of the wishes or privileges of the other
orders.
It was against this background of developing crisis and poli tical ferment that the ReveiIIon riots took place in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine at the end of April; they have been called the first great popular outbreak of the Revolution,' though they might perhaps with equal justice be termed the last outbreak of
r
the old regime. Reveillon was a successful manufacturer of wall paper, whose main factory in the rue de Montreuil, off the rue du Faubourg Saint-Antoine, employed some 350 workers. He
had won a Royal Medal for his services to industry. He w� . wealthy: his library contained 50,000 volu�es, and hiS furn� ture alone was said to be worth 50,000 itvTes; even after hiS cellan had been ransacked in the riots, we are told that 2,000 bottles remained unscathed. He had the reputation of being a good employer: he claimed to pay none of his workers less than . 25 soW" a day, when it was still common for a labourer to receIVe no more than 20; and, during the arctic winter of I 788-9, wh�n
industry was almost at a standstill for lack of fuel, he had paId 15 soW" unemployment pay to 200 of his workpeople who had been laid off.l Why then did such a solid citizen, good em
ployer, and resp«ted member of his local Electoral Assembly , Cited by Lefebwc, fA RlvoIuliotIfro1lfois. (Paris, '9�), p. • • ,. , Lefebvre, L4 RlwlllIio:t iii '1119, p. 69· , G. Rud�, Pariria WIII""_s, ii. 36.
"
become the target for the destructive violence of the journey men and labourers of the St. Antoine district? Let us consider
the facts briefly. On 23 April Reveillon made a speech in the Electoral Assembly of the Sainte-Marguerite District in whlch he re gretted the high costs of production and the burden imposed on
industry by the high level of wages; whether or not he advo cated a reduction of wages is not certain, but he appears to have lamented the days when workpeople could make do on I S soW" a day. Similar views were expressed on the same day by Henriot. a powder manufacturer of the rue de Cotte, in the Assembly of
the Enfants-Trouves District, also in the Faubourg Saint Antoine. That these remarks, whatever their intention, aroused immediate and spontaneous dissatisfaction among the wage earners of thefaubourg is evident from a report seD[ by Thiroux de Cresne, Paris lieutenant of police, to Louis XVI on the following morning :
II y a eu hier soir sur les dix heures [he wrote] un peu de rumeur dans un canton du raubourg St. Antoine; it n'l�tait que J'etfet du mecontentement que quelques ouvriers marquaient contre deux entrepreneurs de manufacture qui, dans l'assembl«!e de Ste. Mar guerite, avaient fait des observations inconsidh«!es sur Ie taux des salaires.'
After a lull the storm broke on the 27th: being a Monday it was a workers' rest-day. At 3 o'clock in the afternoon, reported Thiroux de Cresne, five or six hundred ouvriers gathered near the Bastille; and, having hanged Reveillon in effigy, paraded
dummy figures of the two manufacturers round different parts of the capital.1 The same afternoon Hardy, whose bookshop, A Ja Colonne d'Or, in the rue Saint-Jacques was admirably situated for witnessing such processions, noted in his Journal that the 'insurrection' had spread to the Notre Dame district; later. he met several hundred workers, armed with sticks and headed by a drummer, in the rue de la Montagne Sainte-Genevieve; having recruited reinforcements in the Faubourg Saint-Marcel, they returned to the Place de Greve, before the Hotel de Ville, some 3,000 strong.J Three Electors of the Third Estate subsequently 1 Alch. Nat., C �11, • Ibid., rol. 53.
no. • 60}'46, fol.
58.
I Hardy, viii. 197-8.
"
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
�
PRELUDE TO REVOLUTION
t?
even more for right representation and vote separately. . was vOiced In the pnvdege of insistence on the maintenance Manifesto of the princes of the blood in D«ember. Necker, Es t however, persuaded the Council to low the .Thi � double representation; but the question of voung par tete (as demanded by the bourgeoisie) or 'par orore' (as insisted by
:u
�
�
the nobility and clergy) remained open and led to bloody clashes between nobles and commoners at Rennes. By January the new alinement of forces was becoming clear and Mallet du Pan noted that it was no longer a question of constitutional
conflict between the king and the priviUgits but a 'war between the Thlrd Estate and the two other orders'.' In February the conflict was raised to a higher pitch by the publication of the e abbe Sieyes's pamphlet Q!4'est-ce qut Ie tiers tWa, in which . bourgeoisie for the first time laid claim to control the desumes
�
of the nation irrespective of the wishes or privileges of the other
orders.
It was against this background of developing crisis and poli tical ferment that the ReveiIIon riots took place in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine at the end of April; they have been called the first great popular outbreak of the Revolution,' though they might perhaps with equal justice be termed the last outbreak of
r
the old regime. Reveillon was a successful manufacturer of wall paper, whose main factory in the rue de Montreuil, off the rue du Faubourg Saint-Antoine, employed some 350 workers. He
had won a Royal Medal for his services to industry. He w� . wealthy: his library contained 50,000 volu�es, and hiS furn� ture alone was said to be worth 50,000 itvTes; even after hiS cellan had been ransacked in the riots, we are told that 2,000 bottles remained unscathed. He had the reputation of being a good employer: he claimed to pay none of his workers less than . 25 soW" a day, when it was still common for a labourer to receIVe no more than 20; and, during the arctic winter of I 788-9, wh�n
industry was almost at a standstill for lack of fuel, he had paId 15 soW" unemployment pay to 200 of his workpeople who had been laid off.l Why then did such a solid citizen, good em
ployer, and resp«ted member of his local Electoral Assembly , Cited by Lefebwc, fA RlvoIuliotIfro1lfois. (Paris, '9�), p. • • ,. , Lefebvre, L4 RlwlllIio:t iii '1119, p. 69· , G. Rud�, Pariria WIII""_s, ii. 36.
"
become the target for the destructive violence of the journey men and labourers of the St. Antoine district? Let us consider
the facts briefly. On 23 April Reveillon made a speech in the Electoral Assembly of the Sainte-Marguerite District in whlch he re gretted the high costs of production and the burden imposed on
industry by the high level of wages; whether or not he advo cated a reduction of wages is not certain, but he appears to have lamented the days when workpeople could make do on I S soW" a day. Similar views were expressed on the same day by Henriot. a powder manufacturer of the rue de Cotte, in the Assembly of
the Enfants-Trouves District, also in the Faubourg Saint Antoine. That these remarks, whatever their intention, aroused immediate and spontaneous dissatisfaction among the wage earners of thefaubourg is evident from a report seD[ by Thiroux de Cresne, Paris lieutenant of police, to Louis XVI on the following morning :
II y a eu hier soir sur les dix heures [he wrote] un peu de rumeur dans un canton du raubourg St. Antoine; it n'l�tait que J'etfet du mecontentement que quelques ouvriers marquaient contre deux entrepreneurs de manufacture qui, dans l'assembl«!e de Ste. Mar guerite, avaient fait des observations inconsidh«!es sur Ie taux des salaires.'
After a lull the storm broke on the 27th: being a Monday it was a workers' rest-day. At 3 o'clock in the afternoon, reported Thiroux de Cresne, five or six hundred ouvriers gathered near the Bastille; and, having hanged Reveillon in effigy, paraded
dummy figures of the two manufacturers round different parts of the capital.1 The same afternoon Hardy, whose bookshop, A Ja Colonne d'Or, in the rue Saint-Jacques was admirably situated for witnessing such processions, noted in his Journal that the 'insurrection' had spread to the Notre Dame district; later. he met several hundred workers, armed with sticks and headed by a drummer, in the rue de la Montagne Sainte-Genevieve; having recruited reinforcements in the Faubourg Saint-Marcel, they returned to the Place de Greve, before the Hotel de Ville, some 3,000 strong.J Three Electors of the Third Estate subsequently 1 Alch. Nat., C �11, • Ibid., rol. 53.
no. • 60}'46, fol.
58.
I Hardy, viii. 197-8.
,6
that evening described their meeting with thedemonstraton later arcel; they Saint.M rg Faubou the or f more once out sct as they persuaded them to disperse.' But the crowds fe-formed soon after ncar Reveillon's factory in the rue de Montreuil. Finding his house guarded by fifty men of the Royal Cravatc Regiment, they made for Henriot's house in the rue de Cotte nearby and
destroyed his furniture and personal effects. They were then dispersed by the troops-without loss of life, noted Thiroux de Crosne. In addition to the Guards posted in Reveillon's house, men were brought in to guard two further detachments of while a reserve force of 100 , faubourg the of parts different
100
mounted troops summoned from Charenton stood by in case of emergency. With this display offorce, the authorities thought that the worst was over.Z But, early next day, the movement started up again and extended over a wider area, considerably alarming the house holders. While more troops were called in, bands of workers went round the districts recruiting fresh supporters by persua sion or intimidation. No work was done that day in the docks; factory workers and workshop journeymen came out in the early afiernoon, and many joined the rioters. The police had
given express instructions that the 500 workers of the Royal Glass Manufactory in the rue de Reuilly-a bare 200 yards from
I
PRELUDE TO REVOLUTION
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
Rcveillon's factory-should be forcibly kept at work; but
itinerant bands broke in the doors and persuaded or compelled the workers to join them. In the Temple district an attempt was made to fetch workers out from their lodgings.l By 5 o'clock,
noted Hardy, demonstrators were assembling on the Pont Neuf, the Pont au Change (adjoining the Chatelet), the Porte Saint-Antoine, and off the boulevards.4 The climax came between six and eight in the evening. R�veillon's house was stormed, the fifty Guards of the Royal Cravate Regiment were swept aside, and the destruction of the previous night was repeated on a vaster scale. The Duc du Chatelet, commanding the Gardes Franr,;aises, gave the order m itat (Paris, , A,1o /Jtltri#tiqu< Ih trois 1Itt:�!I>'$ du Ti
178g), Bib. Nat., Lb 39 • Arch. Nat., C 221, no. 160/146, fols. 49, 54.
1620. ) See cfoss-examination of T�t.,ign., (port_worker), Gilles (marble-worker),
Hallier (farrier), Gu�rin (paper_worker), Chdours (journeyman coppersmith) (Arch, Nat., Y '3[0', [34;'4, '3;,82, 12218, "033) ; also Arch. Nat., C 22', • Hardy, viii. 299. no. 160/t46, foJ. 5 1 .
"
to fire. In spite of the massacre that followed in the narrow congested streets with thousands crowding the windows and roofs, the crowd stood firm and fought back with shouts of 'Liberte . . . nous ne cederons pas.' 1 Others shouted, 'Vive Ie tiers �tat!', and even 'Vive Ie Roi ! Vive M. Necker !': The battle lasted until 8 o'clock; at to, Thiroux de Crosne reported to the
king: 'Le calm� continue a se retablir; it parait qu'il ne reste plus dans Ie faubourg St. Antoine qu� quelques groupes.'J Hardy feared a repetition on the morrow and wrote that
�
before dispersing, the rioters had announced 'que Ie lend�mai
ils feraient grand tapage pour obtenir la diminution du pain'.4 There remained the judicial reckoning. On 29 April Gilbert,
a blanket-maker, and Pourat, a porter, were hanged in the Place de Greve. Three weeks later Mary, a scrivener, was hanged at th� Porte Saint-Antoine; a woman, Marie-Jeanne Trumeau sentenced to share his fate, was found to be pregnant, respited
:
and eventually reprieved. Five others, found drunk in R� veillon's cellars and guilty of resisting the troops with violence and abusive language, wer� exhibited in stocks at the Porte Saint-Antoine alongside Mary's gallows, branded with hot irons, and sent to the galleys for life. Twenty-six other prisoners were eventually released, most of them three months later as ' th� result of public pressure.s The numbers of killed and wounded in the Reveillon riots have never been established. In order not to in8ame opinion further the authorities were careful to play down the number of victims and, in so doing, gave rise to the wildest rumours and specul�tion The Marquis de Sillery, deputy for the nobility : . ofRhelms, In reportmg the events to his constituents, estimated the number of killed at 'several hundred'.' Hardy went one better and put the figure above 900.7 Another writer speaks of s�venty or eighty corpses being placed in the garden of one
smgle house in the rue de Montreuil.' In contrast, the various reports of the commissioners of the Chatelet account for a .. J. Collot, 'L'affaire Rt!vt:illon', Rnw dl$ qu<sl;(IfI.l histMiquu, (:XlIi (193....5), 35 5 ' 239-54· I Arch. Nat., KK 641, fol. '7. , rch. Nat., C 221, no. 160/'46, fol. 52. .. Hardy, viii. 299. ' Arch Nat., Y [ ?530, fob. 129-33; Y 18795, foJ•. +14-5, 447-50, 457, 462; . . 303, DB" 702,: Hardy, "m. 329-3' . • • Akh. N:u., KK 141, fol 16. • Hardy, viii. 313. . . Ltllre au Ro, (Puis, I 78g). Bib. Nal., V, 39 7156, p. '5'
�
l
,6
that evening described their meeting with thedemonstraton later arcel; they Saint.M rg Faubou the or f more once out sct as they persuaded them to disperse.' But the crowds fe-formed soon after ncar Reveillon's factory in the rue de Montreuil. Finding his house guarded by fifty men of the Royal Cravatc Regiment, they made for Henriot's house in the rue de Cotte nearby and
destroyed his furniture and personal effects. They were then dispersed by the troops-without loss of life, noted Thiroux de Crosne. In addition to the Guards posted in Reveillon's house, men were brought in to guard two further detachments of while a reserve force of 100 , faubourg the of parts different
100
mounted troops summoned from Charenton stood by in case of emergency. With this display offorce, the authorities thought that the worst was over.Z But, early next day, the movement started up again and extended over a wider area, considerably alarming the house holders. While more troops were called in, bands of workers went round the districts recruiting fresh supporters by persua sion or intimidation. No work was done that day in the docks; factory workers and workshop journeymen came out in the early afiernoon, and many joined the rioters. The police had
given express instructions that the 500 workers of the Royal Glass Manufactory in the rue de Reuilly-a bare 200 yards from
I
PRELUDE TO REVOLUTION
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
Rcveillon's factory-should be forcibly kept at work; but
itinerant bands broke in the doors and persuaded or compelled the workers to join them. In the Temple district an attempt was made to fetch workers out from their lodgings.l By 5 o'clock,
noted Hardy, demonstrators were assembling on the Pont Neuf, the Pont au Change (adjoining the Chatelet), the Porte Saint-Antoine, and off the boulevards.4 The climax came between six and eight in the evening. R�veillon's house was stormed, the fifty Guards of the Royal Cravate Regiment were swept aside, and the destruction of the previous night was repeated on a vaster scale. The Duc du Chatelet, commanding the Gardes Franr,;aises, gave the order m itat (Paris, , A,1o /Jtltri#tiqu< Ih trois 1Itt:�!I>'$ du Ti
178g), Bib. Nat., Lb 39 • Arch. Nat., C 221, no. 160/146, fols. 49, 54.
1620. ) See cfoss-examination of T�t.,ign., (port_worker), Gilles (marble-worker),
Hallier (farrier), Gu�rin (paper_worker), Chdours (journeyman coppersmith) (Arch, Nat., Y '3[0', [34;'4, '3;,82, 12218, "033) ; also Arch. Nat., C 22', • Hardy, viii. 299. no. 160/t46, foJ. 5 1 .
"
to fire. In spite of the massacre that followed in the narrow congested streets with thousands crowding the windows and roofs, the crowd stood firm and fought back with shouts of 'Liberte . . . nous ne cederons pas.' 1 Others shouted, 'Vive Ie tiers �tat!', and even 'Vive Ie Roi ! Vive M. Necker !': The battle lasted until 8 o'clock; at to, Thiroux de Crosne reported to the
king: 'Le calm� continue a se retablir; it parait qu'il ne reste plus dans Ie faubourg St. Antoine qu� quelques groupes.'J Hardy feared a repetition on the morrow and wrote that
�
before dispersing, the rioters had announced 'que Ie lend�mai
ils feraient grand tapage pour obtenir la diminution du pain'.4 There remained the judicial reckoning. On 29 April Gilbert,
a blanket-maker, and Pourat, a porter, were hanged in the Place de Greve. Three weeks later Mary, a scrivener, was hanged at th� Porte Saint-Antoine; a woman, Marie-Jeanne Trumeau sentenced to share his fate, was found to be pregnant, respited
:
and eventually reprieved. Five others, found drunk in R� veillon's cellars and guilty of resisting the troops with violence and abusive language, wer� exhibited in stocks at the Porte Saint-Antoine alongside Mary's gallows, branded with hot irons, and sent to the galleys for life. Twenty-six other prisoners were eventually released, most of them three months later as ' th� result of public pressure.s The numbers of killed and wounded in the Reveillon riots have never been established. In order not to in8ame opinion further the authorities were careful to play down the number of victims and, in so doing, gave rise to the wildest rumours and specul�tion The Marquis de Sillery, deputy for the nobility : . ofRhelms, In reportmg the events to his constituents, estimated the number of killed at 'several hundred'.' Hardy went one better and put the figure above 900.7 Another writer speaks of s�venty or eighty corpses being placed in the garden of one
smgle house in the rue de Montreuil.' In contrast, the various reports of the commissioners of the Chatelet account for a .. J. Collot, 'L'affaire Rt!vt:illon', Rnw dl$ qu<sl;(IfI.l histMiquu, (:XlIi (193....5), 35 5 ' 239-54· I Arch. Nat., KK 641, fol. '7. , rch. Nat., C 221, no. 160/'46, fol. 52. .. Hardy, viii. 299. ' Arch Nat., Y [ ?530, fob. 129-33; Y 18795, foJ•. +14-5, 447-50, 457, 462; . . 303, DB" 702,: Hardy, "m. 329-3' . • • Akh. N:u., KK 141, fol 16. • Hardy, viii. 313. . . Ltllre au Ro, (Puis, I 78g). Bib. Nal., V, 39 7156, p. '5'
�
l
"
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
PRELUDE TO REVOLUTION
death·roll of only twenty-five and for twenty-two wounded survivors. I These figures are almost certainly incomplete,
remarks attributed to Reveillon had a significance in no way peculiar to the ftwbourg, it proved an easy matter to recruit
,8
Yet, despite these deficiencies, these reports help us to establish
support from neighbouring parishes-yet it remained a local affair and its repercussions were not as widespread as those of the previous August and September.
rioters came from outside the Faubourg Saint-Antoine;l while
tion in that they represent an insurrectionary movement of wage-earners. In them alone, of all the insurrections during the period under review, the wage-earners clearly predominate and
of Saint-Marcel.3 Collot's contention is supported by
Guerin, one of the accused, who, under cross-examination, told
an appeal is made, however confusedly, to the wage-earners as a social group. The Revolution in Paris was to witness more than one concerted wages movement of different trades-as in
occasionne ce tumulte·lil, qu'il l'a entendu dire a son frere et
tionary form. We should certainly hesitate, after the warnings voiced in the last chapter, to assume that the use of the term
though we have no means of correcting them.
both the nature of the rioters and the districts most directly involved in the disturbances. Historians have not been able to agree on the latter point. Jaures thought the majority of the a more recent writer, J. Collot, has claimed that ,the main stimulus to them came from the other traditionally turbulent
fau.bourg
the police : 'Ce 50nt des gens du faubourg Marcel qui ant
autres,'
but, more conclusively perhaps, by the reports ofthe commission ers of the Chateleton those killed, wounded, and arrested. In fact,
The Reveillon riots are unique in the history of the Revolu
1791 and I794-but they were never to assume an insurrec
ouvriers by Hardy and Thiroux de Crosne necessarily meant that
the persons so described were wage-earners in our modem sense of the word;' but, in this instance, the terms prove sub stantially to coincide. We have already seen that a direct and
of sixty-three persons whose addresses appear in these reports, only five lived in the Faubourg Saint-Marce1.6 This would seem
particular appeal was addressed by the demonstrators to
or good fortune in dodging bullets or escaping detection!
less than fifty-eight were wage-eamers-journeymen of the
to clinch the matter-unless, ofcourse, it could be demonstrated that the people of Saint-Marcel had more than their share ofskill Jaures's contention is nearer the truth : ofthe same sixty-three
persons, only thirty-two are known to have lived in the Faubourg
Saint-Antoine-clearly a bare majority; yet if we add those
residing in the adjoining and closely associated districts of Saint
Paul and Saint-Gervais, we shall account for a substantial majority of those whose records have heen preserved. By and
large, then, these riots may be said to have heen largely a Saint Antoine affair, drawing their main stimulus and most solid body of support from the Saint-Antoine districts. Yet as the
I Arch. Nat., Y 11033, 1358�, 15101; C.-L. Chassin, US CaA;err It lu I/ection.r de Pa,u m '78g, iii. 7� fr. • Jauro, Hil/o;,e rocja/iste i. 14�' , Collot, op. cit., pp. 4�-49. • Arch. Nat., Y 1�1I18. • In a leUer to Commissioner Joron of 8 May 1789, he writes: 'Vow leur fer� entendre que la plupart do seditieux
workers in docks, factories, and lodging-houses; and an examina tion of the police reports shows that of seventy-one persons (arrested, wounded, or killed) whose occupations are given, no
small crafts of the faubourg, riverside and general workers of Saint-Paul and Saint-Gervais, a sprinkling of workers in manu
facture. The remainder included a sculptor, a wine-merchant, a master upholsterer, and-somewhat incongruously-a Knight
of the Holy Roman Empire_z There was one woman among
them-one of the alleged ringleaders-Marie-Anne Trumeau by name : she was supposed to have incited the rioters to burn and loot with cries of 'Allons, vive Ie Tiers Etat!' and 'A la Reveillon!'; as we saw, it nearly cost her her life.J
• See footl1ote 6, p. 38. In addilion, Hardy records the arrest on � May in the rue do Pretro St. S
I &e p. 16 above.
"
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
PRELUDE TO REVOLUTION
death·roll of only twenty-five and for twenty-two wounded survivors. I These figures are almost certainly incomplete,
remarks attributed to Reveillon had a significance in no way peculiar to the ftwbourg, it proved an easy matter to recruit
,8
Yet, despite these deficiencies, these reports help us to establish
support from neighbouring parishes-yet it remained a local affair and its repercussions were not as widespread as those of the previous August and September.
rioters came from outside the Faubourg Saint-Antoine;l while
tion in that they represent an insurrectionary movement of wage-earners. In them alone, of all the insurrections during the period under review, the wage-earners clearly predominate and
of Saint-Marcel.3 Collot's contention is supported by
Guerin, one of the accused, who, under cross-examination, told
an appeal is made, however confusedly, to the wage-earners as a social group. The Revolution in Paris was to witness more than one concerted wages movement of different trades-as in
occasionne ce tumulte·lil, qu'il l'a entendu dire a son frere et
tionary form. We should certainly hesitate, after the warnings voiced in the last chapter, to assume that the use of the term
though we have no means of correcting them.
both the nature of the rioters and the districts most directly involved in the disturbances. Historians have not been able to agree on the latter point. Jaures thought the majority of the a more recent writer, J. Collot, has claimed that ,the main stimulus to them came from the other traditionally turbulent
fau.bourg
the police : 'Ce 50nt des gens du faubourg Marcel qui ant
autres,'
but, more conclusively perhaps, by the reports ofthe commission ers of the Chateleton those killed, wounded, and arrested. In fact,
The Reveillon riots are unique in the history of the Revolu
1791 and I794-but they were never to assume an insurrec
ouvriers by Hardy and Thiroux de Crosne necessarily meant that
the persons so described were wage-earners in our modem sense of the word;' but, in this instance, the terms prove sub stantially to coincide. We have already seen that a direct and
of sixty-three persons whose addresses appear in these reports, only five lived in the Faubourg Saint-Marce1.6 This would seem
particular appeal was addressed by the demonstrators to
or good fortune in dodging bullets or escaping detection!
less than fifty-eight were wage-eamers-journeymen of the
to clinch the matter-unless, ofcourse, it could be demonstrated that the people of Saint-Marcel had more than their share ofskill Jaures's contention is nearer the truth : ofthe same sixty-three
persons, only thirty-two are known to have lived in the Faubourg
Saint-Antoine-clearly a bare majority; yet if we add those
residing in the adjoining and closely associated districts of Saint
Paul and Saint-Gervais, we shall account for a substantial majority of those whose records have heen preserved. By and
large, then, these riots may be said to have heen largely a Saint Antoine affair, drawing their main stimulus and most solid body of support from the Saint-Antoine districts. Yet as the
I Arch. Nat., Y 11033, 1358�, 15101; C.-L. Chassin, US CaA;err It lu I/ection.r de Pa,u m '78g, iii. 7� fr. • Jauro, Hil/o;,e rocja/iste i. 14�' , Collot, op. cit., pp. 4�-49. • Arch. Nat., Y 1�1I18. • In a leUer to Commissioner Joron of 8 May 1789, he writes: 'Vow leur fer� entendre que la plupart do seditieux
workers in docks, factories, and lodging-houses; and an examina tion of the police reports shows that of seventy-one persons (arrested, wounded, or killed) whose occupations are given, no
small crafts of the faubourg, riverside and general workers of Saint-Paul and Saint-Gervais, a sprinkling of workers in manu
facture. The remainder included a sculptor, a wine-merchant, a master upholsterer, and-somewhat incongruously-a Knight
of the Holy Roman Empire_z There was one woman among
them-one of the alleged ringleaders-Marie-Anne Trumeau by name : she was supposed to have incited the rioters to burn and loot with cries of 'Allons, vive Ie Tiers Etat!' and 'A la Reveillon!'; as we saw, it nearly cost her her life.J
• See footl1ote 6, p. 38. In addilion, Hardy records the arrest on � May in the rue do Pretro St. S
I &e p. 16 above.
,0
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
What drove these journeymen, labourers, and petty crafts
men to such violent outbursts of anger and to behave with such reckless courage? The immediate cause of the disturbance is, of course, not in doubt: it flowed directly from the 'inconsiderate' remarks attributed to Reveillon and Henriot concerning the high level of wages. Whether they actually advocated a reduc tion, as was widely believed; or whether they merely regretted the passing of happier days, as some of their apologists main tained ;' or whether, as they themselves insisted, they never made the reported remarks at a1l2 does not really make mU'ch difference. What is important is what they were believed to
41
Courtes rlflexions sur l' ivinnnent du .28 auril, points to an aristocratic or clerical plot
in which
un grand nombre d'ouvrien de differcntes professions ont tte con i trants, Ics uns par argent, les autres par violence, a suivre cette troupe de (arcenes.
1.
The reports ofall the investigating commissioners show the same preoccupation with outside agents; and, having failed to obtain satisfaction on this score from any of the existing prisoners, the police proceeded to arrest on 3 May the abbe Roy, a man who
have said by the wage-earners of the faubourg and the effect it
had already been publicly denounced as a government agent
had on them. Some of the more coherent of the accused ad� mitted under cross-examination that it was the veiled threat to their wages that had made them join in the riots. For example. the harness-maker, Le Blanc, who confessed to having entered
and a personal enemy of ReveilJon. But he proved a disappoint
for when one ofthe defendants, the paper-worker Sirier, claimed
Reveillon's house and thrown furniture out of the window, explained his reasons for joining the demonstrators as follows :
to have been given money in the rue Saint-Honore some days after the riots, he was asked 'si ce n'etait point un abbe ou
Qu'il y a ete par curio!ite et parce qu'il y a ete entraine par la multitude, qu'il avait aimi que les autres ouvriers du faubourg de I'humeur contre Ie sr. Revdllon parce qu'il avait dit dans I'assem
,
PRELUDE TO REVOLUTION
brigands' ;I and the author of the pamphlet,
blee du tien etat a Ste. Margueri te que les ouvrien pouvaient vivre avec quinze sols par jour, qu'il avait chez lui des ouvrien qui gagnaient vingt sols par jour et avaient la montre dans Ie gousset et qu'ils scraient bient6t plw riches que lui.
And he added, perhaps significantly, that it was his own em� player, Olivier, a well-known porcelain manufacturer of the rue de la Raquette, who had told him so.) Taking place when they did, at a time of intense political ferment, these riots were bound to appear to the authorities as something more than a mere spontaneous outbreak over wages.
As none of the arrested workers appeared to be a leader, who
then had incited them by bribery, or other means? Hardy refers to the rioters as '(des) ouvriers . . . souleves par des , Arch. Nat., KK 6.p, fol. , 6. 1 &/IOJ'JWliJicalif""lI1" k ,uur lYvri/Jon and &poslJWliJictl/if""1I1" Ie linn- H,lUiol (Paris, I 18g). Bib. Nat., L'> 39 16,8--' 9. 1 Arch. Nat., Y 13319. Similar lIatemenli w<:re made by Deldevae, a lCulptor, and Verpy, a joiner (Arch. Nat., Y 122'S). O!ivi�r later achieved fame for his porcelain models of the Bastille (sec 'La Bastille el lei faiencien' in l..tJ R'<'O/wli(nl T/Ulftl;'t, i (18SI), • •6-IS).
ing witness and was released a few days later.J The belief in clerical conspirators seems to have been strong at the Chatelet,
d'autres particuliers qui Ie lui avait donne.'. Yet, as in the riots of 1 775, the beliefin a clerical plot appears to have had no solid foundation.
Nor did there prove ro be any more substance in another
aspect of the conspiracy theory-that the rioters had been
bribed. Montjoie, the editor of the ultra-royalist L'Ami du Roi, reported that each of the wounded brought to the Hotel-Dieu were found to have
12 francs in his possession, in most cases
wrapped in paper as though newly counted.s It appears to have been a fabrication, as the police, who had every reason for wishing to confirm their own belief in a clerical, Orleanist, or other plot, found nothing suspicious on any one ofthe prisoners, all ofwhom were subjected to a personal search. On the eighteen corpses taken to Montrouge cemetery and examined by Com missioner Odent. not a brass farthing was found-only a few cheap tobacco-pouches, keys, trade instruments and, in one instance, a small silver object that may have been stolen.6 The only person who admitted any monetary payment and who was
I Hardy, viii. 299. • Bib. Nat., Lb 39 115S. , H.ardy, viii. 308-9; Cha..sin, op. cit., iii. 104; Tuetey, Rlptr/tli" glnba/, vol. i, pp. xl.'v-v. r ha.ve been unable 10 find Roy'. douier in the a.rchivCl ofthe Chatdet. Arch. Nat., Y 141 t9. I Tuetey, op. cit., p. xlv. Arch. Nat., Y '50'9.
:
,0
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
What drove these journeymen, labourers, and petty crafts
men to such violent outbursts of anger and to behave with such reckless courage? The immediate cause of the disturbance is, of course, not in doubt: it flowed directly from the 'inconsiderate' remarks attributed to Reveillon and Henriot concerning the high level of wages. Whether they actually advocated a reduc tion, as was widely believed; or whether they merely regretted the passing of happier days, as some of their apologists main tained ;' or whether, as they themselves insisted, they never made the reported remarks at a1l2 does not really make mU'ch difference. What is important is what they were believed to
41
Courtes rlflexions sur l' ivinnnent du .28 auril, points to an aristocratic or clerical plot
in which
un grand nombre d'ouvrien de differcntes professions ont tte con i trants, Ics uns par argent, les autres par violence, a suivre cette troupe de (arcenes.
1.
The reports ofall the investigating commissioners show the same preoccupation with outside agents; and, having failed to obtain satisfaction on this score from any of the existing prisoners, the police proceeded to arrest on 3 May the abbe Roy, a man who
have said by the wage-earners of the faubourg and the effect it
had already been publicly denounced as a government agent
had on them. Some of the more coherent of the accused ad� mitted under cross-examination that it was the veiled threat to their wages that had made them join in the riots. For example. the harness-maker, Le Blanc, who confessed to having entered
and a personal enemy of ReveilJon. But he proved a disappoint
for when one ofthe defendants, the paper-worker Sirier, claimed
Reveillon's house and thrown furniture out of the window, explained his reasons for joining the demonstrators as follows :
to have been given money in the rue Saint-Honore some days after the riots, he was asked 'si ce n'etait point un abbe ou
Qu'il y a ete par curio!ite et parce qu'il y a ete entraine par la multitude, qu'il avait aimi que les autres ouvriers du faubourg de I'humeur contre Ie sr. Revdllon parce qu'il avait dit dans I'assem
,
PRELUDE TO REVOLUTION
brigands' ;I and the author of the pamphlet,
blee du tien etat a Ste. Margueri te que les ouvrien pouvaient vivre avec quinze sols par jour, qu'il avait chez lui des ouvrien qui gagnaient vingt sols par jour et avaient la montre dans Ie gousset et qu'ils scraient bient6t plw riches que lui.
And he added, perhaps significantly, that it was his own em� player, Olivier, a well-known porcelain manufacturer of the rue de la Raquette, who had told him so.) Taking place when they did, at a time of intense political ferment, these riots were bound to appear to the authorities as something more than a mere spontaneous outbreak over wages.
As none of the arrested workers appeared to be a leader, who
then had incited them by bribery, or other means? Hardy refers to the rioters as '(des) ouvriers . . . souleves par des , Arch. Nat., KK 6.p, fol. , 6. 1 &/IOJ'JWliJicalif""lI1" k ,uur lYvri/Jon and &poslJWliJictl/if""1I1" Ie linn- H,lUiol (Paris, I 18g). Bib. Nat., L'> 39 16,8--' 9. 1 Arch. Nat., Y 13319. Similar lIatemenli w<:re made by Deldevae, a lCulptor, and Verpy, a joiner (Arch. Nat., Y 122'S). O!ivi�r later achieved fame for his porcelain models of the Bastille (sec 'La Bastille el lei faiencien' in l..tJ R'<'O/wli(nl T/Ulftl;'t, i (18SI), • •6-IS).
ing witness and was released a few days later.J The belief in clerical conspirators seems to have been strong at the Chatelet,
d'autres particuliers qui Ie lui avait donne.'. Yet, as in the riots of 1 775, the beliefin a clerical plot appears to have had no solid foundation.
Nor did there prove ro be any more substance in another
aspect of the conspiracy theory-that the rioters had been
bribed. Montjoie, the editor of the ultra-royalist L'Ami du Roi, reported that each of the wounded brought to the Hotel-Dieu were found to have
12 francs in his possession, in most cases
wrapped in paper as though newly counted.s It appears to have been a fabrication, as the police, who had every reason for wishing to confirm their own belief in a clerical, Orleanist, or other plot, found nothing suspicious on any one ofthe prisoners, all ofwhom were subjected to a personal search. On the eighteen corpses taken to Montrouge cemetery and examined by Com missioner Odent. not a brass farthing was found-only a few cheap tobacco-pouches, keys, trade instruments and, in one instance, a small silver object that may have been stolen.6 The only person who admitted any monetary payment and who was
I Hardy, viii. 299. • Bib. Nat., Lb 39 115S. , H.ardy, viii. 308-9; Cha..sin, op. cit., iii. 104; Tuetey, Rlptr/tli" glnba/, vol. i, pp. xl.'v-v. r ha.ve been unable 10 find Roy'. douier in the a.rchivCl ofthe Chatdet. Arch. Nat., Y 141 t9. I Tuetey, op. cit., p. xlv. Arch. Nat., Y '50'9.
:
411:
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
found to have considerable sums in his pockets was the paper
worker Sirier, and his connexion with the case only began a
week after the riots ended,l Nor, again, does Taine's charge that the riot�rs wer� 'bri gands' stand up to investigation, unless the tenn 1$ us�d 10 the widest sense, Among the prisoners, only three had Incurred
� an�, in two cases, these had
previous convictions of any kin
merely involved short terms of Impruonment at the Hotel de
la Force; only one man had a criminal record ofany accoun� the port-worker Teteigne, who was found to b� branded Wlth , a ·V'.l The majority of these pnsoners appear, In fact, to have been ordinary working men of a variety oftrades, most of them
PRELUDE TO REVOLUTION
bated accapareurs, or food-hoarders, the most ready !arget for popular fury The a�thor �fthe pamphlet Lettre,� Rot eems to � : have appreciated this mouve when he wrote : Slfe, c est a la cherte du pain que l'on doit attribuer nos dernien malheurs.'1
We also note Hardy's entry in his
Journal that,
after wrecking
Reveillon's house, the rioten had announced their intention of demanding a reduction in the price of bread ;l and it is a re
markable feature of the riots that the only premises broken into, apart from Reveillon's and Henriot's own properties,
were food-shops.l All the evidence, in fact, points to hunger as
the main motive force behind the disturbances. This does not, of course, rule out altogether the possibility that other outside agents intervened to fan discontent. Was
employed,' and to have come out of the affair without monetary gain or loot. . . . Yet there was a hidden hand behmd these dIsturbances 10 so
popular anger deliberately ��mented and directed agains.t R6. veillon and Henriot by pohbc:al opponents or busmcss nvals?
�emselves h�ve
new fashionable slogan, 'Vive Ie Tiers Etat!', as they set about their work ofdestruction. This may seem all the more incompre
far as there lay at the back of them deeper economic causes than were immediately apparent. A few random remarks on wages by two local manufacturers could hardly in
, provoked a conflagration ofsuch proportions. It IS also a stnking
fact that not one of Reveillon's 350 workers were among the killed wounded or arrested and that no suggestion is made in any o the repor of attempts to bring them out with the other workers on 28 April. It would, therefore, be n�nsense �o try
�
f
to explain the Reveillon riots in terms of a stnke or SImple wages protest against an unpopula: employer. It wa:' much more a violent, though partly uncoDSClOUS, protest against the pre vailing scarcity and high cost ofbread: the 4-lb. loaf,
� we sa.w,
had since February remained at the phenomenally hIgh pnce of I41 sow. This protest was directed against Reveillon and
Henriot but not because they had shown themselves to be bad employ rs or because the workers had been agitated by clerical . or aristocratic agents. Personal eneoues of the two manufac
;
turers may, as they themselves suspected, have played some part in stimulating popular anger; but they could only hope for
success because Reveillon's offending remarks about wages had
associated him and his colleague in the public mind with the 1 Areh. Nat., Y [5101, 13454.
, Areh. Nat., Y [41 [g.
> Only 5 of 35 prillOners and I of 23 wounded are described as un�mployed. Some h;$Ioriallll may have been rrWled on this point by the raet thaI the nou began in eamcst on a Monday, a workers' reu day.
The fonner seems unlikely: the rioten, as we saw, c:hanted the
hensible, as Rc!veillon himself was a prominent figure in the local Third Estate. But to the Re!veillon rioters, as to the men who destroyed the Paris c:ustoms posts in the following July, the
words 'Tiers Etat' had a more limited social application: in their
mouths it appears to have been a rallying cry ofthe poor against the rich rather than of the nation as a whole against a handful of privileged persons, as conceived. by the abbe! Sieyes. In this sense, of course, the slogan 'Vive Ie Tiers Etat' could be used against a wealthy manufacturer like Re!veillon. More mysterious is the attitude of the porcelain·manu.
facturer Olivier, said to have reponed Reveillon's indiscretions in the Sainte-Marguerite District Assembly to his own work people in the most lurid and provocative terms.4 Had some
local employers a penonal grudge against Re!veillon and did they deliberately stir up their workers and the poor of the faubourg against a successful business rival? It is an interesting possibility, though it would offer no fundamental explanation: neither business rivals nor clerical adventurers, neither Orleanists nor Knights of the Holy Roman Empire played more than, at most, a very minor part in the , Bib. Nal., Lb 39 1156. I Arch. Nat., Y 1 1 033, 16005. ,
1 Hardy, viii. 299. • Arcl1. Nat., Y 13319.
411:
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
found to have considerable sums in his pockets was the paper
worker Sirier, and his connexion with the case only began a
week after the riots ended,l Nor, again, does Taine's charge that the riot�rs wer� 'bri gands' stand up to investigation, unless the tenn 1$ us�d 10 the widest sense, Among the prisoners, only three had Incurred
� an�, in two cases, these had
previous convictions of any kin
merely involved short terms of Impruonment at the Hotel de
la Force; only one man had a criminal record ofany accoun� the port-worker Teteigne, who was found to b� branded Wlth , a ·V'.l The majority of these pnsoners appear, In fact, to have been ordinary working men of a variety oftrades, most of them
PRELUDE TO REVOLUTION
bated accapareurs, or food-hoarders, the most ready !arget for popular fury The a�thor �fthe pamphlet Lettre,� Rot eems to � : have appreciated this mouve when he wrote : Slfe, c est a la cherte du pain que l'on doit attribuer nos dernien malheurs.'1
We also note Hardy's entry in his
Journal that,
after wrecking
Reveillon's house, the rioten had announced their intention of demanding a reduction in the price of bread ;l and it is a re
markable feature of the riots that the only premises broken into, apart from Reveillon's and Henriot's own properties,
were food-shops.l All the evidence, in fact, points to hunger as
the main motive force behind the disturbances. This does not, of course, rule out altogether the possibility that other outside agents intervened to fan discontent. Was
employed,' and to have come out of the affair without monetary gain or loot. . . . Yet there was a hidden hand behmd these dIsturbances 10 so
popular anger deliberately ��mented and directed agains.t R6. veillon and Henriot by pohbc:al opponents or busmcss nvals?
�emselves h�ve
new fashionable slogan, 'Vive Ie Tiers Etat!', as they set about their work ofdestruction. This may seem all the more incompre
far as there lay at the back of them deeper economic causes than were immediately apparent. A few random remarks on wages by two local manufacturers could hardly in
, provoked a conflagration ofsuch proportions. It IS also a stnking
fact that not one of Reveillon's 350 workers were among the killed wounded or arrested and that no suggestion is made in any o the repor of attempts to bring them out with the other workers on 28 April. It would, therefore, be n�nsense �o try
�
f
to explain the Reveillon riots in terms of a stnke or SImple wages protest against an unpopula: employer. It wa:' much more a violent, though partly uncoDSClOUS, protest against the pre vailing scarcity and high cost ofbread: the 4-lb. loaf,
� we sa.w,
had since February remained at the phenomenally hIgh pnce of I41 sow. This protest was directed against Reveillon and
Henriot but not because they had shown themselves to be bad employ rs or because the workers had been agitated by clerical . or aristocratic agents. Personal eneoues of the two manufac
;
turers may, as they themselves suspected, have played some part in stimulating popular anger; but they could only hope for
success because Reveillon's offending remarks about wages had
associated him and his colleague in the public mind with the 1 Areh. Nat., Y [5101, 13454.
, Areh. Nat., Y [41 [g.
> Only 5 of 35 prillOners and I of 23 wounded are described as un�mployed. Some h;$Ioriallll may have been rrWled on this point by the raet thaI the nou began in eamcst on a Monday, a workers' reu day.
The fonner seems unlikely: the rioten, as we saw, c:hanted the
hensible, as Rc!veillon himself was a prominent figure in the local Third Estate. But to the Re!veillon rioters, as to the men who destroyed the Paris c:ustoms posts in the following July, the
words 'Tiers Etat' had a more limited social application: in their
mouths it appears to have been a rallying cry ofthe poor against the rich rather than of the nation as a whole against a handful of privileged persons, as conceived. by the abbe! Sieyes. In this sense, of course, the slogan 'Vive Ie Tiers Etat' could be used against a wealthy manufacturer like Re!veillon. More mysterious is the attitude of the porcelain·manu.
facturer Olivier, said to have reponed Reveillon's indiscretions in the Sainte-Marguerite District Assembly to his own work people in the most lurid and provocative terms.4 Had some
local employers a penonal grudge against Re!veillon and did they deliberately stir up their workers and the poor of the faubourg against a successful business rival? It is an interesting possibility, though it would offer no fundamental explanation: neither business rivals nor clerical adventurers, neither Orleanists nor Knights of the Holy Roman Empire played more than, at most, a very minor part in the , Bib. Nal., Lb 39 1156. I Arch. Nat., Y 1 1 033, 16005. ,
1 Hardy, viii. 299. • Arcl1. Nat., Y 13319.
++
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
Reveillon affair. The primary cause of the disturbance, as so often in the riots of the old regime-and of the Revolution lay in the shortage and the high price of bread, which already accounted for something like three-quarters of the wage earner's budget.1 A further cause, which gave the riots their special character, were the indiscreet remarks of the manu facturers which, by rdating the question of bread to that of wages, roused the particular fury of the wage-earners. Another important factor was, of course, the current political atmosphere, in which the ideas and slogans ofthe revolutionary bourgeow, already challenging the privileged orders for the control of the States General, were beginning to take root among the menu peuple and to be turned by them to their own advantage. This atmosphere was to be raised to an even higher pitch by the events of the next months. , G. Rudl!, 'Prices, Wages and Popular Movements in Paris during the French Revolution', &on. Hill. R,U., vol. vi, no. 3, April 1954, pp. 247-9. See also Appendix VII.
r
IV JULY
1789
VISITOR to France in the winter of 1788-g might have been excused for not anticipating the cataclysm that was brewing or even for not observing any particular change in the �t�tude of the common people to the problems ofthe day. The pnvileged orders had, ofcourse, taken resolute and vigorous action to assert their claims against the Crown ; but this was part of the traditional pattern and had been done, though less successfully, under Louis XV. Again, the economic crisis had gravely deepened and the small consumers showed obvious signs of disaffection over the rising price of wheat, flour, and bread ; but might not this end in much the same way as in 1740, ' 768, or 177S? Even the severe frQst ofJanuary 1 789, which added to the already alarming industrial unemployment generally attributed to Vergennes's 'free' Trade Treaty with England,1 did not substantially alter the picture. The talk of 'revolution', commonly voiced in fashionable-philosophic circles, hac! been going on for years. The government, it is true, had lately promised that the States General should meet in May and this was certainly an event without recent precedent; but might not the Third Estate agree to accept submissively the humble role prescribed for it by the nobility and bishops who had taken the initiative in its calling? It was, in fact, not so much the decision to convene the Estates as the consequences that flowed (unexpected by its promoters) from this decision that entirely transformed the situation and the perspective o future developments in France. An intelligent traveller like Arthur Young or a shrewd native observer like Mallet du Pan could note this difference once the hird Estate had decided to accept the challenge-by demand Ing not only double representation in the Estates, which was SOOn conceded, but the right to vote par lite, i.e. as part of a
A
f
!
, C. Schmidt, 'La Crise industrielle de 1788 en Francc', R.uw hislflriqu., xcvii (lgoA), 78-94. For a different view see L. Cahen, 'Unc Nouvelle interprbation . du traUl! francOoangiais de 1786-7', R.u. Hill clxxxv (1939). 237-83. .•
++
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
Reveillon affair. The primary cause of the disturbance, as so often in the riots of the old regime-and of the Revolution lay in the shortage and the high price of bread, which already accounted for something like three-quarters of the wage earner's budget.1 A further cause, which gave the riots their special character, were the indiscreet remarks of the manu facturers which, by rdating the question of bread to that of wages, roused the particular fury of the wage-earners. Another important factor was, of course, the current political atmosphere, in which the ideas and slogans ofthe revolutionary bourgeow, already challenging the privileged orders for the control of the States General, were beginning to take root among the menu peuple and to be turned by them to their own advantage. This atmosphere was to be raised to an even higher pitch by the events of the next months. , G. Rudl!, 'Prices, Wages and Popular Movements in Paris during the French Revolution', &on. Hill. R,U., vol. vi, no. 3, April 1954, pp. 247-9. See also Appendix VII.
r
IV JULY
1789
VISITOR to France in the winter of 1788-g might have been excused for not anticipating the cataclysm that was brewing or even for not observing any particular change in the �t�tude of the common people to the problems ofthe day. The pnvileged orders had, ofcourse, taken resolute and vigorous action to assert their claims against the Crown ; but this was part of the traditional pattern and had been done, though less successfully, under Louis XV. Again, the economic crisis had gravely deepened and the small consumers showed obvious signs of disaffection over the rising price of wheat, flour, and bread ; but might not this end in much the same way as in 1740, ' 768, or 177S? Even the severe frQst ofJanuary 1 789, which added to the already alarming industrial unemployment generally attributed to Vergennes's 'free' Trade Treaty with England,1 did not substantially alter the picture. The talk of 'revolution', commonly voiced in fashionable-philosophic circles, hac! been going on for years. The government, it is true, had lately promised that the States General should meet in May and this was certainly an event without recent precedent; but might not the Third Estate agree to accept submissively the humble role prescribed for it by the nobility and bishops who had taken the initiative in its calling? It was, in fact, not so much the decision to convene the Estates as the consequences that flowed (unexpected by its promoters) from this decision that entirely transformed the situation and the perspective o future developments in France. An intelligent traveller like Arthur Young or a shrewd native observer like Mallet du Pan could note this difference once the hird Estate had decided to accept the challenge-by demand Ing not only double representation in the Estates, which was SOOn conceded, but the right to vote par lite, i.e. as part of a
A
f
!
, C. Schmidt, 'La Crise industrielle de 1788 en Francc', R.uw hislflriqu., xcvii (lgoA), 78-94. For a different view see L. Cahen, 'Unc Nouvelle interprbation . du traUl! francOoangiais de 1786-7', R.u. Hill clxxxv (1939). 237-83. .•
..
JULY
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
single deliberative body, in which the Tiers would inevitably carry the day provided it could win over even a small minority
of nobles and c:1ergy. It was to further this demand and to win support for it beyond the ranks of the bourgeoisie that the abbe
Qu'esl-ct que k Tiers £Ial?, and that
1 789
already developing in the capital.' The States General were
deadlocked over the rival claims of the Third Estate-which soon constituted itselfa National Assembly-and of the majority of the nobility and bishops, To force the pace and overawe
Rights of Man. Once these ideas began to permeate the common
Paris foreign troops were being concentrated on the outskirts of June already Hardy had noted the arrival of the city: on German and Hungarian regiments, brought in on the pretext
economic hardship and traditional grievances. The very realiza.
around Marie-Antoinette and the king's younger brother, the
Sieyes wrote his pamphlet
there was all this talk about 'Tiers Etat', 'Ia nation') and the
3
people, as they did in the spring of 1789, a new direction and purpose were given to popular unrest, already nurtured on
of preventing a renewed outburst of rioting in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine.z The intentions of the Court Party, grouped
tion, indeed, that the States General were about to meet and that the people's complaints, as voiced in the ,allier! de
Comte d'Anois, were becoming clear : on the night of22 June the king was persuaded to dismiss Necker and to overawe the National Assembly by a display of military force. The plot
doUan&ts,
should be heard, aroused what historians have called 'la grande esperance',
Un evenement si etrange [writes Lefebvre] a eveille I'espoir, eciatant et nebuleux tout a Ia fois, d'uDe regeneration nationale, d'uDe ere nouvelle ou Ies hommes seraient plus heureux.'
An oft-quoted example is, of course, that given by Arthur Young of his meeting with a peasant woman in Champagne who told him that
It was said that something was to be done by some great folks for such poor ones, but she did not know who nor how, but God send WI
better, car Us tailus et Its droits MUS trrasrnt.2
The other side of the picture was the conviction that the
privileged orders would stop at nothing to see that these hopes were defeated-and so the notion ofthe 'complot aristocratique', with its deep traditional roots, came simultaneously into being. How closely it was related to the old notion of the 'pacte de
famine' is illustrated by Hardy, who tells us that when the price ofbread rose, in February, to 141 sow, people began to say que les princes avaient accapare les grains tout expres pour mieux reWlsir a culbuter Ie sieur Necker qu'ils avaient un si grand interet
de renvener.J
The events taking place at Versailles that summer were to deepen these ft'ars and to stimulate the insurrectionary temper , C. Lefebvre, Qpal".oi"l'-IUUj, p. lIil. Arthur Young, TrlWlls ill Frtma tIIId lw./y (Everyman Library, London, '9'$). I Hardy, viii. �50· p. '59. •
miscarried: thousands invaded the courtyard of the palace to
demand that Necker be retained in office ; soldien under the command of the Prince de Conti refused to obey the command
to fire; and the deputies, rallied by Mirabeau in an historic speech, refused to disperse. The king was compelled to yield.
Up to now the revolutionary temper developing in Paris had been without effective leadership. With the latest news from
Versailles, however, the professional and commercial classes, who had hitherto been prepared to wait on events and had
viewed the simmerings in the faubourgs and markets without sympathy, began to give a direction to affairs without which the July revolution could hardly have taken place. From this date the pamphleteers and journalists in the entourage of �e
Duke of Orleans (who had gone over to the Third Estat.c at Versailles) began to estabish l a permanent headquarters at the Palais Royal; here thousands congregated nightly and acquired the slogans and directives-and, possibly, too, the funds-of w at !fardy called 'the extreme revolutionary party'.] Also at thiS time the 407 Electors of the Paris Third Estate whose ori � inal task it had been to appoint the Parisian deputi to the
�
�
Third Estate at Versailles. began to meet regularly at the Hotel
; For the events ofJune-July '78g, the following authoriliQ have been eon.
���d.: P. Caron, 'Une Tentative de COntr�.r�volulion en juin.juillet 1789', Rzou, . 'IIt/;)", TIIIHkrn.,. viii (,906--7), 5-34; 649-78; J. Flammermonl, lA Jo�rn" du 14 ��s / 17/JrJ (�aru, 18g�); P. Chauvel, 17/JrJ. L'iMllmc/ion fNltisifflM ,I la firin d. la : . �It lPans? 1946) ; C. Lefebvre, op. cit., Pi>. 107-98; J. M. Thompaon, Th# r R�lJD/lillOn (Oxford, '943), pp. 45-59. Documentary lOurCei are separaleiy iFndi cate .
•
i. 94il. Hardy, vii
) Ibid. viii. 36il.
..
JULY
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
single deliberative body, in which the Tiers would inevitably carry the day provided it could win over even a small minority
of nobles and c:1ergy. It was to further this demand and to win support for it beyond the ranks of the bourgeoisie that the abbe
Qu'esl-ct que k Tiers £Ial?, and that
1 789
already developing in the capital.' The States General were
deadlocked over the rival claims of the Third Estate-which soon constituted itselfa National Assembly-and of the majority of the nobility and bishops, To force the pace and overawe
Rights of Man. Once these ideas began to permeate the common
Paris foreign troops were being concentrated on the outskirts of June already Hardy had noted the arrival of the city: on German and Hungarian regiments, brought in on the pretext
economic hardship and traditional grievances. The very realiza.
around Marie-Antoinette and the king's younger brother, the
Sieyes wrote his pamphlet
there was all this talk about 'Tiers Etat', 'Ia nation') and the
3
people, as they did in the spring of 1789, a new direction and purpose were given to popular unrest, already nurtured on
of preventing a renewed outburst of rioting in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine.z The intentions of the Court Party, grouped
tion, indeed, that the States General were about to meet and that the people's complaints, as voiced in the ,allier! de
Comte d'Anois, were becoming clear : on the night of22 June the king was persuaded to dismiss Necker and to overawe the National Assembly by a display of military force. The plot
doUan&ts,
should be heard, aroused what historians have called 'la grande esperance',
Un evenement si etrange [writes Lefebvre] a eveille I'espoir, eciatant et nebuleux tout a Ia fois, d'uDe regeneration nationale, d'uDe ere nouvelle ou Ies hommes seraient plus heureux.'
An oft-quoted example is, of course, that given by Arthur Young of his meeting with a peasant woman in Champagne who told him that
It was said that something was to be done by some great folks for such poor ones, but she did not know who nor how, but God send WI
better, car Us tailus et Its droits MUS trrasrnt.2
The other side of the picture was the conviction that the
privileged orders would stop at nothing to see that these hopes were defeated-and so the notion ofthe 'complot aristocratique', with its deep traditional roots, came simultaneously into being. How closely it was related to the old notion of the 'pacte de
famine' is illustrated by Hardy, who tells us that when the price ofbread rose, in February, to 141 sow, people began to say que les princes avaient accapare les grains tout expres pour mieux reWlsir a culbuter Ie sieur Necker qu'ils avaient un si grand interet
de renvener.J
The events taking place at Versailles that summer were to deepen these ft'ars and to stimulate the insurrectionary temper , C. Lefebvre, Qpal".oi"l'-IUUj, p. lIil. Arthur Young, TrlWlls ill Frtma tIIId lw./y (Everyman Library, London, '9'$). I Hardy, viii. �50· p. '59. •
miscarried: thousands invaded the courtyard of the palace to
demand that Necker be retained in office ; soldien under the command of the Prince de Conti refused to obey the command
to fire; and the deputies, rallied by Mirabeau in an historic speech, refused to disperse. The king was compelled to yield.
Up to now the revolutionary temper developing in Paris had been without effective leadership. With the latest news from
Versailles, however, the professional and commercial classes, who had hitherto been prepared to wait on events and had
viewed the simmerings in the faubourgs and markets without sympathy, began to give a direction to affairs without which the July revolution could hardly have taken place. From this date the pamphleteers and journalists in the entourage of �e
Duke of Orleans (who had gone over to the Third Estat.c at Versailles) began to estabish l a permanent headquarters at the Palais Royal; here thousands congregated nightly and acquired the slogans and directives-and, possibly, too, the funds-of w at !fardy called 'the extreme revolutionary party'.] Also at thiS time the 407 Electors of the Paris Third Estate whose ori � inal task it had been to appoint the Parisian deputi to the
�
�
Third Estate at Versailles. began to meet regularly at the Hotel
; For the events ofJune-July '78g, the following authoriliQ have been eon.
���d.: P. Caron, 'Une Tentative de COntr�.r�volulion en juin.juillet 1789', Rzou, . 'IIt/;)", TIIIHkrn.,. viii (,906--7), 5-34; 649-78; J. Flammermonl, lA Jo�rn" du 14 ��s / 17/JrJ (�aru, 18g�); P. Chauvel, 17/JrJ. L'iMllmc/ion fNltisifflM ,I la firin d. la : . �It lPans? 1946) ; C. Lefebvre, op. cit., Pi>. 107-98; J. M. Thompaon, Th# r R�lJD/lillOn (Oxford, '943), pp. 45-59. Documentary lOurCei are separaleiy iFndi cate .
•
i. 94il. Hardy, vii
) Ibid. viii. 36il.
..
JULY 1789
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
de Ville in the heart of the capital. These two bodies were In the early days, however, it was the Palais Royal alone
in the course of which more than eighty witnesses were heard, we learn that no less than forty of the fifty·four customs posts were destroyed by fire in the course offour days' rioting.1 The destruction was systematic: documents, registers, and customs
play distinctive, yet complementary, parts in the events ofJuly.
gave a positive direction to the popular movement. Whereas
Hotd de Ville contented itself with drafting paper schemes for
the institution of a milice
bourgeoise,
or citizens' militia, the
receipts were burned, iron railings were pulled down, offices and furniture were fired, and the customs officers-where they had not already taken flight-were forcibly expelled. Many, taken
PaJais Royal took effective measures, by public agitation and liberal expenditure, to win over the Gardes Franc;aises from their loyalty to the court. On 30 June crowds directed from the Palais Royal forcibly released from the Abbaye prison eleven guardsmen who had been jailed for refusing to fire on the people at Versailles on the night Of22-23]um:.I Tracts support· iog the standpoint of the Third Estate were distributed among
the Paris garrisons: on 8 July a newsvendor was arrested for trying to sell such materials to officers and men encamped at the Champ de Mars.Z On 10 July eighty artillerymen, who had broken out of their barracks in the Hotel des Invalides, were publicly feted in the Palais Royal and the Champs Elysees. Reacting to these developments, the Court Party attempted a show·down: on 1 1 July Necker was sent into exile and re·
placed by the Baron de Breteuil. This proved to be the spark that touched off the insurrection in Paris. The news reached the
capital at noon on the 12th. During the afternoon Parisians
,
..
scene offre�uent disturbance and attempted smuggling.1 From the proceedings opened against the raiders nine months later,
flocked to the Palais Royal, where orators-the young Camille Desmoulins among them-gave the call to arms. Groups of marchers quickly formed ; the busts of Necker and the Duke of Orleans, the heroes of the hour, were paraded on the boule· vards; theatres were compelled to close as a sign of mourning; in the Place Louis XV demonstrators clashed with cavalry commanded by the Prince de Lambesc, who had been ordered to clear the TuiJeries gardens. Besenval, commander of the Paris garrison, withdrew to the Champ de Mars; the capital was in the hands of the people. As the tocsin pealed-soon to become a frequent and familiar
sound to Parisians-bands of insurgents joined those who, twO days earlier, had begun to burn down the hated barrieres, whose exactions were bitterly resented by shopkeepers, wine·mer chants, and small consumers and which had already been the , JUlalwn th " qui lutfu:sli d l'Ahbaye St. Gmnain (Pam, 17Bg). Bib. Nat. Lb • Arch. Nat., Y IS818. 188�; Hardy, viii. 373, 383.
j
by surprise, had no time to remove their personal belongings and suffered considerable loss : one official of the barriere du Trone later claimed for the loss of property valued at 25,413
firJTts, including 8,1 00 liurlS in cash ; another for losses amount· ing to 27,470 livres, fO sous.) Yet looting was not part of the
plan as conceived by its organizers : at the barriere S�int. Martin, a looter was thus reprimanded by a fellow rioter: 'Bnilons, s'il Ie faut, puisque ceJa nous est ordonne, mais ne volons (pas), puisque cela nous est defendu.' From such and even more specific evidence it is clear that the Palais Royal had a hand in the affair: it is no doubt significant that two posts said to belong to the Duke of Orleans were deliberately spared by the incendiaries. It does not appear that the main purpose of 'the extreme revolutionary party' was so much to give free entry of consumers' goods into the capital-though this inevit· ably followed-as to destroy the monopoly of the Farmers General and to control the entry and exit of arms and penons. the people carrying out their orders-and often acting mdependcntly of them-had their own accounts to settle with
�ut
an institution that added substantially to the cost of wine, fi�ewood, eggs, and livestock: they were the petty traders, wm,:-merchants, barrel and building workers, dockers, water· earners, labourers, and workers employed on public-works schem�, who, the documents tell us, played a large part in this operation and, no doubt, affected its outcome. That same night, teo, armed civilians, Gardes Fran'Yaises and local poor broke into the monastery of the Saint-Lazare
, On 1 May ten smuggle.. had been alTClted at Ihe barrihe Saint·Denis and
�nat.,6 May, two othe.. for causing a dinurbance and in,ulling the officials (Arch� 1'"
Y 18795, pp. 446-7 ; (8763).
..
Arch. Nat., Y 1 '9117. 15403.
Ar� . Nac, Z'" 886. (See apedally Ihe document entitled in/l#malitJn fMt;muml
'IIC.Nf"d Barribts. "9"",rl, IJ9Qtlj$UTUuili<J1\l.)
1
..
JULY 1789
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
de Ville in the heart of the capital. These two bodies were In the early days, however, it was the Palais Royal alone
in the course of which more than eighty witnesses were heard, we learn that no less than forty of the fifty·four customs posts were destroyed by fire in the course offour days' rioting.1 The destruction was systematic: documents, registers, and customs
play distinctive, yet complementary, parts in the events ofJuly.
gave a positive direction to the popular movement. Whereas
Hotd de Ville contented itself with drafting paper schemes for
the institution of a milice
bourgeoise,
or citizens' militia, the
receipts were burned, iron railings were pulled down, offices and furniture were fired, and the customs officers-where they had not already taken flight-were forcibly expelled. Many, taken
PaJais Royal took effective measures, by public agitation and liberal expenditure, to win over the Gardes Franc;aises from their loyalty to the court. On 30 June crowds directed from the Palais Royal forcibly released from the Abbaye prison eleven guardsmen who had been jailed for refusing to fire on the people at Versailles on the night Of22-23]um:.I Tracts support· iog the standpoint of the Third Estate were distributed among
the Paris garrisons: on 8 July a newsvendor was arrested for trying to sell such materials to officers and men encamped at the Champ de Mars.Z On 10 July eighty artillerymen, who had broken out of their barracks in the Hotel des Invalides, were publicly feted in the Palais Royal and the Champs Elysees. Reacting to these developments, the Court Party attempted a show·down: on 1 1 July Necker was sent into exile and re·
placed by the Baron de Breteuil. This proved to be the spark that touched off the insurrection in Paris. The news reached the
capital at noon on the 12th. During the afternoon Parisians
,
..
scene offre�uent disturbance and attempted smuggling.1 From the proceedings opened against the raiders nine months later,
flocked to the Palais Royal, where orators-the young Camille Desmoulins among them-gave the call to arms. Groups of marchers quickly formed ; the busts of Necker and the Duke of Orleans, the heroes of the hour, were paraded on the boule· vards; theatres were compelled to close as a sign of mourning; in the Place Louis XV demonstrators clashed with cavalry commanded by the Prince de Lambesc, who had been ordered to clear the TuiJeries gardens. Besenval, commander of the Paris garrison, withdrew to the Champ de Mars; the capital was in the hands of the people. As the tocsin pealed-soon to become a frequent and familiar
sound to Parisians-bands of insurgents joined those who, twO days earlier, had begun to burn down the hated barrieres, whose exactions were bitterly resented by shopkeepers, wine·mer chants, and small consumers and which had already been the , JUlalwn th " qui lutfu:sli d l'Ahbaye St. Gmnain (Pam, 17Bg). Bib. Nat. Lb • Arch. Nat., Y IS818. 188�; Hardy, viii. 373, 383.
j
by surprise, had no time to remove their personal belongings and suffered considerable loss : one official of the barriere du Trone later claimed for the loss of property valued at 25,413
firJTts, including 8,1 00 liurlS in cash ; another for losses amount· ing to 27,470 livres, fO sous.) Yet looting was not part of the
plan as conceived by its organizers : at the barriere S�int. Martin, a looter was thus reprimanded by a fellow rioter: 'Bnilons, s'il Ie faut, puisque ceJa nous est ordonne, mais ne volons (pas), puisque cela nous est defendu.' From such and even more specific evidence it is clear that the Palais Royal had a hand in the affair: it is no doubt significant that two posts said to belong to the Duke of Orleans were deliberately spared by the incendiaries. It does not appear that the main purpose of 'the extreme revolutionary party' was so much to give free entry of consumers' goods into the capital-though this inevit· ably followed-as to destroy the monopoly of the Farmers General and to control the entry and exit of arms and penons. the people carrying out their orders-and often acting mdependcntly of them-had their own accounts to settle with
�ut
an institution that added substantially to the cost of wine, fi�ewood, eggs, and livestock: they were the petty traders, wm,:-merchants, barrel and building workers, dockers, water· earners, labourers, and workers employed on public-works schem�, who, the documents tell us, played a large part in this operation and, no doubt, affected its outcome. That same night, teo, armed civilians, Gardes Fran'Yaises and local poor broke into the monastery of the Saint-Lazare
, On 1 May ten smuggle.. had been alTClted at Ihe barrihe Saint·Denis and
�nat.,6 May, two othe.. for causing a dinurbance and in,ulling the officials (Arch� 1'"
Y 18795, pp. 446-7 ; (8763).
..
Arch. Nat., Y 1 '9117. 15403.
Ar� . Nac, Z'" 886. (See apedally Ihe document entitled in/l#malitJn fMt;muml
'IIC.Nf"d Barribts. "9"",rl, IJ9Qtlj$UTUuili<J1\l.)
1
�o
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
brotherhood on the northern fringe of the city, searched it for arms, released prisoners, and removed fifty-two cartloads of grain and Rour to the central grain market.I The search for grain was the main object of the visit. An unemployed carter, who was later traced to Charolles in Burgundy, where he had escaped with 700 louis picked up in the monastery, described how he had been brought there 'par des gens qui avaient l'air comme it faut . . . pour conduire les grains qui y etaient a la Halle'.l Another carter, when questioned by the police, spoke of making �wo such trip� for .which he was paid at the rate of 40 sow per Journey.l While th iS part of the proceedings was directed by the I Palais Royal, the monastery was also completely ransacked by the local unemployed and menu peuple-the records speak of porters and labourers, rarely of workshop journeymen-for money, food, silver, and hidden treasure. Every conceivable object of real or imaginary value was pilfered: a butcher's boy, later convicted for theft, admitted removing a dried ram's head ; and one zealot even came away with a skeleton which he dra ."ed up five flights to his room! Such activities provided the police and the newly fonned militia with a ready excuse for . rounding up large numbers of suspects, mainly unemployed workers and vagrants, many of whom were later charged with . participation in this affair." But the main feature ofthe night of 12-13July was the search for arms : religious houses were visited and gunsmiths, armourers, and harness-makers were raided in different parts of the capital. A number ofstatements drawn up in support of their claims for compensation have come down to w. Thus, Marcel Arlot, master gunsmith of the rue Greneta in the parish of Saint-Leu reported that his shop was broken into at 2 a.m. by a crowd headed by a journeyman armourer of the rue Jean Robert; . muskets, putals, sabres, and swords to the value of 24,000 livres were removed. A harness-maker of the Pont Saint-Michel reported the theft of belts and shoulder-straps to the value of 390 livres. Brun, master gunsmith and sword-cuder of the rue Bar-du-Bec, parish of Saint-Jean-en-Greve, in submitting a • i,y lmftlltitm el llI r�qtJlu '" 1'rowtaafi=l ill BlliJlW.l� t4 SI. �(J", �illi/"' 11B!;. Arch. Nat., Z' 469 •. • Arch. Nat., Z' 4691. • Arch. Sa6ne-et·Loire, B. 705. • The name. of about fifty .uch perJOm appear n i Arch. Nat., Y 106'4, fol. 149i 10649, foil. '7-2' i .8,95, fol. 46�i 1 151B; I�.,oai 1��IBi 14�40; 15101; '568,.
JULY 1.789
,. claim for 4.348 livres, stated that his shop had been broken into no less than thirty times, in the course of which 150 swords, 4 gross of sword-blades, 58 hunting-knives, lO brace of pistols, and 8 muskets had been removed; while another sword-cutler of the parish of Saint-Severin complained that his shop had been invaded several times on both the 1 2 and 13 July and that a very considerable number of sabres, swords, and unmounted blades had been taken by persons who refused to pay fOrlhem on the ground 'that they would serve for the defence of the capital' ; his losses amounted to 6,684 livres. The total losses eventuallysub mitted to the National Assembly by the Parisian gunsmiths amo�nted t� 1 15,IIB livres. As far as we can tell, they never received their money: they were among the minor victims of the Revolution.' Of considerable interest, too, is the eye-witness account of the events of that first night of the July revolution given by Jean-Nicolas Pepin, a tallow-chandler's labourer• who• as a subpoenaed witness in the Saint-Lazare affair, later told the story of how he was caught up in the milling throngs ofcivilians and Gardes �ran(jaises that, all night long, surged through the streets, shoutmg the newly learned patriotic slogans, ringing the tocsin, and searching for grain and arms. From his account too it is doubly clear that, at this time, the guiding centre of th� revolutionary movement lay in the Palais Royal to which, rather than to the Hotel de Ville the angry, bewildered, but elated, citizens looked for leadership and guidance.z On the morning of the 13th, however. the Electors made a firm bid to gain control of the silUation. They formed a Per manent Committee to act as a provisional government of the city and detennined to put a stop to the indiscriminate arming ?f the whole population. They had been alarmed by the burn Ing of the barneres and the sacking of the monastery of Saint Lazare. To them the bands of unemployed and homeless, who had played some part in these operations, were as great a m,:nace to the security and properties of the citizens as the . pnvlleged orders conspiring at Versailles.l Accordingly the • Arch. Nat., Y u�18, 116gB; C " 4, doss. B, pike Ui D VI 6, no. 39, piece 19.
I TheK wen:': soon to be increucd by the rc\elUe ofpn.onen from the Force and Bicclrc! *Ome of these, however, not appreciating their freedom, lurrendered. to o
Arch. Nat., Z' 4691.
the police the next day (Arch. Nat., Y 13454).
�o
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
brotherhood on the northern fringe of the city, searched it for arms, released prisoners, and removed fifty-two cartloads of grain and Rour to the central grain market.I The search for grain was the main object of the visit. An unemployed carter, who was later traced to Charolles in Burgundy, where he had escaped with 700 louis picked up in the monastery, described how he had been brought there 'par des gens qui avaient l'air comme it faut . . . pour conduire les grains qui y etaient a la Halle'.l Another carter, when questioned by the police, spoke of making �wo such trip� for .which he was paid at the rate of 40 sow per Journey.l While th iS part of the proceedings was directed by the I Palais Royal, the monastery was also completely ransacked by the local unemployed and menu peuple-the records speak of porters and labourers, rarely of workshop journeymen-for money, food, silver, and hidden treasure. Every conceivable object of real or imaginary value was pilfered: a butcher's boy, later convicted for theft, admitted removing a dried ram's head ; and one zealot even came away with a skeleton which he dra ."ed up five flights to his room! Such activities provided the police and the newly fonned militia with a ready excuse for . rounding up large numbers of suspects, mainly unemployed workers and vagrants, many of whom were later charged with . participation in this affair." But the main feature ofthe night of 12-13July was the search for arms : religious houses were visited and gunsmiths, armourers, and harness-makers were raided in different parts of the capital. A number ofstatements drawn up in support of their claims for compensation have come down to w. Thus, Marcel Arlot, master gunsmith of the rue Greneta in the parish of Saint-Leu reported that his shop was broken into at 2 a.m. by a crowd headed by a journeyman armourer of the rue Jean Robert; . muskets, putals, sabres, and swords to the value of 24,000 livres were removed. A harness-maker of the Pont Saint-Michel reported the theft of belts and shoulder-straps to the value of 390 livres. Brun, master gunsmith and sword-cuder of the rue Bar-du-Bec, parish of Saint-Jean-en-Greve, in submitting a • i,y lmftlltitm el llI r�qtJlu '" 1'rowtaafi=l ill BlliJlW.l� t4 SI. �(J", �illi/"' 11B!;. Arch. Nat., Z' 469 •. • Arch. Nat., Z' 4691. • Arch. Sa6ne-et·Loire, B. 705. • The name. of about fifty .uch perJOm appear n i Arch. Nat., Y 106'4, fol. 149i 10649, foil. '7-2' i .8,95, fol. 46�i 1 151B; I�.,oai 1��IBi 14�40; 15101; '568,.
JULY 1.789
,. claim for 4.348 livres, stated that his shop had been broken into no less than thirty times, in the course of which 150 swords, 4 gross of sword-blades, 58 hunting-knives, lO brace of pistols, and 8 muskets had been removed; while another sword-cutler of the parish of Saint-Severin complained that his shop had been invaded several times on both the 1 2 and 13 July and that a very considerable number of sabres, swords, and unmounted blades had been taken by persons who refused to pay fOrlhem on the ground 'that they would serve for the defence of the capital' ; his losses amounted to 6,684 livres. The total losses eventuallysub mitted to the National Assembly by the Parisian gunsmiths amo�nted t� 1 15,IIB livres. As far as we can tell, they never received their money: they were among the minor victims of the Revolution.' Of considerable interest, too, is the eye-witness account of the events of that first night of the July revolution given by Jean-Nicolas Pepin, a tallow-chandler's labourer• who• as a subpoenaed witness in the Saint-Lazare affair, later told the story of how he was caught up in the milling throngs ofcivilians and Gardes �ran(jaises that, all night long, surged through the streets, shoutmg the newly learned patriotic slogans, ringing the tocsin, and searching for grain and arms. From his account too it is doubly clear that, at this time, the guiding centre of th� revolutionary movement lay in the Palais Royal to which, rather than to the Hotel de Ville the angry, bewildered, but elated, citizens looked for leadership and guidance.z On the morning of the 13th, however. the Electors made a firm bid to gain control of the silUation. They formed a Per manent Committee to act as a provisional government of the city and detennined to put a stop to the indiscriminate arming ?f the whole population. They had been alarmed by the burn Ing of the barneres and the sacking of the monastery of Saint Lazare. To them the bands of unemployed and homeless, who had played some part in these operations, were as great a m,:nace to the security and properties of the citizens as the . pnvlleged orders conspiring at Versailles.l Accordingly the • Arch. Nat., Y u�18, 116gB; C " 4, doss. B, pike Ui D VI 6, no. 39, piece 19.
I TheK wen:': soon to be increucd by the rc\elUe ofpn.onen from the Force and Bicclrc! *Ome of these, however, not appreciating their freedom, lurrendered. to o
Arch. Nat., Z' 4691.
the police the next day (Arch. Nat., Y 13454).
,.
plan to establish a regular citizens' militia, or milice bourgeoise.
was hastily adopted with the dual object of defending the capital from the military threat without and from the danger of 'anarchy' within: it needs hardly be said that it was on the latter score alone that the king was persuaded to give his con sent the next day.1 Householders were summoned to meetings in the sixty Electoral Districts : each District was to contribute 200 (later 800) men. The same day, wrote Barnave, 13,200 citizens were registered and equipped ;! two days later, he was happy to claim :
La plus grande partie de la milice de Paris est bonne bourgeoise, et e'est ce qui la rend aussi sure pour I'ordre public que formidable pour la tyrannic.] In fact, while each District drew up its own condition9 of en· rolment, in most cases property and residential qualifications even employers' certificates of good character-were imposed that virtually debarred a large part of the wage-earning popula tion; certainly all unemployed and vagrants were excluded.•
All vagabonds, genssans aveu, and other 'irregulars' were to be im
mediately disarmed. An English observer, Dr. Rigby, recorded t",\l this operation had already been largely carried through by the evening of the same day, 'at which time {he wrote) the regularly armed citizens almost exclusively occupied the streets'.S The point is ofinteresl as it illustrates thc degree of authority quickly asserted by the Electors; yet it is doubtful if the process of disarming went so far as suggested by Dr. Rigby as long as the insurrection lasted. Even after its completion, the new city authorities fell compelled to invite the Paris workers and craftsmen to surrendcr their arms in return for a payment of
9 [;vres per headj6 and, between 22 July and 3 August, the , MImoirn d, B4i/ly (li vou. Paris, ,821), i. 267.
, Arch. Nat., W 12, fols. 197-9 (leiter of 15 July '789)· On 14 July Hardy recordm thai 30,000 had bc:c:n enrolled (]
Prt!tis·t..,b�/ d,s j/�",u
-H. Brit. Mus., •-. 6oll-4. A large part of these minutes ar" r"prooucm in L. G. Wickham Legg, Srlld Oflnlmtrlh • • • ofI," F.t",11 &",,/UI;an (Oxford, 19(5), i. 49-95. �
JULY 1789
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
District of Saint-Roch alone purchased 250 muskets and 12 pistols in this way.1 Besides, crowds continued to besiege the Hotel de Ville, demanding arms and gunpowder. Jacques de Flesselles, privot des marchands and acting head of the provisional city government, being anxious to limit their distribution, made vague promises and sent parties off on fruitless expeditions to the arsenal and the Carthusian monastery; this 'treachery' was to cost him his life on the morrow. Meanwhile, the Electors had deputed one of their number, the abbe Lefevre, to guard the considerable stocks of powder and ammunition that they had assembled in the vaults of the Hotel de Ville. The abbe dis charged his duties conscientiously, but he was compelled by the half-armed crowds surging round the building to hand out the powder in his custody with greater haste and less discrimination than he had wished. He kept a careful account of the transac tions : we learn that he distributed 8 barrels of gunpowder on 13 Julyj 46 barrels-three of them 'pour prendre la Bastille' on the 14th; and a further 42 barrels on the 15th. At the end of the record appears the sorrowful addendum:
Cette livraison a be faite avec tant de precipitation qu'il n'a pas ete possible de faire aJouter aux bons des r�w. Les diu 96 barilll
pesent ensemble 96.000 Iivres.�
The quest for arms and ammunition continued : on the morning of the 14th, a spectacular raid was made on the Hotel des Invalides across the river. According to Salmour, the Saxon to 8,000 citizens ambassador, who witnessed the affair,
7,000
took part;} many, wrote Hardy, were crushed in the milie.4 The
Governor, the Marquis de Sombreuil, was abandoned by his troops and forced to open his gates_ He later reported the re moval ofmore than 30,000 muskets, ofwhich 12,000 at least had faUen 'into dangerous hands'.s Meanwhile, the cry had gone u p' 'to the Bastille!'
Royalist historians have scoffed at the picture of thousands of Parisians hurling themselves at the Bastille in order to release seven prisoners, all of them either lunatics or of unsavoury , Bib. Nat., nouy. acq. f�n�., no. 2670, fol. 55. • Ibid., no. �678, fol. 47. • A. Mathiez, US Gmndu j�"",,es d, In Gollll;lllanU (/789-91) (Paru., 1913), I Prrxts-wrbaJ d. l'a.mmbUe du Ile
PP· 1I2.1.23•
•
Hardy, viii. 390.
,.
plan to establish a regular citizens' militia, or milice bourgeoise.
was hastily adopted with the dual object of defending the capital from the military threat without and from the danger of 'anarchy' within: it needs hardly be said that it was on the latter score alone that the king was persuaded to give his con sent the next day.1 Householders were summoned to meetings in the sixty Electoral Districts : each District was to contribute 200 (later 800) men. The same day, wrote Barnave, 13,200 citizens were registered and equipped ;! two days later, he was happy to claim :
La plus grande partie de la milice de Paris est bonne bourgeoise, et e'est ce qui la rend aussi sure pour I'ordre public que formidable pour la tyrannic.] In fact, while each District drew up its own condition9 of en· rolment, in most cases property and residential qualifications even employers' certificates of good character-were imposed that virtually debarred a large part of the wage-earning popula tion; certainly all unemployed and vagrants were excluded.•
All vagabonds, genssans aveu, and other 'irregulars' were to be im
mediately disarmed. An English observer, Dr. Rigby, recorded t",\l this operation had already been largely carried through by the evening of the same day, 'at which time {he wrote) the regularly armed citizens almost exclusively occupied the streets'.S The point is ofinteresl as it illustrates thc degree of authority quickly asserted by the Electors; yet it is doubtful if the process of disarming went so far as suggested by Dr. Rigby as long as the insurrection lasted. Even after its completion, the new city authorities fell compelled to invite the Paris workers and craftsmen to surrendcr their arms in return for a payment of
9 [;vres per headj6 and, between 22 July and 3 August, the , MImoirn d, B4i/ly (li vou. Paris, ,821), i. 267.
, Arch. Nat., W 12, fols. 197-9 (leiter of 15 July '789)· On 14 July Hardy recordm thai 30,000 had bc:c:n enrolled (]
Prt!tis·t..,b�/ d,s j/�",u -H. Brit. Mus., •-. 6oll-4. A large part of these minutes ar" r"prooucm in L. G. Wickham Legg, Srlld Oflnlmtrlh • • • ofI," F.t",11 &",,/UI;an (Oxford, 19(5), i. 49-95. �
JULY 1789
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
District of Saint-Roch alone purchased 250 muskets and 12 pistols in this way.1 Besides, crowds continued to besiege the Hotel de Ville, demanding arms and gunpowder. Jacques de Flesselles, privot des marchands and acting head of the provisional city government, being anxious to limit their distribution, made vague promises and sent parties off on fruitless expeditions to the arsenal and the Carthusian monastery; this 'treachery' was to cost him his life on the morrow. Meanwhile, the Electors had deputed one of their number, the abbe Lefevre, to guard the considerable stocks of powder and ammunition that they had assembled in the vaults of the Hotel de Ville. The abbe dis charged his duties conscientiously, but he was compelled by the half-armed crowds surging round the building to hand out the powder in his custody with greater haste and less discrimination than he had wished. He kept a careful account of the transac tions : we learn that he distributed 8 barrels of gunpowder on 13 Julyj 46 barrels-three of them 'pour prendre la Bastille' on the 14th; and a further 42 barrels on the 15th. At the end of the record appears the sorrowful addendum:
Cette livraison a be faite avec tant de precipitation qu'il n'a pas ete possible de faire aJouter aux bons des r�w. Les diu 96 barilll
pesent ensemble 96.000 Iivres.�
The quest for arms and ammunition continued : on the morning of the 14th, a spectacular raid was made on the Hotel des Invalides across the river. According to Salmour, the Saxon to 8,000 citizens ambassador, who witnessed the affair,
7,000
took part;} many, wrote Hardy, were crushed in the milie.4 The
Governor, the Marquis de Sombreuil, was abandoned by his troops and forced to open his gates_ He later reported the re moval ofmore than 30,000 muskets, ofwhich 12,000 at least had faUen 'into dangerous hands'.s Meanwhile, the cry had gone u p' 'to the Bastille!'
Royalist historians have scoffed at the picture of thousands of Parisians hurling themselves at the Bastille in order to release seven prisoners, all of them either lunatics or of unsavoury , Bib. Nat., nouy. acq. f�n�., no. 2670, fol. 55. • Ibid., no. �678, fol. 47. • A. Mathiez, US Gmndu j�"",,es d, In Gollll;lllanU (/789-91) (Paru., 1913), I Prrxts-wrbaJ d. l'a.mmbUe du Ile
PP· 1I2.1.23•
•
Hardy, viii. 390.
"
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
aim was not to release prisoners but to find the powder that was known to have been lately sent there from the arsenal. Other motives no doubt played a part. It was believed that the fortress was heavily manned ; its guns, which that morning were trained on the rue Saint-Antoine, could play havoc among the crowded tenements. In the night it had been
rumoured that 30,000 royalist troops had marched into the Faubourg Saint-Antoine and had begun to slaughter its c tizens.
!
Besides, though it had ceased to harbour more than a tnckle of State prisoners, the Bastille was widely hated as a symbol of ministerial despotism : the
cahim de do!ioTlus
of the Paris Dis
tricts bear witness to this fact.l Yet there does not appear to have been any serious intention to take it by storm,l least of all on the part of the Permanent Committee of Electors, who directed operations, with fumbling uncertainty, from the H6tel de Ville. They made their intentions clear from the start : to negotiate with the Governor, de Launay, for the surrender of the gunpowder in his keeping and for the withdrawal of the guns from his battlements. That this plan failed, and that the Bastille fell only after the threat of a frontal assault, was due to circumstances outside their control. Numerous eye-witness accounts of the siege of the Bastille, or accounts purporting to be such, have come down to us. Fact and fiction are often richly blended in them. Among the most trust worthy, perhaps, are those left by the Electors themselves.· From these it appears that the first deputation sent to parley
with de Launay arrived at the Bastille at 1 0 o'clock. Having received a friendly welcome and an invitation to dine, they did not emerge for some time. The dense crowds waiting outside, fearing a trap, now raised a shout for the surrender or capture of the fortress. To allay suspicions, a second delegation, sent by the neighbouring District of La Culture, urged the Governor to surrender. Its leader, Thuriot de la Roziere, brought back word to thc Permanent Committee that the Governor, while refusing to surrender, had withdrawn his cannon and had pro, A. Bq:ilI, U !bgistr. J'krou tU u. &ulilk tU 17B!; .tIl� (Paris, 1880) .
Ch.-L. Chassin, op. (:it. ii. ptwim. But .ee Hardy: 'La ouvriers du fauxbourg avaient entl'CprU de faire forme Ie li�gc de (:e (:hateau' (viii. 388). • The asc:ntial passages appear in Wickham Lcgg, op. cit. i. 49-95. •
J
"
JULY 1 7 8 9
character. I Such criticism falls wide ofits mark. The immediate
CJI
. JTl1sed not to fire unless attacked. Up to this point the crowds . from the rue Saint-Antoine had penetrated only surgmg in . . of the two courtyards leadmg to the mam drawouter Into the . gate of the Bast Il le. The outer courtyard was, u b 'dge and n a1 unguarded; it was separated from the inner Cour du u ernement by a wall and a drawbridge which de Launay
'
�;
had, unaccountably, left raised but un�efended. Half a n hour after Thuriot's departure, two men climbed the wall f:o� a eighbouring building and lowered the drawbridge. BelIevmg
� frontal attack to be imminent, de Launay gave the order to
fire. In the affray that followed, the besiegen lost ninety-eight dead and seventy-three wounded; 1 only one of the defenden was struck. Two further deputations, sent to the Bastille in the coune oflhis affray, were fired on and failed to gain admittance, The worthy Electon were now at their wits' end. Their policy of peaceful negotiations had proved a complete failure. Had It not been for the angry insistence of the bands of armed citizens who swarmed in the rooms of the Hotel de Ville, in the Place de Greve outside, and along all the approaches of the Bastille. calling for vengeance for blood spilt and suspected treachery, they would certainly have abandoned their efforts. Meanwhile, two detachments of Gardes Fran�aises, drawn up outside the H6tel de Ville, responded to the summons of Pierre-Augustin Hulin a former non-commissioned officer, who marched them off to he Bastille with five cannon removed from the Invalides that morning. Joined at the fortress by a few hundred armed
�
civilians, they fought their way under fire to the inner courtyard and trained their cannon on the main gate. This proved to be decisive. The Governor offered to surrender provided that the garrison were spared; but the angry crowds would not hear of conditions and the siege continued. At this point de Launay seems to have lost his head and threatened to blow up the fortress. He was, however, dissuaded by the garrison and, in desperation, gave orders for the main drawbridge to be lowered. So the Bastille fell. It is perhaps surprising that the angry and triumphant crowds, • Thae are the provillional figures givm by Duuaulx in his fint official report
\0 the Clmltituent Assembly a few months later (D. /'i/UUft'UtiOtt JN2risinuu d ti, III prize ti, u. BlUtilk (Paris, 1790), pp. 161-2. Bib. Nat. Lb 39 1972). Hardy'S lower figures of2o-& killed and 17 wounded were based on early bcanay (viii. 388).
"
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
aim was not to release prisoners but to find the powder that was known to have been lately sent there from the arsenal. Other motives no doubt played a part. It was believed that the fortress was heavily manned ; its guns, which that morning were trained on the rue Saint-Antoine, could play havoc among the crowded tenements. In the night it had been
rumoured that 30,000 royalist troops had marched into the Faubourg Saint-Antoine and had begun to slaughter its c tizens.
!
Besides, though it had ceased to harbour more than a tnckle of State prisoners, the Bastille was widely hated as a symbol of ministerial despotism : the
cahim de do!ioTlus
of the Paris Dis
tricts bear witness to this fact.l Yet there does not appear to have been any serious intention to take it by storm,l least of all on the part of the Permanent Committee of Electors, who directed operations, with fumbling uncertainty, from the H6tel de Ville. They made their intentions clear from the start : to negotiate with the Governor, de Launay, for the surrender of the gunpowder in his keeping and for the withdrawal of the guns from his battlements. That this plan failed, and that the Bastille fell only after the threat of a frontal assault, was due to circumstances outside their control. Numerous eye-witness accounts of the siege of the Bastille, or accounts purporting to be such, have come down to us. Fact and fiction are often richly blended in them. Among the most trust worthy, perhaps, are those left by the Electors themselves.· From these it appears that the first deputation sent to parley
with de Launay arrived at the Bastille at 1 0 o'clock. Having received a friendly welcome and an invitation to dine, they did not emerge for some time. The dense crowds waiting outside, fearing a trap, now raised a shout for the surrender or capture of the fortress. To allay suspicions, a second delegation, sent by the neighbouring District of La Culture, urged the Governor to surrender. Its leader, Thuriot de la Roziere, brought back word to thc Permanent Committee that the Governor, while refusing to surrender, had withdrawn his cannon and had pro, A. Bq:ilI, U !bgistr. J'krou tU u. &ulilk tU 17B!; .tIl� (Paris, 1880) .
Ch.-L. Chassin, op. (:it. ii. ptwim. But .ee Hardy: 'La ouvriers du fauxbourg avaient entl'CprU de faire forme Ie li�gc de (:e (:hateau' (viii. 388). • The asc:ntial passages appear in Wickham Lcgg, op. cit. i. 49-95. •
J
"
JULY 1 7 8 9
character. I Such criticism falls wide ofits mark. The immediate
CJI
. JTl1sed not to fire unless attacked. Up to this point the crowds . from the rue Saint-Antoine had penetrated only surgmg in . . of the two courtyards leadmg to the mam drawouter Into the . gate of the Bast Il le. The outer courtyard was, u b 'dge and n a1 unguarded; it was separated from the inner Cour du u ernement by a wall and a drawbridge which de Launay
'
�;
had, unaccountably, left raised but un�efended. Half a n hour after Thuriot's departure, two men climbed the wall f:o� a eighbouring building and lowered the drawbridge. BelIevmg
� frontal attack to be imminent, de Launay gave the order to
fire. In the affray that followed, the besiegen lost ninety-eight dead and seventy-three wounded; 1 only one of the defenden was struck. Two further deputations, sent to the Bastille in the coune oflhis affray, were fired on and failed to gain admittance, The worthy Electon were now at their wits' end. Their policy of peaceful negotiations had proved a complete failure. Had It not been for the angry insistence of the bands of armed citizens who swarmed in the rooms of the Hotel de Ville, in the Place de Greve outside, and along all the approaches of the Bastille. calling for vengeance for blood spilt and suspected treachery, they would certainly have abandoned their efforts. Meanwhile, two detachments of Gardes Fran�aises, drawn up outside the H6tel de Ville, responded to the summons of Pierre-Augustin Hulin a former non-commissioned officer, who marched them off to he Bastille with five cannon removed from the Invalides that morning. Joined at the fortress by a few hundred armed
�
civilians, they fought their way under fire to the inner courtyard and trained their cannon on the main gate. This proved to be decisive. The Governor offered to surrender provided that the garrison were spared; but the angry crowds would not hear of conditions and the siege continued. At this point de Launay seems to have lost his head and threatened to blow up the fortress. He was, however, dissuaded by the garrison and, in desperation, gave orders for the main drawbridge to be lowered. So the Bastille fell. It is perhaps surprising that the angry and triumphant crowds, • Thae are the provillional figures givm by Duuaulx in his fint official report
\0 the Clmltituent Assembly a few months later (D. /'i/UUft'UtiOtt JN2risinuu d ti, III prize ti, u. BlUtilk (Paris, 1790), pp. 161-2. Bib. Nat. Lb 39 1972). Hardy'S lower figures of2o-& killed and 17 wounded were based on early bcanay (viii. 388).
�6
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
pouring through the open gates of the Bastille, did not exact a more complete and indiscriminate vengeance. They had lived through day! of nervous tension, continuously subject to the fear of sudden attack and disaster; they had been betrayed, of their fellows they believed, by some of their leaden; over
1 50
had been killed or wounded. Of I 0 members of the defending garrison, six or seven were slaughtered. De Launay, though
1
promised a safe-conduct to the Hotel de Ville, was struck down on the way and his head severed with a butcher's knife. His assassin, Denot, a cook of the rue Campalon, though claiming that de Launay had first kicked him, later boasted ofhis prowess : 'Que s'il en a agi ainsi, il a cru faire un acte patriotique, et mcriter une mCdaille." De FJesselles, who had aroused popular fury by his reluctance to distribute arnu, met a similar fate as he followed his accusers from the Hotel de Ville.2
JULY
1789
�
1 One of these lists-that drawn up an held by Assembly. . secretary of the varnqueur.s-
� �
t is of course, only on the basis of such evidence that it is poss ble to build up a picture of the social or occupational
i
statuS of the captors of the Bastille without resort to speculation or vague generalization. There were few men of wealth among them. AsJaures wrote ;
On ne releve pas dans la liste des combattants les renticrs, les capitalislcs pour lesquels en partie In Rivolution etait raite.4
Such acts of popular vengeance-followed, a week later, by
Three manufacturers are listed, four merchants, the brewer Santerre, 3 naval officers, 4 termed 'bourgeois', and perhaps a
picked upon to discredit the captors of the Bastille and to represent them as vagabonds, criminals, or a mercenary rabble hired in the wine-shops of the Saint-Antoine quarter. This is a legend that dies hard; yet not only is there no evidence to support it, but all the available evidence directly Tt.:futes it.
and cavalrymen of the marichaur.sie de la garde nationale whose civil occupations are not given-are almost all small tradesmen, artisans, and wage-earners. Of these, about two
the murder of FouUon and Berthier-have, of course been
Nor should we, of coune, be satisfied in describing them with such general terms as 'Ies ouvrien du faubourg St. Antoine', 'Ie peuple'. or 'tout Paris'. There is, in fact, small excuse for so doing: those directly involved in the capture of the fortress were but a few hundred and, in their case at least, sufficient evidence has survived to enable us to get a reasonably clear
picture. The vainqutur.s
de La
Ba.stilu, as they came to be called,
numbered between 800 and goo persons. Those were they who
managed, after careful sifting of evidence, to establish their claim to have taken a direct part in the capture of the fortress. Their names were carefully compiled and recorded and have come down to us in three separate lists, each one of which was, at various times during
17go, approved
by the Constituent
• Arch. Nat., Y '2823. Th!not had, according to his own story, joined his local milia on 13 July and talten pari in the attaclt on the Invalides. Z For /irlXb-IHfMwt relaling 10 these variOUll victi u I«: Arch. Nat., Y 1128�;
14&4 ; and 10634, fait. 14g-�1.
n
handfu! ofwealthy shopkeepers. The rest, apart from 6 , soldiers
15
thirds are small workshop masters, craftsmen, and joul"ucymen drawn from about thirty petty trades ;s the remainder are engaged in manufacture, distribution, building, the professions, and general trades.' The wage-earners cannot always be clearly identified, but they appear to be (as we should expect in this case) in a decided minority: perhaps 60 in the small crafts and , Tab/tau aU ci/o)'fflf !JainqutUTI a' la Bas/ill, (871 names), M�e d., Arch. Nal., no. I J 66; Tab/tau aU !Ja;nqutlJ1S a' la DIU/ill, (954 names, many appearing twice) in F. Uoumon, Ln. Bas/ill, (P:;lTis, 1893), pp. �1g-23; NQI1U aU w;/Ujuturs a' Ie Dallill, (662 names), An:h. Nat., T 514!» . 1 Arch. Nal., T 5'41'). J Among notable omissiOilli arc �nOI, who chopped off de LaunaY'1 head; the abW, Fauehet; Fournier l'Amtricain; lhe an:hitect Palloy; and Maillard himself. • Jaurk, Hi.J/";u lQCU,fu�. i. 303. I These n i clude 49 joi , 4B cabinet·makers, 41 loclumitlu, 28 cobblers, 20 sculptors and mOOdlen, " metal-chuen, 10 turners, 10 hairdrnscrs and wiS makers, 7 potters, 9 monumental mUOIlll, 9 nailsmiths, 9 dealers in fancy ware, 8 printers, 7 braziers, 9 tailOR, 9 foundeR, 5jewcllcn, 5 goldsmiths, � 'love-makers, and 3 uphoblerers. For a similar classification see G. Bord, 'La Con'pin.tion ma(onnique dc '789', u COTTls/Xmdmll, May 1905, pp. 52'-44' M. Bard must have used Maillard's lin to arrive al his results, but he gives no reference. • Thev include I I wine-merchants, 3 eaf
ncn
�6
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
pouring through the open gates of the Bastille, did not exact a more complete and indiscriminate vengeance. They had lived through day! of nervous tension, continuously subject to the fear of sudden attack and disaster; they had been betrayed, of their fellows they believed, by some of their leaden; over
1 50
had been killed or wounded. Of I 0 members of the defending garrison, six or seven were slaughtered. De Launay, though
1
promised a safe-conduct to the Hotel de Ville, was struck down on the way and his head severed with a butcher's knife. His assassin, Denot, a cook of the rue Campalon, though claiming that de Launay had first kicked him, later boasted ofhis prowess : 'Que s'il en a agi ainsi, il a cru faire un acte patriotique, et mcriter une mCdaille." De FJesselles, who had aroused popular fury by his reluctance to distribute arnu, met a similar fate as he followed his accusers from the Hotel de Ville.2
JULY
1789
�
1 One of these lists-that drawn up an held by Assembly. . secretary of the varnqueur.s-
� �
t is of course, only on the basis of such evidence that it is poss ble to build up a picture of the social or occupational
i
statuS of the captors of the Bastille without resort to speculation or vague generalization. There were few men of wealth among them. AsJaures wrote ;
On ne releve pas dans la liste des combattants les renticrs, les capitalislcs pour lesquels en partie In Rivolution etait raite.4
Such acts of popular vengeance-followed, a week later, by
Three manufacturers are listed, four merchants, the brewer Santerre, 3 naval officers, 4 termed 'bourgeois', and perhaps a
picked upon to discredit the captors of the Bastille and to represent them as vagabonds, criminals, or a mercenary rabble hired in the wine-shops of the Saint-Antoine quarter. This is a legend that dies hard; yet not only is there no evidence to support it, but all the available evidence directly Tt.:futes it.
and cavalrymen of the marichaur.sie de la garde nationale whose civil occupations are not given-are almost all small tradesmen, artisans, and wage-earners. Of these, about two
the murder of FouUon and Berthier-have, of course been
Nor should we, of coune, be satisfied in describing them with such general terms as 'Ies ouvrien du faubourg St. Antoine', 'Ie peuple'. or 'tout Paris'. There is, in fact, small excuse for so doing: those directly involved in the capture of the fortress were but a few hundred and, in their case at least, sufficient evidence has survived to enable us to get a reasonably clear
picture. The vainqutur.s
de La
Ba.stilu, as they came to be called,
numbered between 800 and goo persons. Those were they who
managed, after careful sifting of evidence, to establish their claim to have taken a direct part in the capture of the fortress. Their names were carefully compiled and recorded and have come down to us in three separate lists, each one of which was, at various times during
17go, approved
by the Constituent
• Arch. Nat., Y '2823. Th!not had, according to his own story, joined his local milia on 13 July and talten pari in the attaclt on the Invalides. Z For /irlXb-IHfMwt relaling 10 these variOUll victi u I«: Arch. Nat., Y 1128�;
14&4 ; and 10634, fait. 14g-�1.
n
handfu! ofwealthy shopkeepers. The rest, apart from 6 , soldiers
15
thirds are small workshop masters, craftsmen, and joul"ucymen drawn from about thirty petty trades ;s the remainder are engaged in manufacture, distribution, building, the professions, and general trades.' The wage-earners cannot always be clearly identified, but they appear to be (as we should expect in this case) in a decided minority: perhaps 60 in the small crafts and , Tab/tau aU ci/o)'fflf !JainqutUTI a' la Bas/ill, (871 names), M�e d., Arch. Nal., no. I J 66; Tab/tau aU !Ja;nqutlJ1S a' la DIU/ill, (954 names, many appearing twice) in F. Uoumon, Ln. Bas/ill, (P:;lTis, 1893), pp. �1g-23; NQI1U aU w;/Ujuturs a' Ie Dallill, (662 names), An:h. Nat., T 514!» . 1 Arch. Nal., T 5'41'). J Among notable omissiOilli arc �nOI, who chopped off de LaunaY'1 head; the abW, Fauehet; Fournier l'Amtricain; lhe an:hitect Palloy; and Maillard himself. • Jaurk, Hi.J/";u lQCU,fu�. i. 303. I These n i clude 49 joi , 4B cabinet·makers, 41 loclumitlu, 28 cobblers, 20 sculptors and mOOdlen, " metal-chuen, 10 turners, 10 hairdrnscrs and wiS makers, 7 potters, 9 monumental mUOIlll, 9 nailsmiths, 9 dealers in fancy ware, 8 printers, 7 braziers, 9 tailOR, 9 foundeR, 5jewcllcn, 5 goldsmiths, � 'love-makers, and 3 uphoblerers. For a similar classification see G. Bord, 'La Con'pin.tion ma(onnique dc '789', u COTTls/Xmdmll, May 1905, pp. 52'-44' M. Bard must have used Maillard's lin to arrive al his results, but he gives no reference. • Thev include I I wine-merchants, 3 eaf
ncn
"
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
85 or go in other occupations, I There was one woman among them-Marie Charpentier,femme Hauserne, a laundress of the parish of Saint·Hippolyte in the Faubourg Saint-Marcel. These were the survivors ; we know less about the ninety eight said to have been killed during the siege. Jaures, quoting the journalist Loustaiot, wrote : 'Plus de trentc: laissaient leur femme et leun enfanu dans un tel etat de detresse que des secoun immediats Curent necessaires.'1 There is further evidence to suggest that those killed included wage-earners and city poor. Hardy reports a burial service for Charles Dusson, aged 31, a journeyman edge-toolmaker of the rue de la Huchette,
JULY 1 7 8 9
"
the Gros CaiJIou. near the Champ de Mars. And all of these, whether from the Faubourg Saint-Antoine or elsewhere, far from being vagrants or down-and-outs, were men of settled abode and occupation. More surprisingly perhaps, the over
whelming majority of its captors went to the Bastille under arms as enrolled members of their local units of the newly formed mili a bourgeoise, or Parisian National Guard.' This, of course, not only serves further to disprove the legend that the captors were vagrants or social riff-raff-such elements were, of course, rigorously excluded from the ranks of the militia
in the church of Saint-Severin on 18 Juiy.J Again, Jean-Marie Silvain Gorny, aged 17. one of Santerre's brewers, was last seen
but it also suggests that the operation may have been a far less spontaneous affair than has usually been claimed. Yet, in a wider sense, we may agree with Michelet that the
alive when he set out for the Bastille under arms on the after noon of 14 July.4 Five further corpses of civilians were brought
capture of the Bastille was not just the affair of those few hundred citizens of the Saint-Antoine quarter who were most immediately involved, but of the people of Paris as a whole. At
unclaimed and unidentified.s
the peak of the insurrection there may have been a quarter of a million Parisians-some thought more-under arms;l and, taking an even broader view, we should not ignore the part
to the Chatelet for identification : they included a journeyman 5hoe-maker of the Faubourg Saint-Antoine, and a street-lighter of the rue des Noyers, off the Place Maubert; the rest remained Of the survivors, at least, the great majority were citizens of the Faubourg Saint-Antoine. Four hundred, it is true, of the 635 whose origins have been traced, were of provincial birth;6 yet most of them had become settled inhabitants of the jtJJJ bourg: no less than 425, out of 602 whose addresses are given, lived in one or other of its parishes.7 Of the remainder, 60 came from Saint-�rvais, Saint-Paul, and other districts adjoining the Bastille from the west, 30 from the central markets,' perhaps a dozen from the Faubourg Saint-Marcel. Very few came from more than a mile or two from the Bastille: among them were a locksmith from the Faubourg Saint-Honore and a tin5mith from (7-9). cobblers ($), print and paper worlr.en (4), atocking-weaven (4), pun workel1 (n), porten (17), riverside worlr.en and bargemen (8), .hipyard worken ($), coachmen (4), Itonemasons ($). stonecutters (4). ribbon weavcn (3)· ' Hardy, viii. 388. • Jaurb, op. cit. i. 303. I Arch. Nat., Y 10634, fol. l$Oi 11I6g8; 10$g8. • Arch. Nat., Y '4" 9. • J . Duricux, Us Vain.q1ll1lN tit. Us B<Jilil/, (Pari., 19.1), pp. 261 ff. • Most ofthac were from the streets adjoining theB:;utille-the rue du Fauboul'I Saint.Antoine and adjacent streets (1I4�), ruede Lappe ($3), rue de Chll.r�:nton (44). rue de Scrcy (Ill), rue de Montreuil (7). I Fournier l'Am�ricain'l claim, therefore, to have led 400 of hiJ band of 800 followel1 from the Saint-Eustaehe District to the siege mUJ! n(>t be taken too liter ally (/l-flmoim stcr,l3 u C. FOJlf7lin', Amlricaill, Arch. Nat., P 6$04). • The largest categories arc: cabim:t·m.akcn (8-10), joinen (8), locbmitbl
• • •
played by the great mass of Parisian petty craftsmen, tradesmen, and wage-earners, in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine and else where, whose revolutionary temper had been moulded over many months by the rise in living costs and, as the crisis deepened, by the growing conviction that the great hopes raised
by the States General were being thwarted by an aristocratic plot. Though of little military imponance the capture of the Bastille had far-reaching political consequences. The National Assem� bly was saved and received royal recognition. The Court Pany
began to disintegrate and the Comte d'Anois went into volun tary exile. In the capital, power passed into the hands of the Committee of Electors, who set up a City Council with Bailly as mayor and Lafayette as commander-in-chief of its National Guard. On 1 7 July the king himself made the journey to Paris,
, In the c:;ue of6 out ofevery 7 civilians on Maillard', list the name ofthc com_ pany and/or battalion of the National Guard il indicated. I have asaumed that the remainin� t in 7 (they include a boy of '4, another of 16 and a woman) were not enroUed In the milic,. 1 �icolas de BonneviUe, the original promoter of the milin bowglOise, later wrote th�t, on '4 July, Pari. had 300,000 mcn under arms (So Lacroix, op. cit., ::nd lenCl, v. 31); Barnavc, on tSJuly, wrote of 180,000 (Arch. Nat., W I il, fol. tO�).
"
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
85 or go in other occupations, I There was one woman among them-Marie Charpentier,femme Hauserne, a laundress of the parish of Saint·Hippolyte in the Faubourg Saint-Marcel. These were the survivors ; we know less about the ninety eight said to have been killed during the siege. Jaures, quoting the journalist Loustaiot, wrote : 'Plus de trentc: laissaient leur femme et leun enfanu dans un tel etat de detresse que des secoun immediats Curent necessaires.'1 There is further evidence to suggest that those killed included wage-earners and city poor. Hardy reports a burial service for Charles Dusson, aged 31, a journeyman edge-toolmaker of the rue de la Huchette,
JULY 1 7 8 9
"
the Gros CaiJIou. near the Champ de Mars. And all of these, whether from the Faubourg Saint-Antoine or elsewhere, far from being vagrants or down-and-outs, were men of settled abode and occupation. More surprisingly perhaps, the over
whelming majority of its captors went to the Bastille under arms as enrolled members of their local units of the newly formed mili a bourgeoise, or Parisian National Guard.' This, of course, not only serves further to disprove the legend that the captors were vagrants or social riff-raff-such elements were, of course, rigorously excluded from the ranks of the militia
in the church of Saint-Severin on 18 Juiy.J Again, Jean-Marie Silvain Gorny, aged 17. one of Santerre's brewers, was last seen
but it also suggests that the operation may have been a far less spontaneous affair than has usually been claimed. Yet, in a wider sense, we may agree with Michelet that the
alive when he set out for the Bastille under arms on the after noon of 14 July.4 Five further corpses of civilians were brought
capture of the Bastille was not just the affair of those few hundred citizens of the Saint-Antoine quarter who were most immediately involved, but of the people of Paris as a whole. At
unclaimed and unidentified.s
the peak of the insurrection there may have been a quarter of a million Parisians-some thought more-under arms;l and, taking an even broader view, we should not ignore the part
to the Chatelet for identification : they included a journeyman 5hoe-maker of the Faubourg Saint-Antoine, and a street-lighter of the rue des Noyers, off the Place Maubert; the rest remained Of the survivors, at least, the great majority were citizens of the Faubourg Saint-Antoine. Four hundred, it is true, of the 635 whose origins have been traced, were of provincial birth;6 yet most of them had become settled inhabitants of the jtJJJ bourg: no less than 425, out of 602 whose addresses are given, lived in one or other of its parishes.7 Of the remainder, 60 came from Saint-�rvais, Saint-Paul, and other districts adjoining the Bastille from the west, 30 from the central markets,' perhaps a dozen from the Faubourg Saint-Marcel. Very few came from more than a mile or two from the Bastille: among them were a locksmith from the Faubourg Saint-Honore and a tin5mith from (7-9). cobblers ($), print and paper worlr.en (4), atocking-weaven (4), pun workel1 (n), porten (17), riverside worlr.en and bargemen (8), .hipyard worken ($), coachmen (4), Itonemasons ($). stonecutters (4). ribbon weavcn (3)· ' Hardy, viii. 388. • Jaurb, op. cit. i. 303. I Arch. Nat., Y 10634, fol. l$Oi 11I6g8; 10$g8. • Arch. Nat., Y '4" 9. • J . Duricux, Us Vain.q1ll1lN tit. Us B<Jilil/, (Pari., 19.1), pp. 261 ff. • Most ofthac were from the streets adjoining theB:;utille-the rue du Fauboul'I Saint.Antoine and adjacent streets (1I4�), ruede Lappe ($3), rue de Chll.r�:nton (44). rue de Scrcy (Ill), rue de Montreuil (7). I Fournier l'Am�ricain'l claim, therefore, to have led 400 of hiJ band of 800 followel1 from the Saint-Eustaehe District to the siege mUJ! n(>t be taken too liter ally (/l-flmoim stcr,l3 u C. FOJlf7lin', Amlricaill, Arch. Nat., P 6$04). • The largest categories arc: cabim:t·m.akcn (8-10), joinen (8), locbmitbl
• • •
played by the great mass of Parisian petty craftsmen, tradesmen, and wage-earners, in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine and else where, whose revolutionary temper had been moulded over many months by the rise in living costs and, as the crisis deepened, by the growing conviction that the great hopes raised
by the States General were being thwarted by an aristocratic plot. Though of little military imponance the capture of the Bastille had far-reaching political consequences. The National Assem� bly was saved and received royal recognition. The Court Pany
began to disintegrate and the Comte d'Anois went into volun tary exile. In the capital, power passed into the hands of the Committee of Electors, who set up a City Council with Bailly as mayor and Lafayette as commander-in-chief of its National Guard. On 1 7 July the king himself made the journey to Paris,
, In the c:;ue of6 out ofevery 7 civilians on Maillard', list the name ofthc com_ pany and/or battalion of the National Guard il indicated. I have asaumed that the remainin� t in 7 (they include a boy of '4, another of 16 and a woman) were not enroUed In the milic,. 1 �icolas de BonneviUe, the original promoter of the milin bowglOise, later wrote th�t, on '4 July, Pari. had 300,000 mcn under arms (So Lacroix, op. cit., ::nd lenCl, v. 31); Barnavc, on tSJuly, wrote of 180,000 (Arch. Nat., W I il, fol. tO�).
60
TH E REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
was received at the H6tel de Ville by the victors and, in token ofacquiescence in the turn ofevents, donned the red, white, and blue cockade of the Revolution. Though to Hardy the 14th had I seemed 'une triste journee', it was a week of public rejoicing
and fraternal embraces. Yet it proved short·lived. Though a decisive step had been taken, the Revolution was far from com pleted; and the festivities and rejoicing soon gave way to a new round of solemn and tragic events. I
Hardy, viii. 3go.
V T H E M A R C H TO V E R S A I L L E S
HE
march to Versailles on 5 October, by ending in the king's return to the capital, completed the Paris revolution of July. As long as court and king remained at Versailles and an active minority of deputies were able, in alliance with
T
the court, to frustrate the constitutional programme of the Assembly, effective power still remained divided between the revolutionary bourgeoisie (supported by a minority of liberal aristocrats) and the adherents of the old regime. The king's refusal to give his assent to the Declaration of the Rights of Man and to the Assembly's famous resolution of 4- August, which eventually led to the abolition ofthe feudal system ofland tenure, the long struggle over the 'veto', and the constant intrigues to abduct the king to a safe distance from Paris, showed how precarious as yet were the gains of the July revolution. The October insurrection was to consolidate these gains. By placing the king under the watchful eye of the majority in the National Assembly, the Paris city government, and Districts and by destroying the influence of the conservative 'English Party' within the Assembly, it established the ascendancy of the constitutional monarchists which, in Paris, found its reflection in the long rule of Bailly as mayor and of Lafayette as com mander-in-chief of the National Guard. It must, of course, be added that by placing the Assembly itself under the equally watchful eye of the Parisian menu pmple, whose more active elements began to crowd the tribunes and, often, to influence its debates, it opened the way for further developments that were neither foreseen, nor in the event welcomed, by the
victors of October; but this, of course, lay still in the future.
Yet the constitutional monarchists, who were clearly the immediate beneficiaries of the insurrection, were not eager to boast of their successes or to show the world how they were achieved. When the Chatelet inquiry into the events of 6 October was published in March 1790,' it was with the full
I Ft"'Iaure crimilllll. du CMlllot Bib. Nat., L< 119 980.
. . .
a. Pdf;' fUl' Idjouml. aU 6 «/o.r, (Paru, '790).
60
TH E REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
was received at the H6tel de Ville by the victors and, in token ofacquiescence in the turn ofevents, donned the red, white, and blue cockade of the Revolution. Though to Hardy the 14th had I seemed 'une triste journee', it was a week of public rejoicing
and fraternal embraces. Yet it proved short·lived. Though a decisive step had been taken, the Revolution was far from com pleted; and the festivities and rejoicing soon gave way to a new round of solemn and tragic events. I
Hardy, viii. 3go.
V T H E M A R C H TO V E R S A I L L E S
HE
march to Versailles on 5 October, by ending in the king's return to the capital, completed the Paris revolution of July. As long as court and king remained at Versailles and an active minority of deputies were able, in alliance with
T
the court, to frustrate the constitutional programme of the Assembly, effective power still remained divided between the revolutionary bourgeoisie (supported by a minority of liberal aristocrats) and the adherents of the old regime. The king's refusal to give his assent to the Declaration of the Rights of Man and to the Assembly's famous resolution of 4- August, which eventually led to the abolition ofthe feudal system ofland tenure, the long struggle over the 'veto', and the constant intrigues to abduct the king to a safe distance from Paris, showed how precarious as yet were the gains of the July revolution. The October insurrection was to consolidate these gains. By placing the king under the watchful eye of the majority in the National Assembly, the Paris city government, and Districts and by destroying the influence of the conservative 'English Party' within the Assembly, it established the ascendancy of the constitutional monarchists which, in Paris, found its reflection in the long rule of Bailly as mayor and of Lafayette as com mander-in-chief of the National Guard. It must, of course, be added that by placing the Assembly itself under the equally watchful eye of the Parisian menu pmple, whose more active elements began to crowd the tribunes and, often, to influence its debates, it opened the way for further developments that were neither foreseen, nor in the event welcomed, by the
victors of October; but this, of course, lay still in the future.
Yet the constitutional monarchists, who were clearly the immediate beneficiaries of the insurrection, were not eager to boast of their successes or to show the world how they were achieved. When the Chatelet inquiry into the events of 6 October was published in March 1790,' it was with the full
I Ft"'Iaure crimilllll. du CMlllot Bib. Nat., L< 119 980.
. . .
a. Pdf;' fUl' Idjouml. aU 6 «/o.r, (Paru, '790).
0,
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
consent of the Assembly's majority; yet, far from throwing a bright light into dark corners, it served effectively as a smoke screen to divert attention from the real authors of the October 'days'. It suited the court, the police, the Paris administ�atjon. and the dominant party in the Assembly to present the violence and haste with which the king had been hustled to Paris as the outcome of a vaguely definro Orleanist plot or of the sinister machinations of the discredited Mirabeau; it would have been impolitic to reveal it as the execution of plans long nurtured by the respectable bourgeois and liberal aristocrats who controlled the Assembly and Paris city government. Mystery undoubtedly attaches to the exact part played by Mirabeau, Orleans, or even Lafayette-a mystery which the Chatelet inquiry succeeded in deepening. It is not the purpose of the present chapter to seek to throw a fresh light on the respective guilt, or responsi bility, of the various parties concerned: this has .already been attempted, with remarkable success under the clf.cumstances, by Albert Mathiez,1 Suffice it here to say �hat It would be strange indeed if those who benefited most dlfectly from these events did not have at least as effective a control of the October insurrection as they had of the Paris revolution ofJuly. With�n certain limits they would no more hesitate in October t�an 10 July to turn to their advantage the anger and revolutlO.n.ary energies of the menu prople in order to achieve d�fined political objectives, Had not Academician Dussaulx, a highly respected member of the Centre party in the Assembly, told Farmer General Augeart already on 26 August that the king must be brought to Paris-by violence if need be?: A".d did not �a�ave's letters written after the event explain to hiS Dauphmols con stituents the necessity for the insurrection-however distasteful certain ofits features undoubtedly were-and praise the city of Paris for once more saving 'la liberte publique'?3 So much, in brief, for the main political results and �espon sibilities for the October days; but the menu plUple of Pans were • A. Malhia, '£t\lde eritique sur les joum�es des S el 6 octobre 1789', RlfJ. hist. bvii (18gB), 241--th; Ixviii (1899). 2�; bix (IBgg). 41---6.6 I have made eonsiderable usc or this study in puparing this chapter. • Quoted by Mathiez. op. cil. Ixvii. 249· I Arch. Nat., W 13, foJ•. 317--18. He, ne"erthdcss, spoke ofil as '�e mouvement been for terrible', which, he coruidered, might have ended in disaster, had II not the p;m played by Wayelle and the Aucmbly (Arch. Nat W 12, fols. 200-1), .•
THE MARCH TO VERSAILLES
0,
no more helpless accessories, willing to stage an insurrection for the sole benefit ofthe constitutional monarchists in October, than they had been for the Palais Royal or the Paris Electors in July. While they might share the general alarm of all 'patriots' at the neW 'conspiracies' hatching at Versailles, they also had their own particular preoccupations. Barnave, who often showed a deeper understanding of social realities than most of his colleagues, drew attention to this division of interest when he wrote to his constituents that while, in October, bourgeoisie and ptuple acted together in a common cause, the former were actuated solely by the desire to defeat the plots of the aristo cracy, whereas the latter, while sharing this desire, were equally concerned with the scarcityofbread. 1 This duality ofinterest was by no meanspeculiarto the events ofOctober; but to be aware of it is to begin, at least, to understand an episode which, in some re spects, is more shrouded in mystery than any othersimilareventof the Revolution. It will perhaps emerge more clearlyifwe first try to trace the origins of these separate trends, follow their develop ment and see how they merged in common action on 5 October. Again, as in July, it was the menu propie rather than the bourgeoisi� that was first involved in active protest; nor was their movement to cease with the realization of the immediate political objectives. For them the calm following the July revolution was short-lived. In terms of the political movement, the events ofJuly and October, though linked by common ties, are clearly defined and distinctive episodes; in terms of the popular-social movement however, it would perhaps be more correct to speak of an almost continuous agitation, springing up in April or May, rising to a climax in July and again in October, but not finally subsiding until the early days of November. In this movement the problem of bread was uppermost, dominated �U other considerations, and drew together the largest numbers In common protest. Yet there were other elements which, though affecting smaller groups, added to the general unrest and, therefore, must have contributed to the volume of anger and to the numbers of demonstrators on 5 October. '. ' Ar�h. Nal., W 12, foil. 200-1. Thepassage rum: 'Pendant que nousd�li�rioru,
I 'mpa .ence des Parisierll l'�tait portee a I'excb; � la bourgeoisie el Ie peuple, les UIlI �n'rnb uniquemenl conlU la dernil:rc c(lnduile du gouvernemcnl el de I'arilto crahe, tlus aul,tsy 1IIIItmJ I'inllr/l du pain 'lui CtImmfll(ail d II,. rart, sc sont a.sacmblb dans IOUli les districts' (my italics).
0,
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
consent of the Assembly's majority; yet, far from throwing a bright light into dark corners, it served effectively as a smoke screen to divert attention from the real authors of the October 'days'. It suited the court, the police, the Paris administ�atjon. and the dominant party in the Assembly to present the violence and haste with which the king had been hustled to Paris as the outcome of a vaguely definro Orleanist plot or of the sinister machinations of the discredited Mirabeau; it would have been impolitic to reveal it as the execution of plans long nurtured by the respectable bourgeois and liberal aristocrats who controlled the Assembly and Paris city government. Mystery undoubtedly attaches to the exact part played by Mirabeau, Orleans, or even Lafayette-a mystery which the Chatelet inquiry succeeded in deepening. It is not the purpose of the present chapter to seek to throw a fresh light on the respective guilt, or responsi bility, of the various parties concerned: this has .already been attempted, with remarkable success under the clf.cumstances, by Albert Mathiez,1 Suffice it here to say �hat It would be strange indeed if those who benefited most dlfectly from these events did not have at least as effective a control of the October insurrection as they had of the Paris revolution ofJuly. With�n certain limits they would no more hesitate in October t�an 10 July to turn to their advantage the anger and revolutlO.n.ary energies of the menu prople in order to achieve d�fined political objectives, Had not Academician Dussaulx, a highly respected member of the Centre party in the Assembly, told Farmer General Augeart already on 26 August that the king must be brought to Paris-by violence if need be?: A".d did not �a�ave's letters written after the event explain to hiS Dauphmols con stituents the necessity for the insurrection-however distasteful certain ofits features undoubtedly were-and praise the city of Paris for once more saving 'la liberte publique'?3 So much, in brief, for the main political results and �espon sibilities for the October days; but the menu plUple of Pans were • A. Malhia, '£t\lde eritique sur les joum�es des S el 6 octobre 1789', RlfJ. hist. bvii (18gB), 241--th; Ixviii (1899). 2�; bix (IBgg). 41---6.6 I have made eonsiderable usc or this study in puparing this chapter. • Quoted by Mathiez. op. cil. Ixvii. 249· I Arch. Nat., W 13, foJ•. 317--18. He, ne"erthdcss, spoke ofil as '�e mouvement been for terrible', which, he coruidered, might have ended in disaster, had II not the p;m played by Wayelle and the Aucmbly (Arch. Nat W 12, fols. 200-1), .•
THE MARCH TO VERSAILLES
0,
no more helpless accessories, willing to stage an insurrection for the sole benefit ofthe constitutional monarchists in October, than they had been for the Palais Royal or the Paris Electors in July. While they might share the general alarm of all 'patriots' at the neW 'conspiracies' hatching at Versailles, they also had their own particular preoccupations. Barnave, who often showed a deeper understanding of social realities than most of his colleagues, drew attention to this division of interest when he wrote to his constituents that while, in October, bourgeoisie and ptuple acted together in a common cause, the former were actuated solely by the desire to defeat the plots of the aristo cracy, whereas the latter, while sharing this desire, were equally concerned with the scarcityofbread. 1 This duality ofinterest was by no meanspeculiarto the events ofOctober; but to be aware of it is to begin, at least, to understand an episode which, in some re spects, is more shrouded in mystery than any othersimilareventof the Revolution. It will perhaps emerge more clearlyifwe first try to trace the origins of these separate trends, follow their develop ment and see how they merged in common action on 5 October. Again, as in July, it was the menu propie rather than the bourgeoisi� that was first involved in active protest; nor was their movement to cease with the realization of the immediate political objectives. For them the calm following the July revolution was short-lived. In terms of the political movement, the events ofJuly and October, though linked by common ties, are clearly defined and distinctive episodes; in terms of the popular-social movement however, it would perhaps be more correct to speak of an almost continuous agitation, springing up in April or May, rising to a climax in July and again in October, but not finally subsiding until the early days of November. In this movement the problem of bread was uppermost, dominated �U other considerations, and drew together the largest numbers In common protest. Yet there were other elements which, though affecting smaller groups, added to the general unrest and, therefore, must have contributed to the volume of anger and to the numbers of demonstrators on 5 October. '. ' Ar�h. Nal., W 12, foil. 200-1. Thepassage rum: 'Pendant que nousd�li�rioru,
I 'mpa .ence des Parisierll l'�tait portee a I'excb; � la bourgeoisie el Ie peuple, les UIlI �n'rnb uniquemenl conlU la dernil:rc c(lnduile du gouvernemcnl el de I'arilto crahe, tlus aul,tsy 1IIIItmJ I'inllr/l du pain 'lui CtImmfll(ail d II,. rart, sc sont a.sacmblb dans IOUli les districts' (my italics).
..
THE MARCH TO VERSAILLES
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
ployed .engaged �? In the first place, there were the unem aulllrs de chanti. the in public-works schemes or merely herded st, there were Augu in Their numbers were rising sharply and, 18,000 were which of , shops already 22 000 in the public work part in the in certa a d playe had at Montm rtre alone.' They le,�. but to Bastil the at even and m July revolution, at the barrie alhes. So lcome unwe were they aries ution the bourgeois revol a that .when number touchy were the authorities on their score outside the Duke of of new recruits to Montmartre gathered st, waiting for a clerk Orleans's estate at Monceaux on 9 Augu ed for forming an to bring them work or pay, fifteen were arrest a pamphlet by red appea illegal assembly.l Shortly after there Montmartre the that ng allegi the Chevalier de Beaurepaire, ry on the artille ng traini for tions workers were building fortifica of Petit ct Distri the from ation deput g city.4 Although a visitin ring repo�t,S reassu a in tions allega the d denie Saint-Antoine the workshop. The city a demand was raised for the closure of st, and Lafayette was authorities agreed to do so on t 2 Augu ers on the subject on deputed to address the Montmartre work ly b �cause the possib ed, the 15th. He was not well receiv s.' Dlst�rbances wage their e reduc Assembly had just decided to e navvles were martr Mont two h mont followed: later in the ger; and ten mana hop works their kill to jailed for threatening n, were arrested by Bastille workers, including three wome martre uneI?plo�ed Santerre for creating a disorder.' The Mont back �o their ��llVe were duly disbanded, and the majority sent BastIlle (a mlhtary ia de provinces, with the aid of the lJoiontaires but other work ;8 ueurs) vain the q force not to be confused with sec, perme�ted shall we as e, becam shops remained open and to Versailles. march the ded prece that ion by the political agitat t.est the good to ed decid had trades of er numb a , Meanwhile by puttmg forward faith of the new municipal authorities tions. These included claims for bener wages and working condi . I MlmtJiTu u Baill.1, ii. 257. i includes four panici�tsfrom thepublle • Maillard'l lill ofIIfIUlqunuI U 1<1 BdSl/h (Arch. Nat., T 514U»). E»-two navviQ, a foreman, and a (�fd'atrli#r
�
worksho
ltW PI/iu MIJ/h",ins.Bib. Nat., 4 Chevalier deBeaurepaire, RapfKJTl.iMM. d"diJlru: fol. 156. • Bib. N"'t., nQuv. aeq. fran�., no. <1654, L" 4-0 �85. 6 MirMirts dt Baill.1, ii. 265. • Arch. Nat., Y IS'O�; 18766; 18795. fols. 463, 466-7· I Jaura, op. cil. i. 356. , Arch. Nat., Y l�o79·
"
bakers,. wig-makers, tailors, shoe-makers, apothecaries, and domestic servants. I n general they were to find the new city government no more sympathetic to their claims than their predecessors : their requests for pennission to hold meetings
were curtly refused, sometimes with the aid of the National Guard ;1 the tailors alone, according to Hardy, won their demand for an increase of wages-in this case, of 10 SOUl per day.J The wig-�akers and domestic servants, as might be supp05ed,
were suffenng severely from the decline in the luxury trades
and the growing volume of emigration. 4-,000 wig-makers met in the Champs Elysees to demand a reorganization of their labour exchanges ; after a scuffle with the National Guard a deputation was received at the Hotel de Ville, a joint meeting
with the masters was arranged, and a new code was eventually drawn Up.l The servants' demands were, in the main, political: they requested full citizen rights, the right to attend District Assemblies, to enrol in the National Guard (from which as servile dependents they were debarred), and the exclusion of Sa�oyards fro� their calling. They were persuaded to disperse qUietly and did not carry out their original threat to demon strate 4-0,000 strong in the Champs Elysees, or on the Place du Temple, the next day.4 Nevertheless, feelings ran high : a few days later Eugene Gervais, an unemployed cook, was arrested �t the Palais Royal for inciting domestic servants and workers
In general against the bourgeois National Guard ; he was even tually condemned to be branded and to spend nine years in the galleys, a sentence later commuted to one of two years' prison.s A feature of the scenes that took place at Versailles on 5 October, when the women burst in on the meeting of the
�
Hardy, viii. 434, 438-9, 455; S. Lacroix, OJ). cit., lit .mes, i. 1�3-4, 38., 41 , .547; G. M. Jafft, U MalWtl>lt>ll oo=Vr II plJriJ pmdtW la RivDlwi4t
�ue 'o.ooo domtlliqua ttaient capables de [Ie bal a 10UI la j. [ qui portaient dca . abul blew :I reven blanc; C1 que tOUll IQ bourg«>iI ttaimt tOUI j. f. sanl en �x�cpte, un; C{ que I'on nc voy"it qu'un tu dc freluquetl faire des faquins au a all Royal, et qu'il y avait 60.000 domaliqua :I Pam qui pourraicnt IC rtuni, aux ouv9cn dQ difftrents ttatl ct que I'on vcrrait tow CQ j. f. sc cacher chcz eux .�cc. leun [ habits.' Though denying having used the exact words• Gervail a mIlled saying IOmc thing Iirni.Lllr.
..
THE MARCH TO VERSAILLES
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
ployed .engaged �? In the first place, there were the unem aulllrs de chanti. the in public-works schemes or merely herded st, there were Augu in Their numbers were rising sharply and, 18,000 were which of , shops already 22 000 in the public work part in the in certa a d playe had at Montm rtre alone.' They le,�. but to Bastil the at even and m July revolution, at the barrie alhes. So lcome unwe were they aries ution the bourgeois revol a that .when number touchy were the authorities on their score outside the Duke of of new recruits to Montmartre gathered st, waiting for a clerk Orleans's estate at Monceaux on 9 Augu ed for forming an to bring them work or pay, fifteen were arrest a pamphlet by red appea illegal assembly.l Shortly after there Montmartre the that ng allegi the Chevalier de Beaurepaire, ry on the artille ng traini for tions workers were building fortifica of Petit ct Distri the from ation deput g city.4 Although a visitin ring repo�t,S reassu a in tions allega the d denie Saint-Antoine the workshop. The city a demand was raised for the closure of st, and Lafayette was authorities agreed to do so on t 2 Augu ers on the subject on deputed to address the Montmartre work ly b �cause the possib ed, the 15th. He was not well receiv s.' Dlst�rbances wage their e reduc Assembly had just decided to e navvles were martr Mont two h mont followed: later in the ger; and ten mana hop works their kill to jailed for threatening n, were arrested by Bastille workers, including three wome martre uneI?plo�ed Santerre for creating a disorder.' The Mont back �o their ��llVe were duly disbanded, and the majority sent BastIlle (a mlhtary ia de provinces, with the aid of the lJoiontaires but other work ;8 ueurs) vain the q force not to be confused with sec, perme�ted shall we as e, becam shops remained open and to Versailles. march the ded prece that ion by the political agitat t.est the good to ed decid had trades of er numb a , Meanwhile by puttmg forward faith of the new municipal authorities tions. These included claims for bener wages and working condi . I MlmtJiTu u Baill.1, ii. 257. i includes four panici�tsfrom thepublle • Maillard'l lill ofIIfIUlqunuI U 1<1 BdSl/h (Arch. Nat., T 514U»). E»-two navviQ, a foreman, and a (�fd'atrli#r
�
worksho
ltW PI/iu MIJ/h",ins.Bib. Nat., 4 Chevalier deBeaurepaire, RapfKJTl.iMM. d"diJlru: fol. 156. • Bib. N"'t., nQuv. aeq. fran�., no. <1654, L" 4-0 �85. 6 MirMirts dt Baill.1, ii. 265. • Arch. Nat., Y IS'O�; 18766; 18795. fols. 463, 466-7· I Jaura, op. cil. i. 356. , Arch. Nat., Y l�o79·
"
bakers,. wig-makers, tailors, shoe-makers, apothecaries, and domestic servants. I n general they were to find the new city government no more sympathetic to their claims than their predecessors : their requests for pennission to hold meetings
were curtly refused, sometimes with the aid of the National Guard ;1 the tailors alone, according to Hardy, won their demand for an increase of wages-in this case, of 10 SOUl per day.J The wig-�akers and domestic servants, as might be supp05ed,
were suffenng severely from the decline in the luxury trades
and the growing volume of emigration. 4-,000 wig-makers met in the Champs Elysees to demand a reorganization of their labour exchanges ; after a scuffle with the National Guard a deputation was received at the Hotel de Ville, a joint meeting
with the masters was arranged, and a new code was eventually drawn Up.l The servants' demands were, in the main, political: they requested full citizen rights, the right to attend District Assemblies, to enrol in the National Guard (from which as servile dependents they were debarred), and the exclusion of Sa�oyards fro� their calling. They were persuaded to disperse qUietly and did not carry out their original threat to demon strate 4-0,000 strong in the Champs Elysees, or on the Place du Temple, the next day.4 Nevertheless, feelings ran high : a few days later Eugene Gervais, an unemployed cook, was arrested �t the Palais Royal for inciting domestic servants and workers
In general against the bourgeois National Guard ; he was even tually condemned to be branded and to spend nine years in the galleys, a sentence later commuted to one of two years' prison.s A feature of the scenes that took place at Versailles on 5 October, when the women burst in on the meeting of the
�
Hardy, viii. 434, 438-9, 455; S. Lacroix, OJ). cit., lit .mes, i. 1�3-4, 38., 41 , .547; G. M. Jafft, U MalWtl>lt>ll oo=Vr II plJriJ pmdtW la RivDlwi4t
�ue 'o.ooo domtlliqua ttaient capables de [Ie bal a 10UI la j. [ qui portaient dca . abul blew :I reven blanc; C1 que tOUll IQ bourg«>iI ttaimt tOUI j. f. sanl en �x�cpte, un; C{ que I'on nc voy"it qu'un tu dc freluquetl faire des faquins au a all Royal, et qu'il y avait 60.000 domaliqua :I Pam qui pourraicnt IC rtuni, aux ouv9cn dQ difftrents ttatl ct que I'on vcrrait tow CQ j. f. sc cacher chcz eux .�cc. leun [ habits.' Though denying having used the exact words• Gervail a mIlled saying IOmc thing Iirni.Lllr.
66
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
?
the
��
contempt and hostility sh wn to the cleric Assembly, was greeted with �houts �f a bas la caloue . were who deputies, . and "d mort Ies calottins !'1 While this hostility had been recently ' had, " tlthe It stimulated by the clergy's refusal to give up theIr � bas la a of course, far deeper roots. Hardy heard the slogan
�
caloue!' in the Palais Royal on 12 July;: and, �arly the same month the pamphlet Prnnier dialogue entre U1le powarde tt un fort that, de La lz:Ule showed the degree of disrespect for the the 10 eral gen become time this by had it may be assumed. , on held rocesslo a that noted Hardy later month A markets,l � � r neIghbou the In d threatene was on Assumpti the of Feast the
ChUTC�
hood of Notre Dame with cries of '3. b� la �alott� !' and 'II . faudrait les mettre ala lanterne !'4 That this anu-dencal feeling was on the increase among the mtnU peuple is suggested by the incidents that took place at the end ?f 8epte�ber �t the churches of 8aint-Jacques-de-la-Bouchene and Satnt-Nlcolas in the area of the central markets. When the des-Champs,
both
curl of Saint-Jacques refused to bury a journeyman carpenter without the payment of the full fee of 23 liures, th: church was taken by storm and the curl compelled to suhnut. A solemn requinn W3..11 sung for the deceased to approving shouts of 'bravo'
from the assembled crowds. The mood soon changed to on� of fury when the choir-leader of the neighbouring cburch of8a1Ot bad been dismissed for Nicolas--des-Cbamps announced that stormed by a large was cburch Tbe taking part in the service. only dispersed by was it curl; the hang to threatened crowd who
he
the National Guard after the arrest of one of the rioters and the . promise that the choir-leader would be reinst.a�ed 5 .This sharp hostility to the ministers of the Church-ansmg, m the first . payment of tithe or place over such economic issues as funer l expenses-was, of course, highly significant for future. Hardy had perhaps good cause w.hen he
�
the
alarm at the discipline, pageantry, and magnttude daily processions of market w�men, laundrc:sses, . that, dunng August and workers of different DlStncts September, wound up the rue Saint-Jacques t? the . built church of Sainte-Genevieve for thanksglVmg services. Hardy, �!!. 385. 4 Hardy, Vlli. 435. • Bib. Nal., Lb 39 .862. ... f Ard>. Nal., Y ,0650; .0649, fol. 42 i Hardy, vw.4-93-4,497.
I Mathiez, loc. cil. R.o. hiJI. Ixviii. 261.
'
.,
THE MARCH TO VERSAILLES
Despite their quasi.religious objects, there is already a foretaste of the march to Versailles in these great demonstrations of the �nu peuple of the markets andfauhourgs. Hardy seems to have sensed these potentialities when he writes of the Faubourg Saint-Antoine procession in mid.September, in which people took part:
1,200
Bien des gem trouvaient qu'il avait quelque chose d'effrayant par son arrangement, sa composition et son immensite. Les personnes sensees tTouvaient bien ridicules ces aetes publics dont it etait im possible d'interrompre Ie cours et dont la Piete ne fonnait pas rnalheureusernent tout Ie motif.1
The price of the 4-1b. loaf had been reduced, on July, from r4t to 131 sous.2 The period. of calm that followed did not last long. With �rief interludes the popular movement that flared up again over the high price or shortage ofbread in early August was to continue until November. It was to take the form ofacts ofviolence against bakers and alleged hoarders and ofprotest meetings or deputations to the municipal authorities. On August Chatel, the litutenant de maire of Saint-D enis, to the north of Paris, was massacred by an angry crowd of small tradesmen, craftsmen, and wage-earnen: he had, they said, caused an artificial scarcity of corn and refused, in insulting and contemptuous terms, to reduce the price of bread 'qu'i\ ne fallait point donner a la canaille du pain a deux sols la livre'. Chatel, it appears, was chased to the steeple of the parish church, where he was stabbed to death; his head was severed by a soldier ofthe Provence Regiment. As a result of the murder 2 I persons, including 4 women, were arreste d: among them were master craftsmen, 4 tradesmen, wage-earners. Another wage-earners were among 18 others who, having evaded arrest, were charged in their absence. In April two ofthese, a print worker and ajourneyma n tailor, were found guilty and hanged in effigy.] On 8 August after great demonstrations outside the Hotel de Ville, the 4-lb. loaf was furthe r reduced to SOUS.4 This was a considerable gain. To take two examples : it meant that a
22
2
12
2
9
1790
12
I Ibid., pp. 429, 431, 437-8, 44', 4 43, 445-0, 453, 455-0, 462, 469-70, +73, ·nt·; • Ibid., p. 401. d. Ar .<:: . Nat., Y 1�?.79; '0479; .0649, fol. 27; 10530, fot.. • 8'-3i 18795. fols. . ....3 . . 470-1; Hardy, VUI. 417. • Ibid., p. 4116.
66
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
?
the
��
contempt and hostility sh wn to the cleric Assembly, was greeted with �houts �f a bas la caloue . were who deputies, . and "d mort Ies calottins !'1 While this hostility had been recently ' had, " tlthe It stimulated by the clergy's refusal to give up theIr � bas la a of course, far deeper roots. Hardy heard the slogan
�
caloue!' in the Palais Royal on 12 July;: and, �arly the same month the pamphlet Prnnier dialogue entre U1le powarde tt un fort that, de La lz:Ule showed the degree of disrespect for the the 10 eral gen become time this by had it may be assumed. , on held rocesslo a that noted Hardy later month A markets,l � � r neIghbou the In d threatene was on Assumpti the of Feast the
ChUTC�
hood of Notre Dame with cries of '3. b� la �alott� !' and 'II . faudrait les mettre ala lanterne !'4 That this anu-dencal feeling was on the increase among the mtnU peuple is suggested by the incidents that took place at the end ?f 8epte�ber �t the churches of 8aint-Jacques-de-la-Bouchene and Satnt-Nlcolas in the area of the central markets. When the des-Champs,
both
curl of Saint-Jacques refused to bury a journeyman carpenter without the payment of the full fee of 23 liures, th: church was taken by storm and the curl compelled to suhnut. A solemn requinn W3..11 sung for the deceased to approving shouts of 'bravo'
from the assembled crowds. The mood soon changed to on� of fury when the choir-leader of the neighbouring cburch of8a1Ot bad been dismissed for Nicolas--des-Cbamps announced that stormed by a large was cburch Tbe taking part in the service. only dispersed by was it curl; the hang to threatened crowd who
he
the National Guard after the arrest of one of the rioters and the . promise that the choir-leader would be reinst.a�ed 5 .This sharp hostility to the ministers of the Church-ansmg, m the first . payment of tithe or place over such economic issues as funer l expenses-was, of course, highly significant for future. Hardy had perhaps good cause w.hen he
�
the
alarm at the discipline, pageantry, and magnttude daily processions of market w�men, laundrc:sses, . that, dunng August and workers of different DlStncts September, wound up the rue Saint-Jacques t? the . built church of Sainte-Genevieve for thanksglVmg services. Hardy, �!!. 385. 4 Hardy, Vlli. 435. • Bib. Nal., Lb 39 .862. ... f Ard>. Nal., Y ,0650; .0649, fol. 42 i Hardy, vw.4-93-4,497.
I Mathiez, loc. cil. R.o. hiJI. Ixviii. 261.
'
.,
THE MARCH TO VERSAILLES
Despite their quasi.religious objects, there is already a foretaste of the march to Versailles in these great demonstrations of the �nu peuple of the markets andfauhourgs. Hardy seems to have sensed these potentialities when he writes of the Faubourg Saint-Antoine procession in mid.September, in which people took part:
1,200
Bien des gem trouvaient qu'il avait quelque chose d'effrayant par son arrangement, sa composition et son immensite. Les personnes sensees tTouvaient bien ridicules ces aetes publics dont it etait im possible d'interrompre Ie cours et dont la Piete ne fonnait pas rnalheureusernent tout Ie motif.1
The price of the 4-1b. loaf had been reduced, on July, from r4t to 131 sous.2 The period. of calm that followed did not last long. With �rief interludes the popular movement that flared up again over the high price or shortage ofbread in early August was to continue until November. It was to take the form ofacts ofviolence against bakers and alleged hoarders and ofprotest meetings or deputations to the municipal authorities. On August Chatel, the litutenant de maire of Saint-D enis, to the north of Paris, was massacred by an angry crowd of small tradesmen, craftsmen, and wage-earnen: he had, they said, caused an artificial scarcity of corn and refused, in insulting and contemptuous terms, to reduce the price of bread 'qu'i\ ne fallait point donner a la canaille du pain a deux sols la livre'. Chatel, it appears, was chased to the steeple of the parish church, where he was stabbed to death; his head was severed by a soldier ofthe Provence Regiment. As a result of the murder 2 I persons, including 4 women, were arreste d: among them were master craftsmen, 4 tradesmen, wage-earners. Another wage-earners were among 18 others who, having evaded arrest, were charged in their absence. In April two ofthese, a print worker and ajourneyma n tailor, were found guilty and hanged in effigy.] On 8 August after great demonstrations outside the Hotel de Ville, the 4-lb. loaf was furthe r reduced to SOUS.4 This was a considerable gain. To take two examples : it meant that a
22
2
12
2
9
1790
12
I Ibid., pp. 429, 431, 437-8, 44', 4 43, 445-0, 453, 455-0, 462, 469-70, +73, ·nt·; • Ibid., p. 401. d. Ar .<:: . Nat., Y 1�?.79; '0479; .0649, fol. 27; 10530, fot.. • 8'-3i 18795. fols. . ....3 . . 470-1; Hardy, VUI. 417. • Ibid., p. 4116.
68
been een February and July, had builder's labourer who, betw on ings cent. of his effective earn compelled to spend 80 per t. cen per 67 the same amount with bread, could now purchase r ente carp or h journeyman locksmit of his income; whereas a be now ld wou ) a Reveillon labourer (earning twice the wage of . t �8 d where he prevlou�ly spen brea on . cent spending 40 per m wee d thir and nd ing the seco I per cent. Consequently, dur . : siS cn d brea the in lull a report August, Hardy was able to . Im the quality of the flour had l, tifu plen e mor e wer supplies akers' were withdrawn from the proved and armed guards In full ever, the crisis had returned shops.' On 2 1 August, how nged l n good, but owing to a pro � strength : the harvest had bee e of pnc to grind their corn. The drought, millers were unable gry hun sed cau the resulting scarcity bread remained stable, but shop and kets �. queues in the mar stomachs and ever-lengthening ene sonn Cos la de rue -maker of the On 24 August a master wig ded ing a baker with the drea aten thre with was charged was part Rem du se Bas rue the lanttrrll; on the 25th, a cooper of te y bera de1i or f ent ernm gov city arrested for blaming the tlc es ; and, two days later, a dom causing the flour shortage . With a bread-queue and charged servant was arrested in on ther brief lull followed ; but, Ano causing a disturbance.l nd a s shop ers' . reappeared in the bak 1 September, the guards lie, the month. Meanwh in s day teen x si for e ther were to remain ing that he was reduced to buy Hardy bitterly complained On .· oO,t' vais mau fort &: s ayant 'Ia moitie d'un pain de 4 livre rue -maker was arrested m the roof man ney jour a ber tem . 3 Sep a party emg ofb e yett Lafa sing accu de la Ferronnerie for publicly flour and force up the price of to a plot to cause scarcity it Ie falla t qu'i l filait sa corde et 'qu'il etait un traitre; qu'i e anc e veng a . had returned �ith pendre'.5 The pactt de famine In ted Wai men kmg d, as wor Nerves were becoming fraye nce. eque cons in 's pay queues and lost part of their day
I<:>
�
�
!
Hardy) Its hommes plus Pour y avoir du pain [wrote jusqu'a Its femmes et allaient meme cherchaient a ccarter les Its premien.6 maltraiter pour s'en procurer pressst
during the French Popular Movements in Paris I G. Rud�, 'Prica, Waga and no. 3, April [9�4, p. �48. vi, vol. R.u., Hisl. &11. ', Revolution ; �8766. 1 Arch. Nat., Y 18'9�, oIS. 46�-7 .. • Hardy, viii. 4�g-40' Hardy. vul. 460. .• Y [876,. Nat Arch. J 4�8. • Hardy, viii.
�
..
THE MARCH TO VERSAILLES
Y CROWD IN ACT ION THE REVOLUTIONAR
On 1 3 September a bread riot took place at Versailles where an angry c�owd trie to hang a baker for selling good:quality loaves to his wealthier customers at 18 sow and poor-quality bread to the rest at a cheaper price. The baker was cut down in the nick of time by the Io:al militia. The king was brought . . Several people were injured and along ,pour calmer les esprits
�
twenty-one arrested, ofwhom three were hanged ten days later.[ By now, the women had begun to take a hand. The bread crisis was peculiarly their own and, from this time on, it was they rather than the men that played the leading role in the movement. On 1 6 September Hardy recorded that women had stopped five c�rts laden wi�h grain at Chaillot and brought . them �o the H�tel de Ville 10 Paris. On the 17th, at midday, the Hotel de VIlle was besieged by angry women complaining about the conduct of the bakers ; they were received by Bailly a�d the Municipal Council. 'Ces femmes [wrote Hardy] . dlsalent hautement que les hommes n'y entendaient rien et
�
.'
qu elles vo�laient se �eler es affaires.' The next day the Hotel de Ville was agam besieged, and promises were made. Th7 s�me evening Hardy saw women hold up a cartload of gram m the Place des Trois Maries and esCOrt it to the local . . Dlstnct headquarte� 1 This movement was to continue up to : and beyon� the p?htlcal demonstration of 5 October.' Meanwhtle, as 10 June, a political movement had begun to develop in Paris in response to the new deadlock that had . �nsen between Court and Assembly at Versailles. Once more It was the journalists and lawyers in the entourage of the Duke of Orleans, with their headquarters at the Palais Royal
that too �he l ad. According to Mathiez, the leading part amo g the ; Panslan patriots' was played by Duport, Desmoulins Danton ' and Loustalot, the editor of us RIIJ()/utions de Paris'' M rat, with hisA h ml' du peupIe, played, as usual, a lone hand. It was they who, l rough t helr ' press, clubs, and Districts, launched and popu. Ian�ed the slogan that the king should be removed from the . Intngu es of the Court at Versailles and brought to Paris.•
�
� . � '"1
�
�
' A ch' s.:',ne-et.Oise, seria B. PrMt� de I'HOte! du Roi. Proc&luret. 17!!g. Fir. teen a cused (all men) mcluded :I wheelwrights and a maUras-worker (hanged)' � bu'ld' wo =, 4 porters, 2 waiten, a IOldier, 2 labouren, and a laddie-maker. �. • s at y, VIII. 478-80. rdy'" entries for 3-7 and I� October 178g (viii. 499-�O�, �I:I). The • Mathlez, op. cil. Ixvii. �66-8; Ixviii. 269-73. en on 14 October.
}OUT�� �
�
68
been een February and July, had builder's labourer who, betw on ings cent. of his effective earn compelled to spend 80 per t. cen per 67 the same amount with bread, could now purchase r ente carp or h journeyman locksmit of his income; whereas a be now ld wou ) a Reveillon labourer (earning twice the wage of . t �8 d where he prevlou�ly spen brea on . cent spending 40 per m wee d thir and nd ing the seco I per cent. Consequently, dur . : siS cn d brea the in lull a report August, Hardy was able to . Im the quality of the flour had l, tifu plen e mor e wer supplies akers' were withdrawn from the proved and armed guards In full ever, the crisis had returned shops.' On 2 1 August, how nged l n good, but owing to a pro � strength : the harvest had bee e of pnc to grind their corn. The drought, millers were unable gry hun sed cau the resulting scarcity bread remained stable, but shop and kets �. queues in the mar stomachs and ever-lengthening ene sonn Cos la de rue -maker of the On 24 August a master wig ded ing a baker with the drea aten thre with was charged was part Rem du se Bas rue the lanttrrll; on the 25th, a cooper of te y bera de1i or f ent ernm gov city arrested for blaming the tlc es ; and, two days later, a dom causing the flour shortage . With a bread-queue and charged servant was arrested in on ther brief lull followed ; but, Ano causing a disturbance.l nd a s shop ers' . reappeared in the bak 1 September, the guards lie, the month. Meanwh in s day teen x si for e ther were to remain ing that he was reduced to buy Hardy bitterly complained On .· oO,t' vais mau fort &: s ayant 'Ia moitie d'un pain de 4 livre rue -maker was arrested m the roof man ney jour a ber tem . 3 Sep a party emg ofb e yett Lafa sing accu de la Ferronnerie for publicly flour and force up the price of to a plot to cause scarcity it Ie falla t qu'i l filait sa corde et 'qu'il etait un traitre; qu'i e anc e veng a . had returned �ith pendre'.5 The pactt de famine In ted Wai men kmg d, as wor Nerves were becoming fraye nce. eque cons in 's pay queues and lost part of their day
I<:>
�
�
!
Hardy) Its hommes plus Pour y avoir du pain [wrote jusqu'a Its femmes et allaient meme cherchaient a ccarter les Its premien.6 maltraiter pour s'en procurer pressst
during the French Popular Movements in Paris I G. Rud�, 'Prica, Waga and no. 3, April [9�4, p. �48. vi, vol. R.u., Hisl. &11. ', Revolution ; �8766. 1 Arch. Nat., Y 18'9�, oIS. 46�-7 .. • Hardy, viii. 4�g-40' Hardy. vul. 460. .• Y [876,. Nat Arch. J 4�8. • Hardy, viii.
�
..
THE MARCH TO VERSAILLES
Y CROWD IN ACT ION THE REVOLUTIONAR
On 1 3 September a bread riot took place at Versailles where an angry c�owd trie to hang a baker for selling good:quality loaves to his wealthier customers at 18 sow and poor-quality bread to the rest at a cheaper price. The baker was cut down in the nick of time by the Io:al militia. The king was brought . . Several people were injured and along ,pour calmer les esprits
�
twenty-one arrested, ofwhom three were hanged ten days later.[ By now, the women had begun to take a hand. The bread crisis was peculiarly their own and, from this time on, it was they rather than the men that played the leading role in the movement. On 1 6 September Hardy recorded that women had stopped five c�rts laden wi�h grain at Chaillot and brought . them �o the H�tel de Ville 10 Paris. On the 17th, at midday, the Hotel de VIlle was besieged by angry women complaining about the conduct of the bakers ; they were received by Bailly a�d the Municipal Council. 'Ces femmes [wrote Hardy] . dlsalent hautement que les hommes n'y entendaient rien et
�
.'
qu elles vo�laient se �eler es affaires.' The next day the Hotel de Ville was agam besieged, and promises were made. Th7 s�me evening Hardy saw women hold up a cartload of gram m the Place des Trois Maries and esCOrt it to the local . . Dlstnct headquarte� 1 This movement was to continue up to : and beyon� the p?htlcal demonstration of 5 October.' Meanwhtle, as 10 June, a political movement had begun to develop in Paris in response to the new deadlock that had . �nsen between Court and Assembly at Versailles. Once more It was the journalists and lawyers in the entourage of the Duke of Orleans, with their headquarters at the Palais Royal
that too �he l ad. According to Mathiez, the leading part amo g the ; Panslan patriots' was played by Duport, Desmoulins Danton ' and Loustalot, the editor of us RIIJ()/utions de Paris'' M rat, with hisA h ml' du peupIe, played, as usual, a lone hand. It was they who, l rough t helr ' press, clubs, and Districts, launched and popu. Ian�ed the slogan that the king should be removed from the . Intngu es of the Court at Versailles and brought to Paris.•
�
� . � '"1
�
�
' A ch' s.:',ne-et.Oise, seria B. PrMt� de I'HOte! du Roi. Proc&luret. 17!!g. Fir. teen a cused (all men) mcluded :I wheelwrights and a maUras-worker (hanged)' � bu'ld' wo =, 4 porters, 2 waiten, a IOldier, 2 labouren, and a laddie-maker. �. • s at y, VIII. 478-80. rdy'" entries for 3-7 and I� October 178g (viii. 499-�O�, �I:I). The • Mathlez, op. cil. Ixvii. �66-8; Ixviii. 269-73. en on 14 October.
}OUT�� �
�
70
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
The idea that the king should return to his capital and reside
among his subjects in 'la bonne ville de Paris' was not a new
one: it had been voiced in the , aher i of the Parisian Third Estate and in a pamphlet inJuly; it was perhaps in the minds of
many that gave Louis XVI so vociferous a welcome when he
visited the revolutionary capital on 1 7 July. Now it was revived,
and with greater insistence, to respond to a new and particular
7'
THE MARCH TO VERSAILLES
that the ,OCSln "e" be Palais Royal and the Cafe de FoyI uroing " aIerted, and the citizens called to anns . ,oundedI ,he D"�tncts There was certamly no mystery about the precise objects of these ma�ce�vres ! the �bbe Bernard was specifically cbarged with saytng m the Cafe de Foy: Qu'il fallait all�r chercher Ie Roy et Ie Dauphin 3. Versailles ur lenne Its amener .3. Pans, aux Thuileries, soU! la sauve-ganle paris,PO
political situation. The immediate issue was the 'veto'-the
et de la nallon;
question as to whether the king should have the power, under
and, though he denied using these words, he admitted that he . • had mtended to call the citizens to District mc=etings pour
the Constitution being debated at Ve�ailles, to amend, suspend, or permanently reject, the legislative proposals of the National Assembly. Broadly speaking, the Right, or moderates, wished to invest the king with an absolute right of veto; while the 'patriots', among whom Bamave was emerging as leader, up held the legislative supremacy of the Assembly; yet, unlike their allies in the Palais Royal, they were prepared to negotiate with the help of a Centre grovp, who favoured a compromise. It was while these negotiations were going on, at the end of August, that Academician Dussaulx is reported to have made his declaration that the king must be brought to Paris, if need be by violence, in order to break the deadlock. When, three days later, negotiations broke down Duport launched a public campaign against the veto in the Palais Royal, and Des moulins, though without Bamave's approval, put out the slogan that the king should be made to return to the capital. Thus the extreme 'patriots' of the Palais Royal, perhaps with some secret support in the Assembly, tried to force the pace; the result was the fi�[, abortive, attempt to stage a march to Versailles on the last day of August. It is an obscure episode, but it appears from the police reports of the Chatelet that the lead ing parts in it were played by the Marquis de Saint-Huruge, the Baron Tinto, the abbe Bernard, a certain Saint-Genie and the patrons of the Caf e Foy, known to the police as 'Ie rendez vous de gens vifs et sMitieux qui troublaient la tranquillite publique', and to others as 'Ie centre des negodants et des capitalistes'.1 It appears, too, that a deputation tried to persuade the Commune to issue a declaration demanding the king's return to the Louvre ? and that speeches were made in the I A h. Nat., Y 18,67· Ii. 4'7; • L'AI'ICitll MGniltur (r/imprmion),
�
Mathiez, op. cit. lxvii. 25"
empecher Ie Veto'.. The project came to nothing because the 'patriots"
:a
�embly had not yet given up hope of a settlement by n:
th
�
tia
llon; and, even more important, because the project still lacked the deg�ee �f sUP rt among the Parisian menu ptuple that alone could gtve It rea lIty. The situation changed radically during
r:'
September. The anger roused by the bread crisis had as we ' . direc,ed, l� saw, b�en " the first place, against bakers and city . authon�� ; at urnes It found expression in violent outbursts of denunClallon .of the Hotel e Ville or the National Guard, or
�
of Lafayette m person as Its cornmander-in-chief: in August and early September numerous arrests on such charges were
��� t�
�
of cr� ftsme , clerks, servants, and other wage-earners.1 e Journa e lists-both Marat and those associated with the Pal�lS Royal-were not averse to allowing Lafayette, whom hey . dlS sted, to become the target of popular abuse' the patnots of both Assembly and Paris Districts had a common . . t mterest in fi I S JSContent into channels that better h " d '
�
�
.
. �usm�
iate political aims The .'..... -ulu were soon to SUIted theIr Immed be seen. In early September Malouet noted ., '0n VI, des por 'eurs de chaISe " " Ia porte de I' Assemblee d.n, une grande a •
"
On the 1 7th Joseph Pergaud, a military .gl",�llon sur Ie veto.'l ' pe�sloner of the rue Troussevache, was arrested. in the Place de Greve on a charge of having said : "
Que Ie Roi avait un chateau a Versa - e' un Louvre ' ill� '" Pans' " . IIall railer chereher et l'amener 3. Paris et qu'il ira qu" l £:a itvolon' ,e " u': Ie c'hercher.4
Nat., Y 18767. : �rch. Arch. Nat., Y 18795 foll 463 4 67-9, 10530, fO!I. '49-5' ; 18,66 ; ,8767. , JcUmoiru d. Itfa[fJUtr (Pari�, 1868) ,11·3 "� 6 • Arch. Nat., Y 18,67. 7.
70
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
The idea that the king should return to his capital and reside
among his subjects in 'la bonne ville de Paris' was not a new
one: it had been voiced in the , aher i of the Parisian Third Estate and in a pamphlet inJuly; it was perhaps in the minds of
many that gave Louis XVI so vociferous a welcome when he
visited the revolutionary capital on 1 7 July. Now it was revived,
and with greater insistence, to respond to a new and particular
7'
THE MARCH TO VERSAILLES
that the ,OCSln "e" be Palais Royal and the Cafe de FoyI uroing " aIerted, and the citizens called to anns . ,oundedI ,he D"�tncts There was certamly no mystery about the precise objects of these ma�ce�vres ! the �bbe Bernard was specifically cbarged with saytng m the Cafe de Foy: Qu'il fallait all�r chercher Ie Roy et Ie Dauphin 3. Versailles ur lenne Its amener .3. Pans, aux Thuileries, soU! la sauve-ganle paris,PO
political situation. The immediate issue was the 'veto'-the
et de la nallon;
question as to whether the king should have the power, under
and, though he denied using these words, he admitted that he . • had mtended to call the citizens to District mc=etings pour
the Constitution being debated at Ve�ailles, to amend, suspend, or permanently reject, the legislative proposals of the National Assembly. Broadly speaking, the Right, or moderates, wished to invest the king with an absolute right of veto; while the 'patriots', among whom Bamave was emerging as leader, up held the legislative supremacy of the Assembly; yet, unlike their allies in the Palais Royal, they were prepared to negotiate with the help of a Centre grovp, who favoured a compromise. It was while these negotiations were going on, at the end of August, that Academician Dussaulx is reported to have made his declaration that the king must be brought to Paris, if need be by violence, in order to break the deadlock. When, three days later, negotiations broke down Duport launched a public campaign against the veto in the Palais Royal, and Des moulins, though without Bamave's approval, put out the slogan that the king should be made to return to the capital. Thus the extreme 'patriots' of the Palais Royal, perhaps with some secret support in the Assembly, tried to force the pace; the result was the fi�[, abortive, attempt to stage a march to Versailles on the last day of August. It is an obscure episode, but it appears from the police reports of the Chatelet that the lead ing parts in it were played by the Marquis de Saint-Huruge, the Baron Tinto, the abbe Bernard, a certain Saint-Genie and the patrons of the Caf e Foy, known to the police as 'Ie rendez vous de gens vifs et sMitieux qui troublaient la tranquillite publique', and to others as 'Ie centre des negodants et des capitalistes'.1 It appears, too, that a deputation tried to persuade the Commune to issue a declaration demanding the king's return to the Louvre ? and that speeches were made in the I A h. Nat., Y 18,67· Ii. 4'7; • L'AI'ICitll MGniltur (r/imprmion),
�
Mathiez, op. cit. lxvii. 25"
empecher Ie Veto'.. The project came to nothing because the 'patriots"
:a
�embly had not yet given up hope of a settlement by n:
th
�
tia
llon; and, even more important, because the project still lacked the deg�ee �f sUP rt among the Parisian menu ptuple that alone could gtve It rea lIty. The situation changed radically during
r:'
September. The anger roused by the bread crisis had as we ' . direc,ed, l� saw, b�en " the first place, against bakers and city . authon�� ; at urnes It found expression in violent outbursts of denunClallon .of the Hotel e Ville or the National Guard, or
�
of Lafayette m person as Its cornmander-in-chief: in August and early September numerous arrests on such charges were
��� t�
�
of cr� ftsme , clerks, servants, and other wage-earners.1 e Journa e lists-both Marat and those associated with the Pal�lS Royal-were not averse to allowing Lafayette, whom hey . dlS sted, to become the target of popular abuse' the patnots of both Assembly and Paris Districts had a common . . t mterest in fi I S JSContent into channels that better h " d '
�
�
.
. �usm�
iate political aims The .'..... -ulu were soon to SUIted theIr Immed be seen. In early September Malouet noted ., '0n VI, des por 'eurs de chaISe " " Ia porte de I' Assemblee d.n, une grande a •
"
On the 1 7th Joseph Pergaud, a military .gl",�llon sur Ie veto.'l ' pe�sloner of the rue Troussevache, was arrested. in the Place de Greve on a charge of having said : "
Que Ie Roi avait un chateau a Versa - e' un Louvre ' ill� '" Pans' " . IIall railer chereher et l'amener 3. Paris et qu'il ira qu" l £:a itvolon' ,e " u': Ie c'hercher.4
Nat., Y 18767. : �rch. Arch. Nat., Y 18795 foll 463 4 67-9, 10530, fO!I. '49-5' ; 18,66 ; ,8767. , JcUmoiru d. Itfa[fJUtr (Pari�, 1868) ,11·3 "� 6 • Arch. Nat., Y 18,67. 7.
72
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD I N ACTION
The unemployed, too, were being won by the agitation. In a
letter to La Tour du Pin, one of the king's ministers at Ver sailles, Bailly wrote on
22
September:
J'apprends a l'instant que les malheureux employes aux ateliers de charite it l'ecole militaire proposaient de partir pour Versailles, pour cda seu! qu'its etaient irutruiu de l'arrivee des troupes.' This hut point is significant: though Barnave and his col
leagues were prepared to compromise on the basis of a 'suspen sive' veto, the Court, supported by the 'moderates' in the Assembly, had decided to break the deadlock by a new display of force. The Flanders Regiment was summoned to cope with possible disorders. It had the effect of driving the 'patriots' to resort to extreme measures and to rouse to a higher pitch the revolutionary movement in the capital. What finally decided the 'patriots' to act Wa5 the display of royalist arrogance at the
2
banquet ofthe Gardes du Corps held at Versailles on October, when (it was alleged) the national cockade was trampled underfoot and the queen and her children were received with
almost mystical fervour. The incident was widely reported in Paris the next day, and the 'patriot' press called for vengeance. Danton carried a resolution in the Cordeliers Club, urging Lafayette to go to Versailles with an ultimatum; and Des moulins repeated his call to Parisians to fetch the king to the
capital. On Sunday, 4 October, groups of women 'of the middling sort' were seen in the Palais Royal; one, in her middle thirties and 'dont la mise indiquait une femme d'une classe au-dessus du mediocre', addressed a meeting; there was talk of going to Versailles on the morrow.1. So the OCtober insurrec tion began. ___ 'Fhe main source for the events of 5 and 6 October is the inquiry conducted by the Ch3.telet and published in March 1790 after 388 witnesses had been heard. Such a report would seem to provide admirable material for a study of not only the events themselves, but of the composition and aims of the participants. Taine, indeed, made ample use of it for his descrip tions of the men and women who fetched the royal family back to Paris.l Yet, as we noted before, it is an extremely one·sided witnCII no. 62; Mathia, op. cit. Ixviii. lI92-4, Il i. 130-6. • Taine, Lu OritiMJ rU 14 Fr_ anrlmIJmllW. L4 RII1Iutilm,
, Ar<:h. Nat., C 31, no. 26�, rol. 3.
• Proddlll, rnmiMlI,.
. . •
"
THE MARC H TO VERS AILL ES
report; in fact, on its publication, it met with the condemna_ tion of the majority of the Paris Districts : in the words of the rd�liers District, which initiated the protest, 'sur la liste des . te�o�ns, on ne VOlt �ere que des noms aristocratiques'.' While thIS IS �n exaggeratIOn, the ChateJet inquiry had a clearly tendentious purpose and, as such, must be treated with caution and supplemented, where possible, from other sources-from the handful ?f surviving police reports (only two persons were arrested dunng these proceedings) and the accou nts of other witnesses. On the morningofS October the revolt started simultaneously . In the central markets and the Faubourg Saint-Antoi ne; in both cas� women were the leading spirits; and, from numerous and varymg accounts, it appears that in the activit ies that fol lowed women of every social class took partboth fishwives and stall-holders of the markets, working women ofthe/aubourg smartly dressed ourgeoists, and 'des femme s it chapeau' ,l In th markets, accordmg to a eM.telet witness, the movement was started by a small girl, who set out from the District of Saint Eustache be�ting a drum and declaiming against the scarcity of bread j thiS drew together a large crowd of women whose numbers rapi ly increased.l Fournier l'Ame ricain, Ca tain of t e local NatIonal Guard and the leadin g agitator of the Dis trict, heard the tocsin at 7 o'clock and rushed to the Town Hall.· Meanwhile, in the Faubourg SaintAntoine women c�mpelled e bellringer of the Sainte-Marguerite c urch to TI�g the tocsm and call the citizens to arms; among them, he sa�d, were two well dressed men and a woman, 'qui ne parais Salt pas etre du commun' ,s Between 7 and 8 o'clock a lawyer of the aubourg saw a crowd of forty to fifty wome n, who were crymg out for bread at the Porte SaintAntoine,' Almost simul tane?usly Stanislas Maillard led a squad of volontaires de La BastIlle to quell a disturbance amon g the Bastille demolition
�
�
;
�
�
;
�
h
/
' Emflil dn rk1iblrfllw.u tit r�1k m. DinrUt dn (A,lklim M_ L �
�
( po" _ ,,_I --
B "·,
. • See PrtKItlrin m.m,�/' "', w,tnCIICII no •. 62, 35. gl, g�, 1'9, 126; Hardy, viii. . 01 .506: the Mafqtm de Paroy'.leuer 10 flU wire 0(6 October '78g (Rmw Ik Ifl
�.:' 111I0Il, I (1883), 1-7). : �'a�e rnmw/il . . .
M hrtflirtl l«Tth a, Fllimlia
I I'ruddun . . �
.
• • •
AmiriuWc. �" ..-b. N.,., c· � 6�. ... �
, witneu no. 43. .'
WltnCII no.
92.
• Ibid., witnCII no. '2. •
72
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD I N ACTION
The unemployed, too, were being won by the agitation. In a
letter to La Tour du Pin, one of the king's ministers at Ver sailles, Bailly wrote on
22
September:
J'apprends a l'instant que les malheureux employes aux ateliers de charite it l'ecole militaire proposaient de partir pour Versailles, pour cda seu! qu'its etaient irutruiu de l'arrivee des troupes.' This hut point is significant: though Barnave and his col
leagues were prepared to compromise on the basis of a 'suspen sive' veto, the Court, supported by the 'moderates' in the Assembly, had decided to break the deadlock by a new display of force. The Flanders Regiment was summoned to cope with possible disorders. It had the effect of driving the 'patriots' to resort to extreme measures and to rouse to a higher pitch the revolutionary movement in the capital. What finally decided the 'patriots' to act Wa5 the display of royalist arrogance at the
2
banquet ofthe Gardes du Corps held at Versailles on October, when (it was alleged) the national cockade was trampled underfoot and the queen and her children were received with
almost mystical fervour. The incident was widely reported in Paris the next day, and the 'patriot' press called for vengeance. Danton carried a resolution in the Cordeliers Club, urging Lafayette to go to Versailles with an ultimatum; and Des moulins repeated his call to Parisians to fetch the king to the
capital. On Sunday, 4 October, groups of women 'of the middling sort' were seen in the Palais Royal; one, in her middle thirties and 'dont la mise indiquait une femme d'une classe au-dessus du mediocre', addressed a meeting; there was talk of going to Versailles on the morrow.1. So the OCtober insurrec tion began. ___ 'Fhe main source for the events of 5 and 6 October is the inquiry conducted by the Ch3.telet and published in March 1790 after 388 witnesses had been heard. Such a report would seem to provide admirable material for a study of not only the events themselves, but of the composition and aims of the participants. Taine, indeed, made ample use of it for his descrip tions of the men and women who fetched the royal family back to Paris.l Yet, as we noted before, it is an extremely one·sided witnCII no. 62; Mathia, op. cit. Ixviii. lI92-4, Il i. 130-6. • Taine, Lu OritiMJ rU 14 Fr_ anrlmIJmllW. L4 RII1Iutilm,
, Ar<:h. Nat., C 31, no. 26�, rol. 3.
• Proddlll, rnmiMlI,.
. . •
"
THE MARC H TO VERS AILL ES
report; in fact, on its publication, it met with the condemna_ tion of the majority of the Paris Districts : in the words of the rd�liers District, which initiated the protest, 'sur la liste des . te�o�ns, on ne VOlt �ere que des noms aristocratiques'.' While thIS IS �n exaggeratIOn, the ChateJet inquiry had a clearly tendentious purpose and, as such, must be treated with caution and supplemented, where possible, from other sources-from the handful ?f surviving police reports (only two persons were arrested dunng these proceedings) and the accou nts of other witnesses. On the morningofS October the revolt started simultaneously . In the central markets and the Faubourg Saint-Antoi ne; in both cas� women were the leading spirits; and, from numerous and varymg accounts, it appears that in the activit ies that fol lowed women of every social class took partboth fishwives and stall-holders of the markets, working women ofthe/aubourg smartly dressed ourgeoists, and 'des femme s it chapeau' ,l In th markets, accordmg to a eM.telet witness, the movement was started by a small girl, who set out from the District of Saint Eustache be�ting a drum and declaiming against the scarcity of bread j thiS drew together a large crowd of women whose numbers rapi ly increased.l Fournier l'Ame ricain, Ca tain of t e local NatIonal Guard and the leadin g agitator of the Dis trict, heard the tocsin at 7 o'clock and rushed to the Town Hall.· Meanwhile, in the Faubourg SaintAntoine women c�mpelled e bellringer of the Sainte-Marguerite c urch to TI�g the tocsm and call the citizens to arms; among them, he sa�d, were two well dressed men and a woman, 'qui ne parais Salt pas etre du commun' ,s Between 7 and 8 o'clock a lawyer of the aubourg saw a crowd of forty to fifty wome n, who were crymg out for bread at the Porte SaintAntoine,' Almost simul tane?usly Stanislas Maillard led a squad of volontaires de La BastIlle to quell a disturbance amon g the Bastille demolition
�
�
;
�
�
;
�
h
/
' Emflil dn rk1iblrfllw.u tit r�1k m. DinrUt dn (A,lklim M_ L �
�
( po" _ ,,_I --
B "·,
. • See PrtKItlrin m.m,�/' "', w,tnCIICII no •. 62, 35. gl, g�, 1'9, 126; Hardy, viii. . 01 .506: the Mafqtm de Paroy'.leuer 10 flU wire 0(6 October '78g (Rmw Ik Ifl
�.:' 111I0Il, I (1883), 1-7). : �'a�e rnmw/il . . .
M hrtflirtl l«Tth a, Fllimlia
I I'ruddun . . �
.
• • •
AmiriuWc. �" ..-b. N.,., c· � 6�. ... �
, witneu no. 43. .'
WltnCII no.
92.
• Ibid., witnCII no. '2. •
"
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
workers nearby; the workers, doubtless remembering that the same force had forcibly dispersed their comrades at Montmartre a few weeks earlier, were inclined to be truculent; but Maillard (so he tells us) was able to persuade them to disperse without bloodshed. ' From these beginnings the women now converged on the Hotel de Ville.l Their first object was bread, the second probably arms and ammunition for their men. A �erchant
draper, passing by the old market hall at half put eight, saw
groups of women stopping strangers in the streets and co�pell ing them to go with them to e Town Hall, 'oil l'or� devrut aller . pour se faire donner du pam . The guards wer� disarmed and their arms handed to the men who followed behmd the women and urged them on. Another eyewitness, a cashier in the Hotel
�
de Ville, described how, about half past nine, larg� numbers of women, with men amongst them, rushed up the strurs and broke into all the offices of the building. One witneS! said they bore sticks and pikes, while another itlSisted they were armed with : axes, crowbars, bludgeons. and muskets. A cuhler, wh h�d , the temerity to remonstrate with the invaders, was told qu I1s
?
etaient les maitres et maitresses dud. Hotel de Ville'. In their search for arms and powder the demonstrators tore up docu ments and ledgers. and a wad of a hundred I,ooo-liures notes �f
the Caisse des Comptes disappeared from a cabinet. But their
object was neither money nor loot: the City Treasurer later told the police that something over 3 i million livm in cash and notes were left untouched; and the �issing banknotes we:e
returned intact a few weeks later. HavlOg sounded the tocslO from the steeple. the demonstrators retired to the Place de Greve outside at about I I o'c1ock.l
It was at this stage that Maillard and his voiontaires arrived.on the scene. According to his account, tile women were threaterung the lives of Bailly and Lafayette. Whether it was to avert such a disaster or merely to promote the political aims of the 'patriots', Maillard let himself be persuade to lead t em on . the twelve-miles march to Versailles to pelltlon the kmg and
�
�
, Ibid., witneu no. 8. (Stanishu Maillard). Hardy, however, describes it mer�ly as 'une insu�rcc��?n de femmes des Hailes et de diff
THE MARCH TO VERSAILLES
" the Assembly to provide bread for Paris.' As they set out, in the early afternoon. they removed the cannon from the Chatelet and (wrote Hardy) compelled every son and condition of woman that they met-'m€me des femmes a chape au'-to join them.l Thus reinforced, the contingents crossed the river to the Cite followed the quai des Orfevres to the Pont Neuf. crossed ove again to the Louvre. passed through the Tuileries Garde ns and halted, 6.000 or 7.000 strong. in the Place Louis XV. At the Place des Armes in the Champs �lysees. Maillard tells us, the women agreed to go on unarmed. According to the traditional account. the marchers then continued along the Right Bank to ChaiIlot, and so to Shrres, Viroflay, and Versailles.l However. it would seem from other evidence that, while the main body of mar�hers accompanied Maillard through Chaill ot. another contmgent may have broken off at the Place des Armes and followed the southern route via Vaugirard. This is suggested. at least, by the statement made to the Versailles police by Bernard Salabert. a mill-worker at the �cole Milita ire and one of two wage-earners arrested for looting sword s and other weapons at the Hotel des Gardes du Corps at Versailles. From this it appears that Salabert was picked up at Vaugi rard. where he was having his dinner. by a band of 3.000 or 4.000 women who compelled him to join them on the march .4 Arriving at Versailles in the early evenin g, the marchers made straight for the meeting of the Assembly. crowded into the benches alongside the stanled deputies and, with swords and hunting-knives slung from their skirts,5 waited for Maillard to present their petition. In his speech, Mailla rd quoted liberally from the new popular pamphlet Q.uand aurons-nous du pain? In which the authorities rather than the bakers were held
:
I For thiI and (Maillard). . . I Thts wnlon,
much that rollow. ICe Prod,,," uimiNlk " ' , witnes s no. 81 Hardy, viii. 5�. based on Maillard'.cvidcnoe befon: the Chltelct, u thai followed by M. L. Batiffol, Lt.s JtnImiu du 5 II 6 IIdlJIm '78tJ .. VmaiJkJ (Paris, III!}I), pp. '5-
• ,llIkrrt)ta/Qir� du NI &llllHrt. 6 &" r;8tJ. Arch. Scine.et·Oise, series 8. Prt\'Ot
'7·
while not mentioning Vaugi. rard, also maintained that the womcn divided into two separate contingents taking M:pa�ale routes: 'Ies unes avaient pau� par Saint·Cloud; les autrCl avaicnl prilla rOUle de Sev�' (no. xiii, 3-10 Octob '789, er p. 15). • Hardy, viii. 506.
"
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
workers nearby; the workers, doubtless remembering that the same force had forcibly dispersed their comrades at Montmartre a few weeks earlier, were inclined to be truculent; but Maillard (so he tells us) was able to persuade them to disperse without bloodshed. ' From these beginnings the women now converged on the Hotel de Ville.l Their first object was bread, the second probably arms and ammunition for their men. A �erchant
draper, passing by the old market hall at half put eight, saw
groups of women stopping strangers in the streets and co�pell ing them to go with them to e Town Hall, 'oil l'or� devrut aller . pour se faire donner du pam . The guards wer� disarmed and their arms handed to the men who followed behmd the women and urged them on. Another eyewitness, a cashier in the Hotel
�
de Ville, described how, about half past nine, larg� numbers of women, with men amongst them, rushed up the strurs and broke into all the offices of the building. One witneS! said they bore sticks and pikes, while another itlSisted they were armed with : axes, crowbars, bludgeons. and muskets. A cuhler, wh h�d , the temerity to remonstrate with the invaders, was told qu I1s
?
etaient les maitres et maitresses dud. Hotel de Ville'. In their search for arms and powder the demonstrators tore up docu ments and ledgers. and a wad of a hundred I,ooo-liures notes �f
the Caisse des Comptes disappeared from a cabinet. But their
object was neither money nor loot: the City Treasurer later told the police that something over 3 i million livm in cash and notes were left untouched; and the �issing banknotes we:e
returned intact a few weeks later. HavlOg sounded the tocslO from the steeple. the demonstrators retired to the Place de Greve outside at about I I o'c1ock.l
It was at this stage that Maillard and his voiontaires arrived.on the scene. According to his account, tile women were threaterung the lives of Bailly and Lafayette. Whether it was to avert such a disaster or merely to promote the political aims of the 'patriots', Maillard let himself be persuade to lead t em on . the twelve-miles march to Versailles to pelltlon the kmg and
�
�
, Ibid., witneu no. 8. (Stanishu Maillard). Hardy, however, describes it mer�ly as 'une insu�rcc��?n de femmes des Hailes et de diff
THE MARCH TO VERSAILLES
" the Assembly to provide bread for Paris.' As they set out, in the early afternoon. they removed the cannon from the Chatelet and (wrote Hardy) compelled every son and condition of woman that they met-'m€me des femmes a chape au'-to join them.l Thus reinforced, the contingents crossed the river to the Cite followed the quai des Orfevres to the Pont Neuf. crossed ove again to the Louvre. passed through the Tuileries Garde ns and halted, 6.000 or 7.000 strong. in the Place Louis XV. At the Place des Armes in the Champs �lysees. Maillard tells us, the women agreed to go on unarmed. According to the traditional account. the marchers then continued along the Right Bank to ChaiIlot, and so to Shrres, Viroflay, and Versailles.l However. it would seem from other evidence that, while the main body of mar�hers accompanied Maillard through Chaill ot. another contmgent may have broken off at the Place des Armes and followed the southern route via Vaugirard. This is suggested. at least, by the statement made to the Versailles police by Bernard Salabert. a mill-worker at the �cole Milita ire and one of two wage-earners arrested for looting sword s and other weapons at the Hotel des Gardes du Corps at Versailles. From this it appears that Salabert was picked up at Vaugi rard. where he was having his dinner. by a band of 3.000 or 4.000 women who compelled him to join them on the march .4 Arriving at Versailles in the early evenin g, the marchers made straight for the meeting of the Assembly. crowded into the benches alongside the stanled deputies and, with swords and hunting-knives slung from their skirts,5 waited for Maillard to present their petition. In his speech, Mailla rd quoted liberally from the new popular pamphlet Q.uand aurons-nous du pain? In which the authorities rather than the bakers were held
:
I For thiI and (Maillard). . . I Thts wnlon,
much that rollow. ICe Prod,,," uimiNlk " ' , witnes s no. 81 Hardy, viii. 5�. based on Maillard'.cvidcnoe befon: the Chltelct, u thai followed by M. L. Batiffol, Lt.s JtnImiu du 5 II 6 IIdlJIm '78tJ .. VmaiJkJ (Paris, III!}I), pp. '5-
• ,llIkrrt)ta/Qir� du NI &llllHrt. 6 &" r;8tJ. Arch. Scine.et·Oise, series 8. Prt\'Ot
'7·
while not mentioning Vaugi. rard, also maintained that the womcn divided into two separate contingents taking M:pa�ale routes: 'Ies unes avaient pau� par Saint·Cloud; les autrCl avaicnl prilla rOUle de Sev�' (no. xiii, 3-10 Octob '789, er p. 15). • Hardy, viii. 506.
THE MARCH TO VERSAILLES
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
re5ponsible for the shortage. I He ended with twO demands-the provision of bread for the capital and �he punishment of the . ganus du corps who had insulted the nauonal cockade. Vanous deputies gave reassuring replies. There were angry shouts of 'A bas la calotte!' at the clergy; but Robespierre was heard in respectful silence, and there were calls for 'notre petite �ere. Mirabeau'.z A deputation of six women were elected to walt on the king-the Marquis de Paroy considered two of them 'assez bien'J-and the meeting broke up in more or less orderly fashion. Meanwhile, in Paris, the National Guard, summoned by
�e
tocsin, had crowded into the place de Greve. There were cnes of 'To Versailles!' The intentions of Lafayette in this episode are obscure. It seems that he hesitated for many hours to put him self at the head of what was only too clearly an armed insurrec tion; he temporized and, according to Fournier, made long speeches; but in the end, in response to popular clamour, he gave the order to march.� The forces that entered Versailles that night, between ten and midnight, consisted of three com panies of grenadiers, one company of fuseliers, with three can non, 20,000 National Guards of e Paris Distri�t.s, and a �otley
�
band of 700 to 800 men armed With muskets, sucks, and pikes. Early next morning there was a clash between the Parisians
and the garties du corps guarding the palace. Some demon strators had managed to enter the chtitlau and penetrated as far as the antechamber to the queen's apartments. In the course of this incident, a garde du corps, from a window, shot dead Jer6me Lheritier, a 17-year-old volunteer and journeyman cabinet-maker of the Faubourg Saint-Antoine, who was in the courtyard below.s Provoked to anger, the crowd slaughtered two of the gardts du corps and cut off their heads.6 Order was restored by the Parisian National Guard, while great crowds
I Bib. Nat. L" 39 113+4; Mathiez, op. cit. lxix. 411-43' • Prrtddun critni..nu . . . , witness no. 81; Taine, op. cit. i. , Rnrw dt 1,. RJv«�litm, i (1B83), 1-7. • Mimoim
fol. 1101).
urn/s
,, I. Sec d, Foltmilr, A""",iI
13t.
alJo Barnavc (AN;h.
Nat., W ill,
o B. PrMu! de I'H6tei du Roi, Greffe, 178g· Lh�ritier'l burial, U well u that of the two ,IJfdtl tiu _P', il recorded m Ihe 1U,ulro ties /UIeJ til sipwlllf' tie I,. p,.nXsJ# &Y/JI, " IIDI•• DdtrU ti, VlrsdiUes, fol. 811 l itary (Arch. S.-CI'O., series E). Of the three, LMritier alone ra:cived full mi honoun.
• Arch. Scine-ct·Oise, seri 6
77
surged outside the chateau. awaiting a solution. To the National Guard-to the tradesmen, small masters, and journeymen at
least, who had lost a day's work to accompany Lafayette to Versailles-there could only be one solution: the king must be made to come back to Paris, whether their commander-in chief was willing or not.1 So much appears, too, from the evidence of Elizabeth Girard, 'bourgeoise de Paris', who later told the Chatelet qu'A Versailles tout Ie peuple indistinctement, et principalement des compagnons serruriers au grand nombre, disaient qu'ils avaient perdu leur jou:nee ; que si Ie roi ne venait pas a Paris, et les gardes du corps n'etalent pas tues, it fa1lait mettre la tete de Lafayette au bout d'une pique.' The women may have needed more persuading. At any rate, F�urn er thought it necessary to indoctrinate a group of fish
�
WJves to the language that he thought they would most readily understand: 'Sac . . . B . . . esses, vous ne voyes pas que Lafayette et Ie Roi vous couillonnent. . . . II faut emmener a Paris toute
la sacree boutique.') However that may be, when the king, queen, and Lafayette appeared on the palace balcony, there was a great shout of 'To Paris !' A few hours later the royal . family, escorted by the Parisian National Guard and the march ing women, made their triumphal return to the capital.
I Mathia! op. cit. lxix. "�-46. In 'hit ropect, it would be of great interetl !O know the 1OC\.&1 or occupatI.onal compolilion ofthe Parisian National Guard .1.1 this . ome; but unforlUnately only a handful ortists have IUrvived to enlighten UI. The . battaholl& of the Faubourg Saint_Anloine and of the central market Districts who were probably the main promoten of the anned iruumxtion of the Naliona i Cuard on 5 Oclober, appear 10 have included a fair sprinkling of journeymen, ponen, and labouren as well as a majorilY of Ihopkeepen and masten or indc pend��t (:raftsmen. We know, for example, that the journeyman cabinet.maker Lho!nuer wu a volunteer of the Sainte_Marguerite District and that Edm� Farey, a journeyman goldsmith, abo arrested for pillaging the H61e1 des Gardea du Corps, was a volu�lteer of the neighbouring Dittricl of Saint·Gervais. Bc:sidea, the enrolments m �e In AUluJl 178g 10 the Battalion of Sainte-Opportune, inthe central markets, >Deluded, together with a host of small mUle... and tra domt:/l �6 men::h�t'l derks, .. tIImtn� and .. mployls, II market·pone..., a journeym� �Iler, a JOUrneym..an gunsmIth, and ajourneymangilder (Bril. Mus.,F. 830 (6)). By way of oontnut, of 10� grenadiers �ruited to the Baualion ofLes Filla S.int. Thomas, ne,ar the Bounc, in November 178g, II� were 'bourgeois' (usually applied to a man ofIndependent means), 119civiJ servants,6lawyen 7 merchants 'l banken and 3 Itock exchange jobbers, while only 16 were ttad�men-and �ot one or th� wage·earne... (Arch. Nat., W 357, no. 750, 1st part, pi�ce 100). h(J(:Irillft crimilllih . . . , witnell no. go. , M'"",i"s sIDe/s " FDurrUtr. A�u..
THE MARCH TO VERSAILLES
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
re5ponsible for the shortage. I He ended with twO demands-the provision of bread for the capital and �he punishment of the . ganus du corps who had insulted the nauonal cockade. Vanous deputies gave reassuring replies. There were angry shouts of 'A bas la calotte!' at the clergy; but Robespierre was heard in respectful silence, and there were calls for 'notre petite �ere. Mirabeau'.z A deputation of six women were elected to walt on the king-the Marquis de Paroy considered two of them 'assez bien'J-and the meeting broke up in more or less orderly fashion. Meanwhile, in Paris, the National Guard, summoned by
�e
tocsin, had crowded into the place de Greve. There were cnes of 'To Versailles!' The intentions of Lafayette in this episode are obscure. It seems that he hesitated for many hours to put him self at the head of what was only too clearly an armed insurrec tion; he temporized and, according to Fournier, made long speeches; but in the end, in response to popular clamour, he gave the order to march.� The forces that entered Versailles that night, between ten and midnight, consisted of three com panies of grenadiers, one company of fuseliers, with three can non, 20,000 National Guards of e Paris Distri�t.s, and a �otley
�
band of 700 to 800 men armed With muskets, sucks, and pikes. Early next morning there was a clash between the Parisians
and the garties du corps guarding the palace. Some demon strators had managed to enter the chtitlau and penetrated as far as the antechamber to the queen's apartments. In the course of this incident, a garde du corps, from a window, shot dead Jer6me Lheritier, a 17-year-old volunteer and journeyman cabinet-maker of the Faubourg Saint-Antoine, who was in the courtyard below.s Provoked to anger, the crowd slaughtered two of the gardts du corps and cut off their heads.6 Order was restored by the Parisian National Guard, while great crowds
I Bib. Nat. L" 39 113+4; Mathiez, op. cit. lxix. 411-43' • Prrtddun critni..nu . . . , witness no. 81; Taine, op. cit. i. , Rnrw dt 1,. RJv«�litm, i (1B83), 1-7. • Mimoim
fol. 1101).
urn/s
,, I. Sec d, Foltmilr, A""",iI
13t.
alJo Barnavc (AN;h.
Nat., W ill,
o B. PrMu! de I'H6tei du Roi, Greffe, 178g· Lh�ritier'l burial, U well u that of the two ,IJfdtl tiu _P', il recorded m Ihe 1U,ulro ties /UIeJ til sipwlllf' tie I,. p,.nXsJ# &Y/JI, " IIDI•• DdtrU ti, VlrsdiUes, fol. 811 l itary (Arch. S.-CI'O., series E). Of the three, LMritier alone ra:cived full mi honoun.
• Arch. Scine-ct·Oise, seri 6
77
surged outside the chateau. awaiting a solution. To the National Guard-to the tradesmen, small masters, and journeymen at
least, who had lost a day's work to accompany Lafayette to Versailles-there could only be one solution: the king must be made to come back to Paris, whether their commander-in chief was willing or not.1 So much appears, too, from the evidence of Elizabeth Girard, 'bourgeoise de Paris', who later told the Chatelet qu'A Versailles tout Ie peuple indistinctement, et principalement des compagnons serruriers au grand nombre, disaient qu'ils avaient perdu leur jou:nee ; que si Ie roi ne venait pas a Paris, et les gardes du corps n'etalent pas tues, it fa1lait mettre la tete de Lafayette au bout d'une pique.' The women may have needed more persuading. At any rate, F�urn er thought it necessary to indoctrinate a group of fish
�
WJves to the language that he thought they would most readily understand: 'Sac . . . B . . . esses, vous ne voyes pas que Lafayette et Ie Roi vous couillonnent. . . . II faut emmener a Paris toute
la sacree boutique.') However that may be, when the king, queen, and Lafayette appeared on the palace balcony, there was a great shout of 'To Paris !' A few hours later the royal . family, escorted by the Parisian National Guard and the march ing women, made their triumphal return to the capital.
I Mathia! op. cit. lxix. "�-46. In 'hit ropect, it would be of great interetl !O know the 1OC\.&1 or occupatI.onal compolilion ofthe Parisian National Guard .1.1 this . ome; but unforlUnately only a handful ortists have IUrvived to enlighten UI. The . battaholl& of the Faubourg Saint_Anloine and of the central market Districts who were probably the main promoten of the anned iruumxtion of the Naliona i Cuard on 5 Oclober, appear 10 have included a fair sprinkling of journeymen, ponen, and labouren as well as a majorilY of Ihopkeepen and masten or indc pend��t (:raftsmen. We know, for example, that the journeyman cabinet.maker Lho!nuer wu a volunteer of the Sainte_Marguerite District and that Edm� Farey, a journeyman goldsmith, abo arrested for pillaging the H61e1 des Gardea du Corps, was a volu�lteer of the neighbouring Dittricl of Saint·Gervais. Bc:sidea, the enrolments m �e In AUluJl 178g 10 the Battalion of Sainte-Opportune, inthe central markets, >Deluded, together with a host of small mUle... and tra domt:/l �6 men::h�t'l derks, .. tIImtn� and .. mployls, II market·pone..., a journeym� �Iler, a JOUrneym..an gunsmIth, and ajourneymangilder (Bril. Mus.,F. 830 (6)). By way of oontnut, of 10� grenadiers �ruited to the Baualion ofLes Filla S.int. Thomas, ne,ar the Bounc, in November 178g, II� were 'bourgeois' (usually applied to a man ofIndependent means), 119civiJ servants,6lawyen 7 merchants 'l banken and 3 Itock exchange jobbers, while only 16 were ttad�men-and �ot one or th� wage·earne... (Arch. Nat., W 357, no. 750, 1st part, pi�ce 100). h(J(:Irillft crimilllih . . . , witnell no. go. , M'"",i"s sIDe/s " FDurrUtr. A�u..
,8
' THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
The traditional account of the women's march to Versailles has it that, as they marched, the women chanted, 'Allons chercher Ie boulanger, la boulangere et Ie petit mitron!' It was
supposed that the king would, by his very presence among his
subjects, ensure a plentiful supply of bread. These hopes were not immediately realized: the bread crisis continued for another month. The day after the royal family's return, crowds of women invaded the corn-market and dumped
150
barrels of
rotten flour into the river after samples had been shown to the
king.1 On 2 1 October, during a bread riot in the Hotel de Ville area, the baker Fran�ois was hanged from the notorious lamp post on the Place de Greve ; for his murder, F. Blin, a market porter, was sentenced to death and]. Advenel, a metal-gilder, to nine years' prison.l The next day in the rue Thibault-au-de, off the central markets, women caused a riot by insisting on searching a house for hidden grain and fiour.l On 2 November Bailly had to order military protection for a baker in the Marche Saint-Germain;4 the next day a woman was arrested for causing a disturbance outside a baker's shop in the rue des Cordeliers.5 Finally, ten days later, Nicolas Billon, a mill worker, was arrested on a charge of creating riots and threaten ing to hang the baker at the Ecole Militaire on two occasions in October and November.6 But the majority in the Assembly, having driven out the 'moderates' and established itself in the capital, had no further use for the insurrectionary energies of the menu peuple : these had served their purpose. Accordingly, on 2 1 October new measures were introduced to curb social disorder and the agitation con
ducted by Marat's du peuple: they included the death penalty for 'rebellion', a press censorship and martial law. The first victim of these restraints on liberty, Michel Adrien, a
Ami
Bastille labourer, was hanged the same day for attempting to stir up a 'sedition' in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine.7
But, simultaneously, energetic measures were taken by both Commune and Assembly to solve the food crisis. Though the
price of bread remained at 12 sous for many months to come, I Hardy, viii. 505. I Arch. Nat., Y ,<1.795, Cob. 4,6-,; 10530, fob. 157--9; 18766. • Arch. Nat., AF" 48, no. 375, fo]. �. , Arch. Nat., Y 18768. I Arch. Nat., Y 131'�, 6 Arch. Nat. Y 18,69· � Arch. Nat., Y 10530, fol. 157; 18768·
THE MARCH TO VERSAILLES
79
the regular supply offiour to bakers was ensured. There followed a remarkabl: period of social calm, while the Assembly con tinued, rel�tlvely undisturb..-d, with its task of giving the nation . a constltuUon. The first Festival of the Federation, celebrated in
the Champs de Mars on 1 4 July 1 790, was a great symbol of . . natlonal uruty and peaceful advance. To most it must have
seemed that the Revolution was all but completed.
,8
' THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
The traditional account of the women's march to Versailles has it that, as they marched, the women chanted, 'Allons chercher Ie boulanger, la boulangere et Ie petit mitron!' It was
supposed that the king would, by his very presence among his
subjects, ensure a plentiful supply of bread. These hopes were not immediately realized: the bread crisis continued for another month. The day after the royal family's return, crowds of women invaded the corn-market and dumped
150
barrels of
rotten flour into the river after samples had been shown to the
king.1 On 2 1 October, during a bread riot in the Hotel de Ville area, the baker Fran�ois was hanged from the notorious lamp post on the Place de Greve ; for his murder, F. Blin, a market porter, was sentenced to death and]. Advenel, a metal-gilder, to nine years' prison.l The next day in the rue Thibault-au-de, off the central markets, women caused a riot by insisting on searching a house for hidden grain and fiour.l On 2 November Bailly had to order military protection for a baker in the Marche Saint-Germain;4 the next day a woman was arrested for causing a disturbance outside a baker's shop in the rue des Cordeliers.5 Finally, ten days later, Nicolas Billon, a mill worker, was arrested on a charge of creating riots and threaten ing to hang the baker at the Ecole Militaire on two occasions in October and November.6 But the majority in the Assembly, having driven out the 'moderates' and established itself in the capital, had no further use for the insurrectionary energies of the menu peuple : these had served their purpose. Accordingly, on 2 1 October new measures were introduced to curb social disorder and the agitation con
ducted by Marat's du peuple: they included the death penalty for 'rebellion', a press censorship and martial law. The first victim of these restraints on liberty, Michel Adrien, a
Ami
Bastille labourer, was hanged the same day for attempting to stir up a 'sedition' in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine.7
But, simultaneously, energetic measures were taken by both Commune and Assembly to solve the food crisis. Though the
price of bread remained at 12 sous for many months to come, I Hardy, viii. 505. I Arch. Nat., Y ,<1.795, Cob. 4,6-,; 10530, fob. 157--9; 18766. • Arch. Nat., AF" 48, no. 375, fo]. �. , Arch. Nat., Y 18768. I Arch. Nat., Y 131'�, 6 Arch. Nat. Y 18,69· � Arch. Nat., Y 10530, fol. 157; 18768·
THE MARCH TO VERSAILLES
79
the regular supply offiour to bakers was ensured. There followed a remarkabl: period of social calm, while the Assembly con tinued, rel�tlvely undisturb..-d, with its task of giving the nation . a constltuUon. The first Festival of the Federation, celebrated in
the Champs de Mars on 1 4 July 1 790, was a great symbol of . . natlonal uruty and peaceful advance. To most it must have
seemed that the Revolution was all but completed.
THE 'MASSACRE' OF THE CHAMP DE MARS
I for the first time since early 1788, to its nonnal level oCS sow. It was not to rise appreciably again until August 1791-a month after the Champ de Man affray. In this case at least
VI
HE
the price or supply of bread was to play no great
THE T H E 'M A S S A C R E' O F CHAMP DE MARS
e on the C amp de •• violent affray that too plac tru 1e lmportant stage 10 the , in July 179 1 marked an tional mo�archists� for power between co�titu . bourgeotIU a?d r ral hbe een . and Jacobins. betw ly directly to the eclipse of Bail democrats. In Paris it led n t, ye ; tio tr inis he city adm � � . s Lafayette as the leaders aft . lIst a tlon stltu con eat of the . National Assembly, the def and was not completed u�tll war of reak outb the by delayed al . ust 1792 In terms of the SOCi fall of the monarchy in Aug ese�ted repr both ir affa rs Ma tory of Paris the Champ de Third Estate-the growmg first bloody clash within the l the � aDd already been noted-" sians within which have l c al upheaval and . tion of several months of soci d in nize a or ts ch the democra � agitation, at the end of whi l...den bs appear as the u �dlsputed Jacobin and CordtHers Clu nt eme mov thiS of se cour In the of the Parisian sam-culottes. ,., eD i ·ge cap the f s rner e-ea � . tradesmen, artisans, and wag In which the malO protagomsts more clearly as elements afford to ignore ..nd whose ot struggle for power cann . at least, must affect to . the revolutionary democrats, s demonstr�uon Mar de mp Cha the , then In this sense, ion ofa process and, as tn the should be seen as the culminat , treated in the context of the of the October insurrection nt that pr�cede it. social and political moveme d, wtth mmor en,pljOl". u The period of social calm laste . . ha Q90 the pnce of the spring of 1 7 9 1 . InJune e s were removed and the pnc to I I sow; soon after, control
T
�
�
e�:�:.���:t� i,
�
:;��: :�:���� t�l
,;�:�:: �
�
�
pitc: plus ardente It I In Jaure.' worm: 'En obligeant la faction bour iJun�e �ormidable du p I e contr ui d'app � point un dans Ie pwple geoiSIe �randusalent �e rMe des bourgeois, les divisiom de la bour en�alent i apparaltr<: comme comm e, encor ccux-ci, bien faiblement . cit. i. 367). I Ulume that the op k, possibles de la R�volution' (Jaur uJolks or I7UIUI ",up/., rathcr than slUls-c l�taira' il hen: intended to me.n
u
eamerl'.
BI
�
�'::�' �: ";'���
�art as �
stimulant to revolutionary activity. The first serious breach of the peace occurred on 28 February, when an attempt was made to demolish a part ofthe Chlteau de
Vincen�es. which was being converted into a temporary over� . flow pnson for the capital. With memories ofits former use as a prison for those detained by lettres de caclut, 'patriots' began to
protest and, on 2S January, there was talk in theJacobin Club of a projected assault by 'one of the faubourgs',: A month later
the movement came to a head when over 1,000 oumlT! of the Faubourg Saint.Antoine, among whom Bastille demolition workers were in evidence,l placed Santerre as commander of the Enfants-Trouves battalion of the National Guard in much the same position as Lafayette had found himself in in October 1789: they eo�pelled him to lead them, escorted by his . battahon, to Vmcennes, where they proceeded to demolish the tfonjan. Before long, however, Lafayette arrived with 1 200
k
troops, publicly reprimanded Santerre, and marched bac to Pari� with sixty-four prisoners and to the accompaniment of the Jeers of the people of Saint-Antoine.• The prisoners were
lodged in the Conciergerie, whence they were released three weeks later after considerable agitation by the democrats amo�g whom a prominent part was played by Buirette� Vemeres, Santerre's defence·counsel and a leading figure in the Cordeliers Club.s
This is but one example ofthe continuous efforts made by the
, £"" 'I!;I dll
r.gU'" du dllihbtJIilms du mpi mllllkipol. A"ill collttrntllll u prix " lo.
""'.k �W/>lljn (17 August 1791). Brk Mus., r. �9· (18).
I Des B,b. Nat., nouv. �. f�., no. 26�6 fob. 1�g-62 (account of day'l evenu by � mottes, La f ay<:te t I A.D.C.) . According to one eyewimas the� W� also �Ie f�om the Faubourg! $,aint.Man::e! and Saint-Martin among them (H.IlTU SG I: )MInt/, dwllllioMai,. dll �f't";" 179'. MS. aocount by Alexis Houuau•
B�b. Nat., fonds fran�, no. I 16g7, P .130 (Bailly-Lafayette correspondence).
""!'
lrId.,bled 'for itil use). • For an 'official' account.ee P/�. tk I'I� flTTit.>ld VillMtllU, U lund; �fllJ'i" . ' pwb/il /JtIr l'ordu dt II! mlmiriptJill U Vi",mIIU, f IMrl 1791. Arch. Nat., F>.62, 2,0 1 ,; for an apologia by Santern: lee Rapporl dt }.I. SIIIIJtrT• • • • " Ialil!mlnll d I'Gff,G,,, III V.1I&tIIIUJ (ibid., fol. 202), , • Arch. Nat., F> 4622, fob. I�I� (Verritra papen).
:�?',
THE 'MASSACRE' OF THE CHAMP DE MARS
I for the first time since early 1788, to its nonnal level oCS sow. It was not to rise appreciably again until August 1791-a month after the Champ de Man affray. In this case at least
VI
HE
the price or supply of bread was to play no great
THE T H E 'M A S S A C R E' O F CHAMP DE MARS
e on the C amp de •• violent affray that too plac tru 1e lmportant stage 10 the , in July 179 1 marked an tional mo�archists� for power between co�titu . bourgeotIU a?d r ral hbe een . and Jacobins. betw ly directly to the eclipse of Bail democrats. In Paris it led n t, ye ; tio tr inis he city adm � � . s Lafayette as the leaders aft . lIst a tlon stltu con eat of the . National Assembly, the def and was not completed u�tll war of reak outb the by delayed al . ust 1792 In terms of the SOCi fall of the monarchy in Aug ese�ted repr both ir affa rs Ma tory of Paris the Champ de Third Estate-the growmg first bloody clash within the l the � aDd already been noted-" sians within which have l c al upheaval and . tion of several months of soci d in nize a or ts ch the democra � agitation, at the end of whi l...den bs appear as the u �dlsputed Jacobin and CordtHers Clu nt eme mov thiS of se cour In the of the Parisian sam-culottes. ,., eD i ·ge cap the f s rner e-ea � . tradesmen, artisans, and wag In which the malO protagomsts more clearly as elements afford to ignore ..nd whose ot struggle for power cann . at least, must affect to . the revolutionary democrats, s demonstr�uon Mar de mp Cha the , then In this sense, ion ofa process and, as tn the should be seen as the culminat , treated in the context of the of the October insurrection nt that pr�cede it. social and political moveme d, wtth mmor en,pljOl". u The period of social calm laste . . ha Q90 the pnce of the spring of 1 7 9 1 . InJune e s were removed and the pnc to I I sow; soon after, control
T
�
�
e�:�:.���:t� i,
�
:;��: :�:���� t�l
,;�:�:: �
�
�
pitc: plus ardente It I In Jaure.' worm: 'En obligeant la faction bour iJun�e �ormidable du p I e contr ui d'app � point un dans Ie pwple geoiSIe �randusalent �e rMe des bourgeois, les divisiom de la bour en�alent i apparaltr<: comme comm e, encor ccux-ci, bien faiblement . cit. i. 367). I Ulume that the op k, possibles de la R�volution' (Jaur uJolks or I7UIUI ",up/., rathcr than slUls-c l�taira' il hen: intended to me.n
u
eamerl'.
BI
�
�'::�' �: ";'���
�art as �
stimulant to revolutionary activity. The first serious breach of the peace occurred on 28 February, when an attempt was made to demolish a part ofthe Chlteau de
Vincen�es. which was being converted into a temporary over� . flow pnson for the capital. With memories ofits former use as a prison for those detained by lettres de caclut, 'patriots' began to
protest and, on 2S January, there was talk in theJacobin Club of a projected assault by 'one of the faubourgs',: A month later
the movement came to a head when over 1,000 oumlT! of the Faubourg Saint.Antoine, among whom Bastille demolition workers were in evidence,l placed Santerre as commander of the Enfants-Trouves battalion of the National Guard in much the same position as Lafayette had found himself in in October 1789: they eo�pelled him to lead them, escorted by his . battahon, to Vmcennes, where they proceeded to demolish the tfonjan. Before long, however, Lafayette arrived with 1 200
k
troops, publicly reprimanded Santerre, and marched bac to Pari� with sixty-four prisoners and to the accompaniment of the Jeers of the people of Saint-Antoine.• The prisoners were
lodged in the Conciergerie, whence they were released three weeks later after considerable agitation by the democrats amo�g whom a prominent part was played by Buirette� Vemeres, Santerre's defence·counsel and a leading figure in the Cordeliers Club.s
This is but one example ofthe continuous efforts made by the
, £"" 'I!;I dll
r.gU'" du dllihbtJIilms du mpi mllllkipol. A"ill collttrntllll u prix " lo.
""'.k �W/>lljn (17 August 1791). Brk Mus., r. �9· (18).
I Des B,b. Nat., nouv. �. f�., no. 26�6 fob. 1�g-62 (account of day'l evenu by � mottes, La f ay<:te t I A.D.C.) . According to one eyewimas the� W� also �Ie f�om the Faubourg! $,aint.Man::e! and Saint-Martin among them (H.IlTU SG I: )MInt/, dwllllioMai,. dll �f't";" 179'. MS. aocount by Alexis Houuau•
B�b. Nat., fonds fran�, no. I 16g7, P .130 (Bailly-Lafayette correspondence).
""!'
lrId.,bled 'for itil use). • For an 'official' account.ee P/�. tk I'I� flTTit.>ld VillMtllU, U lund; �fllJ'i" . ' pwb/il /JtIr l'ordu dt II! mlmiriptJill U Vi",mIIU, f IMrl 1791. Arch. Nat., F>.62, 2,0 1 ,; for an apologia by Santern: lee Rapporl dt }.I. SIIIIJtrT• • • • " Ialil!mlnll d I'Gff,G,,, III V.1I&tIIIUJ (ibid., fol. 202), , • Arch. Nat., F> 4622, fob. I�I� (Verritra papen).
:�?',
82
THE 'MASSACRE' OF THE CHA MP DE MARS
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
democrats in the course of the spring and summer of 1791
indoctrinate and to win the allegiance of the small tn,d'''n''''. craftsmen, and employed and unemployed workers of � capital. This agitation was to culminate in the great m'ot,;nl! o'n
17 July, when people gathered from all parts of the city for
purely political purpose of signing a petition drawn up by Cordeliers Club.! Among the many persons arrested in Paris during this
period, one is struck by the large number ofunemployed, ",,«01 of them from the public workshops maintained by the
cipality, arrested and imprisoned for their declared hostility . the city administration and the National Guard. both the development ofa certain political consciousness the wage-earners and the growth of unemployment in a
:��:�
1;:
of trades : one finds, among such persons, former sculptors, tailors, barbers, domestic servants, jewell�"' and basket-makers.1 Meanwhile the numbers of those to the public workshops were continually increasing: i�
Bailly put their number at 24,000 ; by June it had risen
3 1 ,000.3 Apart from the expense of their maintenance were seen as a constant threat to the newly established
they were widely believed to be the ready tools of coun'Ie'· revolutionary intrigue (even extreme democrats like
shared this view);4 they were frequently involved in ,ki"ni"h. with customs officials at the barritres, which the authorities hoped to keep in being;S and such episodes as the march of
Bastille workers to Vincennes did little to allay public di','q"iet In brief the administration did not need much persuasion decide on their dispersal : on 8 May Bailly announced
decision to close down the Bastille workshop, where , For the bat detailed acoount of thi, process
COrt/tUtTl /HM allt
A. M. " hi, 'C,
r,��;,���t�£:�:��r{if�'�� ;;.i�,::,'�
la ,rise de
Ie<:
• Or�38 penons t i i 'en, �!i upal ions ar e gi\ 1791, and whose occ unemployed rrom other tradal, 10 of them them then: i and several de Police, series Aa (various cartons) ) Bib. Nat., nouv. acq. rrant;., no. C 71, no. 695. • L'A",i dU/!tuple, no. 42�, 7 April 1791, p. 6. I Bib, Nat., fonds franp.is, no. 1 1697, pp. 235, �39, 2,.&-8 correspondence).
�
i
�
�
�
� !
!
h,e
�
�
� third
�
�
, Dioliothbjue Hinorique de la Ville de Pan. MS. 1044/ ' Areh. Nat C " ' 1'IO· 6g5 ' B'b I . Nat., ,on.... .� , ' n�ll, . no. I ,6g7, pp. �54-g. ra , A rc"h. Nat., C 7 1 , no. 700. . ' op. Cit., • S Lacro,,,, �nd lCn.es, v. 261; Arch. Nat. F' 46�2 plaq I . I , fol. 14. Arch. Nat., DXX1Xb 36, no. 376. • 14'BdillD,d, no. xxi, 25 June 1791 , pp. 6-7. , Arch. Nal., DXXlXb 36, no. 376, fol. 28. •
1"'''"''''' -''''''''' '
83
work�rs had been continuously engaged since July 178g' and in mid-June, the. Constitu�nt Assembly decreed the g nera dosu�e of the ale/,m de chant/, while making certain indefinite promises to open other .workshops to abso rb the unemployed,l The workers, faced With the prospect oflo sing their bare sub sistence o 20 SOIlS a day, reacted vigorously ; the Bastille workers, though dupersed by troops, carried on a lively agitation for some weeks to come and sought Support amon g the journey_ men of the Faubourg Saint-Antoine.1 The closure of the other workshops aroused a far greater commotion in which th democrats in theJacobin and Cordeliers Clubs �layed a certai part. Three separate petitions were prese nted to the Assembl urging them to reeonsider thei decision. The first, presented o � . 2B �ne and draft�d WIth the aid ofthe Point Central des Arts et �ue:s, a Cordeliers Club affiliate, was extremely moderate : It Ju�ufied th� event�al closure of the atdim in the interest of public sec �?ty, while begging for a postponement,J The second peuUon was presented by Camille Desmouliru in the name of the Bastille workers on 3 July and had, he claimed �n app�ved by Robespierre : it demanded subsistence as CItizen' s ng t and suggested that the workshops be maintained from a portlon of the profits accr uing from the sale of Church lands.4 petjti�n, fOllOwing closely after the second, was threaterung, almost VIolent, in tone : the workers (it declared) must have bread by one mea ns or another ' 'c'est Ie besoin c'est le plus pressant besoin, et rien autre qui' leur fait tenir u parel.l langage' ,5 The Assembly took no notice; but, meanwhile, the unem ployed ha res.orted to more direct forms of pressure. In a demonstrauon In the Place Vend ome, on 24 June, there had been calls for a Republic.6 Afte r two more demonstrations in the follow109 ' we�k, there was laIk of a projecte d tum-out of 22,000 unem loyed I� the rue Sain t-Honore on 3July.7 Two days later � a hOstile gOSSip-sheet, Lt Bahillard, reported a march of 400
"
"
,
82
THE 'MASSACRE' OF THE CHA MP DE MARS
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
democrats in the course of the spring and summer of 1791
indoctrinate and to win the allegiance of the small tn,d'''n''''. craftsmen, and employed and unemployed workers of � capital. This agitation was to culminate in the great m'ot,;nl! o'n
17 July, when people gathered from all parts of the city for
purely political purpose of signing a petition drawn up by Cordeliers Club.! Among the many persons arrested in Paris during this
period, one is struck by the large number ofunemployed, ",,«01 of them from the public workshops maintained by the
cipality, arrested and imprisoned for their declared hostility . the city administration and the National Guard. both the development ofa certain political consciousness the wage-earners and the growth of unemployment in a
:��:�
1;:
of trades : one finds, among such persons, former sculptors, tailors, barbers, domestic servants, jewell�"' and basket-makers.1 Meanwhile the numbers of those to the public workshops were continually increasing: i�
Bailly put their number at 24,000 ; by June it had risen
3 1 ,000.3 Apart from the expense of their maintenance were seen as a constant threat to the newly established
they were widely believed to be the ready tools of coun'Ie'· revolutionary intrigue (even extreme democrats like
shared this view);4 they were frequently involved in ,ki"ni"h. with customs officials at the barritres, which the authorities hoped to keep in being;S and such episodes as the march of
Bastille workers to Vincennes did little to allay public di','q"iet In brief the administration did not need much persuasion decide on their dispersal : on 8 May Bailly announced
decision to close down the Bastille workshop, where , For the bat detailed acoount of thi, process
COrt/tUtTl /HM allt
A. M. " hi, 'C,
r,��;,���t�£:�:��r{if�'�� ;;.i�,::,'�
la ,rise de
Ie<:
• Or�38 penons t i i 'en, �!i upal ions ar e gi\ 1791, and whose occ unemployed rrom other tradal, 10 of them them then: i and several de Police, series Aa (various cartons) ) Bib. Nat., nouv. acq. rrant;., no. C 71, no. 695. • L'A",i dU/!tuple, no. 42�, 7 April 1791, p. 6. I Bib, Nat., fonds franp.is, no. 1 1697, pp. 235, �39, 2,.&-8 correspondence).
�
i
�
�
�
� !
!
h,e
�
�
� third
�
�
, Dioliothbjue Hinorique de la Ville de Pan. MS. 1044/ ' Areh. Nat C " ' 1'IO· 6g5 ' B'b I . Nat., ,on.... .� , ' n�ll, . no. I ,6g7, pp. �54-g. ra , A rc"h. Nat., C 7 1 , no. 700. . ' op. Cit., • S Lacro,,,, �nd lCn.es, v. 261; Arch. Nat. F' 46�2 plaq I . I , fol. 14. Arch. Nat., DXX1Xb 36, no. 376. • 14'BdillD,d, no. xxi, 25 June 1791 , pp. 6-7. , Arch. Nal., DXXlXb 36, no. 376, fol. 28. •
1"'''"''''' -''''''''' '
83
work�rs had been continuously engaged since July 178g' and in mid-June, the. Constitu�nt Assembly decreed the g nera dosu�e of the ale/,m de chant/, while making certain indefinite promises to open other .workshops to abso rb the unemployed,l The workers, faced With the prospect oflo sing their bare sub sistence o 20 SOIlS a day, reacted vigorously ; the Bastille workers, though dupersed by troops, carried on a lively agitation for some weeks to come and sought Support amon g the journey_ men of the Faubourg Saint-Antoine.1 The closure of the other workshops aroused a far greater commotion in which th democrats in theJacobin and Cordeliers Clubs �layed a certai part. Three separate petitions were prese nted to the Assembl urging them to reeonsider thei decision. The first, presented o � . 2B �ne and draft�d WIth the aid ofthe Point Central des Arts et �ue:s, a Cordeliers Club affiliate, was extremely moderate : It Ju�ufied th� event�al closure of the atdim in the interest of public sec �?ty, while begging for a postponement,J The second peuUon was presented by Camille Desmouliru in the name of the Bastille workers on 3 July and had, he claimed �n app�ved by Robespierre : it demanded subsistence as CItizen' s ng t and suggested that the workshops be maintained from a portlon of the profits accr uing from the sale of Church lands.4 petjti�n, fOllOwing closely after the second, was threaterung, almost VIolent, in tone : the workers (it declared) must have bread by one mea ns or another ' 'c'est Ie besoin c'est le plus pressant besoin, et rien autre qui' leur fait tenir u parel.l langage' ,5 The Assembly took no notice; but, meanwhile, the unem ployed ha res.orted to more direct forms of pressure. In a demonstrauon In the Place Vend ome, on 24 June, there had been calls for a Republic.6 Afte r two more demonstrations in the follow109 ' we�k, there was laIk of a projecte d tum-out of 22,000 unem loyed I� the rue Sain t-Honore on 3July.7 Two days later � a hOstile gOSSip-sheet, Lt Bahillard, reported a march of 400
"
"
,
N THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTIO
84
Vendc5me, workless on the H6td de Ville, a riot in the Place XV for Louis Place the in s worker and the arrest of two tension, of here atmosp g 1 growin a was result The seditious talk. the that openly say to began s citizen able in which respect military of use the by lesson a taught be should unemployed force.
on 6 July] commencent a lasser Les ouvriers [wrote LA nationalc, les la patience des citoyens de taus les etats. La garde crient contrc isans art les is, bourgeo les ts, marchands, les fabrican ent qu'il ces gens soudoyes par Ies seditieux. . . . On dit hautem � faut 10 balayer a coups de canon.
Babillard
explain the Such an attitude docs, of course, a great deal to National the of and ferocity with which the less than s strator demon Guard dispersed the Champ de Mars
bourgeois
marchands
a fortnight later. the A paraliel movement to that of the unemployed, in which of that was d, involve also were Club ers Cordeli democrats and wages; higher of t suppor in trades various of men the journey the July these, as we saw, had not risen appreciably since ted concer revolution. The movement began in April with a of wage daily m auempt by the carpenters to secure a minimu body main the y minorit fifty SOUSj to the annoyance of an active terms of contractors appear to have accepted the journeymen's to ymen journe the by invited fairly readily. The Municipality, d rejecte and illegal, as tion associa their arbitrate, condemned liberal to y contrar being as wage m minimu a for the proposal n the principles; later, its journal went so far as to threate the of ers journeymen's leaders with prosecution as disturb .l letter public peace ; yet the threat remained a dead that of The carpenters' example was quickly followed by . In them among phers other workers-hatters and typogra to the early June the master farriers, in a petition addressed le' genera n coalitio 'une of ce existen the of Assembly, warned and , joiners ths, locksmi g includin , workers of 80,000 Paris s may cobblers as well as their own workpeople.· These number , fA BaM((mi, no. xxiii, 5 July 1791, p. 7.
• Ibid., no. xxiv, 6July 1791. p. 3. , us RJ
THE 'MASSACRE' OF THE CHAMP DE MARS
8�
h�ve been exaggerate�-the master farriers were naturally in. chned. to overstate their case-but the movement is of interest for a �umber of reasons. In the first place. it was the most
1 794,
ext�nslVe wages movem:nt in th:: capital u�til that of whIch play�� some part 10 unseaung Robesplerre; secondly, it was the petluons of the master farriers and carpenters that led
�he �embly t? ad�pt the famous Loi Le Chapelier, making coalittons ouvneres , or trade unions, illegal-an Act, it should
be noted, that not even the Revolutionary Government of the 'Year I�', at th� heigh� of Jacobin democracy, thought fit to repeal; 10 fact, It remamed law for nearly a hundred years to come. I Thi�dly. and of greater moment to our present argu. ment, the Journeymen carpenters received considerable aid and encouragement from the revolutionary democrats. Thus we find the carpenters not merely meeting in the same hall
as that used by the Cordeliers Club; but it turns out that the ' U�ion !ratemell� des Ou�ers en l'ATt de la Chacpente',
wh ich directed their camprugn, was an affiliate of the Comite by the club in May Moreover, the secretary Central set
��
1791. Mucure national et ltranger,
of the Comne Central was Fran�ois Robert who with his wife �hjcb. though Lo.uis:. �ited . th�
o�Jecung 10 pnnclple to the journeymen's attempt to enforce a . mlmmum wage, gave some support to their cause.2 Marat, too, had opened the columns ofhis paper to workers' correspondence and, on
12 June '791, while the wages movement was at its
h�ight, a violen�y worded letter, purporting to represent the . VIews of 560 bUlldmg workers engaged on the construction of
�h: church of Sainte.Genevieve,
appeared in
L'Ami du ptuple:
In It, the contrac�ors �ere r�und y assailed as 'oppresseurs igno- ra�ts, rapaces et 10sattablcs , as vampires', and as 'hommes viIS
}
qUI devorent dans l'oisivete Ie fruit de la sueur des mancr:u. vres et qui n'ont jamais rendu aucun service a la Nation'.J
The Cordeliers Club, however, did considerably more than
merely intervene in economic disputes in which the wage.
earne� were already engag¢. Through its Fraternal Societies, �lso hnked to Robert's Camite Central, it began, quite de. hberately, to educate the Parisian menu in the political
peuple
• Mtma"I NJlitma/ .1 ItriUlg.... no. UV; II May '791. l L'Ami tfu /Jf�ple, no. 487, 12 June 179/, pp. 1-5. 1 Until an Act of 1814.
N THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTIO
84
Vendc5me, workless on the H6td de Ville, a riot in the Place XV for Louis Place the in s worker and the arrest of two tension, of here atmosp g 1 growin a was result The seditious talk. the that openly say to began s citizen able in which respect military of use the by lesson a taught be should unemployed force.
on 6 July] commencent a lasser Les ouvriers [wrote LA nationalc, les la patience des citoyens de taus les etats. La garde crient contrc isans art les is, bourgeo les ts, marchands, les fabrican ent qu'il ces gens soudoyes par Ies seditieux. . . . On dit hautem � faut 10 balayer a coups de canon.
Babillard
explain the Such an attitude docs, of course, a great deal to National the of and ferocity with which the less than s strator demon Guard dispersed the Champ de Mars
bourgeois
marchands
a fortnight later. the A paraliel movement to that of the unemployed, in which of that was d, involve also were Club ers Cordeli democrats and wages; higher of t suppor in trades various of men the journey the July these, as we saw, had not risen appreciably since ted concer revolution. The movement began in April with a of wage daily m auempt by the carpenters to secure a minimu body main the y minorit fifty SOUSj to the annoyance of an active terms of contractors appear to have accepted the journeymen's to ymen journe the by invited fairly readily. The Municipality, d rejecte and illegal, as tion associa their arbitrate, condemned liberal to y contrar being as wage m minimu a for the proposal n the principles; later, its journal went so far as to threate the of ers journeymen's leaders with prosecution as disturb .l letter public peace ; yet the threat remained a dead that of The carpenters' example was quickly followed by . In them among phers other workers-hatters and typogra to the early June the master farriers, in a petition addressed le' genera n coalitio 'une of ce existen the of Assembly, warned and , joiners ths, locksmi g includin , workers of 80,000 Paris s may cobblers as well as their own workpeople.· These number , fA BaM((mi, no. xxiii, 5 July 1791, p. 7.
• Ibid., no. xxiv, 6July 1791. p. 3. , us RJ
THE 'MASSACRE' OF THE CHAMP DE MARS
8�
h�ve been exaggerate�-the master farriers were naturally in. chned. to overstate their case-but the movement is of interest for a �umber of reasons. In the first place. it was the most
1 794,
ext�nslVe wages movem:nt in th:: capital u�til that of whIch play�� some part 10 unseaung Robesplerre; secondly, it was the petluons of the master farriers and carpenters that led
�he �embly t? ad�pt the famous Loi Le Chapelier, making coalittons ouvneres , or trade unions, illegal-an Act, it should
be noted, that not even the Revolutionary Government of the 'Year I�', at th� heigh� of Jacobin democracy, thought fit to repeal; 10 fact, It remamed law for nearly a hundred years to come. I Thi�dly. and of greater moment to our present argu. ment, the Journeymen carpenters received considerable aid and encouragement from the revolutionary democrats. Thus we find the carpenters not merely meeting in the same hall
as that used by the Cordeliers Club; but it turns out that the ' U�ion !ratemell� des Ou�ers en l'ATt de la Chacpente',
wh ich directed their camprugn, was an affiliate of the Comite by the club in May Moreover, the secretary Central set
��
1791. Mucure national et ltranger,
of the Comne Central was Fran�ois Robert who with his wife �hjcb. though Lo.uis:. �ited . th�
o�Jecung 10 pnnclple to the journeymen's attempt to enforce a . mlmmum wage, gave some support to their cause.2 Marat, too, had opened the columns ofhis paper to workers' correspondence and, on
12 June '791, while the wages movement was at its
h�ight, a violen�y worded letter, purporting to represent the . VIews of 560 bUlldmg workers engaged on the construction of
�h: church of Sainte.Genevieve,
appeared in
L'Ami du ptuple:
In It, the contrac�ors �ere r�und y assailed as 'oppresseurs igno- ra�ts, rapaces et 10sattablcs , as vampires', and as 'hommes viIS
}
qUI devorent dans l'oisivete Ie fruit de la sueur des mancr:u. vres et qui n'ont jamais rendu aucun service a la Nation'.J
The Cordeliers Club, however, did considerably more than
merely intervene in economic disputes in which the wage.
earne� were already engag¢. Through its Fraternal Societies, �lso hnked to Robert's Camite Central, it began, quite de. hberately, to educate the Parisian menu in the political
peuple
• Mtma"I NJlitma/ .1 ItriUlg.... no. UV; II May '791. l L'Ami tfu /Jf�ple, no. 487, 12 June 179/, pp. 1-5. 1 Until an Act of 1814.
WD IN ACTION THE REVOLUTIONARY CRO
a process that was to be ideas ofthe revolutionary democratsof enormous significance for the future: (wrote Mathiez] que s'estaufaiteet C'est par Ies societes fraternelles l'tducation politique des masses. Ces societes furent Ie berce I'asile de 1a saru-culotterie.' y under hourgeois direction, The new societies, while finnlers passive citizens.� opened their doors to wage-earn edanda other ription of only subsc charg The Cordeliers Club itself the National by ted arres those g 2 .sOUl a monthj and, amon a cook, and a er, work -ware fancy a find we Guard that summer, meetings.l In this period, too, domestic servant that attended itsother Fraternal Societies are the Club des Indigents and of 'pauv res porteurs d'eau', described as being composed Far great e, were 'artisans' and 'simples ouvriers'.4 c agitationer,ofofthecours crats demo the numbers touched by the publie political question-inclu and their press on every imaginablas the denial of the vote d to ing such burning topical issues sion of manual workers from exclu al 'passive' citizens, the virtu the National Guard, or the restrictions imposed on the right of petitioning.s dswill serve to illustrate A single example from the police recor t exert on the minds and the influence that such agitation migh ance Evrard, a 23-year ideas ofmany ordinary Parisians. Constarrest ed on 17 July for old cook of 64 rue de Grenelle, was had taken part who n, dsma abusing the wife of a National Guar Mars the same ernoon. de p in the 'massacre' of the Cham police commissionaft of the er the by n Her cross-examinatio s: follow as d hrase parap be may n Sectio Ue Fontaine de Grene de Mars? Q. Had she been to the ChampMada me Uon and her daughter. ith therew been had she A. Yes,
86
Mathiez, op. cit., p. 66. of three days' labour in 1 That ii, citizen. not paying the equivalent ,
'7&g·
taxCl �d, This provilion ber Decem of law a under ise franch the as lueh, e:lduded from of '791. Iu repeal wu one of the last became later incorporated in the Constitution dissolution in September 1792· !LeU of the LcgiJlative i\J&embly before iu fols. lI l 7-9; lI20, fol. 1-4-2. Another , Areh. PrU. Pol., AA 148, fol. 30; lI06, months to the funds of the J!Leobin IleNant claimed to have IUSCribed 24 sous in 4 365-6)· fols. 206, All. (ibid., Club /IIIliorrol II Ilr�"'tr, no. viii, • � B�billanl, no. xxi, lI5 June 1791; Mtrcrm s II Pam/1t""anll� R'oo/ulillll popuJ�ir, Socillis s u , Bourdin I. 23 April '791. See also • Mathie>:, cp. cit., pp. 31-32• (Paris, 1937), pp. '5-44.
THE 'MASSACRE' OF THE CHAMP DE MARS
.,
Q. Why had she been there? A. To sign a petition 'comme tow les boos patrioto' Q. What was the petition about? A. ��v���d=�=r ts aim was '1 faire organiser autrement Ie Q. Did she often go to public meetings' A. �.�h: $Ohernletimes been to the Pala� Royal and the Tuileries. Q. e ong to any club? A. ���:; ::::r::: been to the Cordelien Club, though not t Q. Had ;he been with any particular group in the Champ d, M A. Sh� .had been on the 'autel de la patrie' and signe ' d th, pelltlon. Q. Had she thrown stones or seen any stones thrown? A. No.h Q. W o had invited her to sign the petition? A. No o�:, but s�e h�d heard various people say that there was a pet uon to sign m Champ de Man. �. �as �It true that herthe name had appeared in papers? • her name had appeared in u.s Ri/J()the /ulions tk p . b'rnuse she had expressed grief at the death of Loustalo t. Q. What papers did she read' . and, very A. She read Marat, Audoui � Camille Desmoulms often, L'Oraleurdu peupk.' ' The political movement that ended. the Champ de Mars . with massacre' had 'ts . d' t °�.gI:� in hki· n�'s. attempted t flight to the Im�eri���;d:� �n 2 J , Fro'rn thIs ttme the ag't ' n f Lh� democrats and radical journalists had a on c1;arly .. O• de��� ob�ecUvcto rouse popular oplDlon future of the kin and the executi.ve powtr. For the firstontimethethose nalists !nd ot�ers �ho, before the flight to Varennes hadjoural�:t alone m thel� advocacy of Republican ideas,'were be to �m��? a cetam following: their influence can be seena�: in the R o a e i f n � ���e: e: ��;�e fn f;t:�:�;�:� ;ar�� J�y� ::� � ����b:� IO"S and petitIOns of the Fraternal Societies.l Yet it has probabJ c b�en � �ed; a?d even the Cordcliers Club, Whi h i clu ed �xaggcr nown epubhcans among its members, was •
I
S
an .
eli,
am,
•
•
£:
, A �"<jh.
•
�""f. Poi., AI., 148, fol. 30.
Babrllard, no. xxi 25 June I 79t , pp. 6-7; Lacroix, op. dt., lind seria, v.
378; Mathie>:, op. cit., p'. . 53
WD IN ACTION THE REVOLUTIONARY CRO
a process that was to be ideas ofthe revolutionary democratsof enormous significance for the future: (wrote Mathiez] que s'estaufaiteet C'est par Ies societes fraternelles l'tducation politique des masses. Ces societes furent Ie berce I'asile de 1a saru-culotterie.' y under hourgeois direction, The new societies, while finnlers passive citizens.� opened their doors to wage-earn edanda other ription of only subsc charg The Cordeliers Club itself the National by ted arres those g 2 .sOUl a monthj and, amon a cook, and a er, work -ware fancy a find we Guard that summer, meetings.l In this period, too, domestic servant that attended itsother Fraternal Societies are the Club des Indigents and of 'pauv res porteurs d'eau', described as being composed Far great e, were 'artisans' and 'simples ouvriers'.4 c agitationer,ofofthecours crats demo the numbers touched by the publie political question-inclu and their press on every imaginablas the denial of the vote d to ing such burning topical issues sion of manual workers from exclu al 'passive' citizens, the virtu the National Guard, or the restrictions imposed on the right of petitioning.s dswill serve to illustrate A single example from the police recor t exert on the minds and the influence that such agitation migh ance Evrard, a 23-year ideas ofmany ordinary Parisians. Constarrest ed on 17 July for old cook of 64 rue de Grenelle, was had taken part who n, dsma abusing the wife of a National Guar Mars the same ernoon. de p in the 'massacre' of the Cham police commissionaft of the er the by n Her cross-examinatio s: follow as d hrase parap be may n Sectio Ue Fontaine de Grene de Mars? Q. Had she been to the ChampMada me Uon and her daughter. ith therew been had she A. Yes,
86
Mathiez, op. cit., p. 66. of three days' labour in 1 That ii, citizen. not paying the equivalent ,
'7&g·
taxCl �d, This provilion ber Decem of law a under ise franch the as lueh, e:lduded from of '791. Iu repeal wu one of the last became later incorporated in the Constitution dissolution in September 1792· !LeU of the LcgiJlative i\J&embly before iu fols. lI l 7-9; lI20, fol. 1-4-2. Another , Areh. PrU. Pol., AA 148, fol. 30; lI06, months to the funds of the J!Leobin IleNant claimed to have IUSCribed 24 sous in 4 365-6)· fols. 206, All. (ibid., Club /IIIliorrol II Ilr�"'tr, no. viii, • � B�billanl, no. xxi, lI5 June 1791; Mtrcrm s II Pam/1t""anll� R'oo/ulillll popuJ�ir, Socillis s u , Bourdin I. 23 April '791. See also • Mathie>:, cp. cit., pp. 31-32• (Paris, 1937), pp. '5-44.
THE 'MASSACRE' OF THE CHAMP DE MARS
.,
Q. Why had she been there? A. To sign a petition 'comme tow les boos patrioto' Q. What was the petition about? A. ��v���d=�=r ts aim was '1 faire organiser autrement Ie Q. Did she often go to public meetings' A. �.�h: $Ohernletimes been to the Pala� Royal and the Tuileries. Q. e ong to any club? A. ���:; ::::r::: been to the Cordelien Club, though not t Q. Had ;he been with any particular group in the Champ d, M A. Sh� .had been on the 'autel de la patrie' and signe ' d th, pelltlon. Q. Had she thrown stones or seen any stones thrown? A. No.h Q. W o had invited her to sign the petition? A. No o�:, but s�e h�d heard various people say that there was a pet uon to sign m Champ de Man. �. �as �It true that herthe name had appeared in papers? • her name had appeared in u.s Ri/J()the /ulions tk p . b'rnuse she had expressed grief at the death of Loustalo t. Q. What papers did she read' . and, very A. She read Marat, Audoui � Camille Desmoulms often, L'Oraleurdu peupk.' ' The political movement that ended. the Champ de Mars . with massacre' had 'ts . d' t °�.gI:� in hki· n�'s. attempted t flight to the Im�eri���;d:� �n 2 J , Fro'rn thIs ttme the ag't ' n f Lh� democrats and radical journalists had a on c1;arly .. O• de��� ob�ecUvcto rouse popular oplDlon future of the kin and the executi.ve powtr. For the firstontimethethose nalists !nd ot�ers �ho, before the flight to Varennes hadjoural�:t alone m thel� advocacy of Republican ideas,'were be to �m��? a cetam following: their influence can be seena�: in the R o a e i f n � ���e: e: ��;�e fn f;t:�:�;�:� ;ar�� J�y� ::� � ����b:� IO"S and petitIOns of the Fraternal Societies.l Yet it has probabJ c b�en � �ed; a?d even the Cordcliers Club, Whi h i clu ed �xaggcr nown epubhcans among its members, was •
I
S
an .
eli,
am,
•
•
£:
, A �"<jh.
•
�""f. Poi., AI., 148, fol. 30.
Babrllard, no. xxi 25 June I 79t , pp. 6-7; Lacroix, op. dt., lind seria, v.
378; Mathie>:, op. cit., p'. . 53
88
Y CROWD IN ACT ION THE REVOLUTIONAR
h could, � yet, hope to ?nd guarded in expressing views whic . certamly there IS little little support among the menu ion among th� fiftee� or tw�nty trace of such a body of opin . for expressmg sedillous viewS persons arrested in the Sections king's flight and ignominious during the week following the
ptuple:
return from Varennes.1 not slow to react to the new But the Club was certainly on the Assembly to delay a developments: on 2 1 June it call I the Departments had been decision on the king's future untJ. nteen similar petitions by the eonsulted ; this, the first of seve Three ays l�ter there fo lowed e1ub, was posted all over Paris.1 30,000 WhiCh, accordmg to the so-called 'Petition of the d by the Faubourg Saint.An Madame Roland, was supporte the agitati0r;t co�tinued ! but, toine in full strength.) DuringJuly sembly, WIth Its Feutllant ent on the 15th, the Constitu well alone and of renewed tJ.ng oflet r . majority, declared in favou head of the executIve power. confidence in Louis XVI as the the ranks of the democrats. The decision led to a breach in for in a petition drafte by lh A protest demonstration, called oved by theJacobln Cl�b . Cordeliers Club on I6July, was appr re's initiative, the J�coblns but the same evening, on Robespier s. now face with the elier withdrew their support .• The Cord . or of gomg ahead atIon onstr alternative of cancelling the dem result was t e The se. cour r latte the on their own, decided on c; is Robert and �ouched 10 petition of 17 July, drafted by Fran ? fically demandmg a Re more radical tenru : while not speCl 'de convoquer un nouveau public it called on the Assembly rem lace�ent et a 1'0r corps onstituant pour procede� au exec� b .5 Signatures were ganisation d'un nouveau pouvOlr e1ubs were SOCletJ.es an immediately canvassed;6 and the . 01Oe at -Ant Salnt Porte the at invited to muster in full strength to march from there to the ten or eleven in the moming,7 and demonstration. eful peac a Champ de Mars to hold 172, 182, 206, 2'5' 167, , Mh. prtr. Pol., Aa 74,84, 134, 157, (1923), '7-18. • F. Bracsch, 'w P.!titions du Champ de Mars', &!J. hut. exliii 1 Mathia, op. cit., p. 52. • Ibid., pp. ' 18-20. . • Ln R/lJ(!lutilms d, Paris, no. cvi, .6-23 July '79', pp. 60-6• member of the Soei�t� da Hailes ct • A. E. Primery, a raney.ware worker and Faubourg Saint-Antoine thc ,ame day for de Ja Libert.!, was arrested in the rue du fol. 142). collecling ,ignatulU (Arch. Pr.!r. Pol., Aa 220, • Ibid., Ln RIIJ(!Iwilms de Paris, no. cvi, p. 157.
c:d
�
�
�
�
�
�
p �
�
�
�
89
THE 'MASSACRE' OF THE CHAMP DE MARS
Unfortunately for the petitioners, before their arrival, a curious incident took place that morning in the Champ de
Mars that, in the tense political atmosphere prevailing, pro vided the authorities with a pretext for intervention. Two individuals who had hidden under the 'autd de la patrie' possibly with the intention ofgetting a better view of the ladies'
ankles-were pulled out by suspicious bystanders and uncere
moniously hanged from a nearby window. During the afternoon a peaceful demonstration of 50,000 citizens gathered according
to plan;' of these, over 6,000 had signed the petition before the troops arrived.1 Meanwhile Bailly had been alerted of what was going on by his municipal officers and put into operation a plan that appears to have been premeditated.l Martial law was declared, the red flag of executive violence was unfurled and 10,000 Guardsmen, under the command of Lafayette, advanced on the demonstrators.• Accounts of what followed vary; but it appears that stones were thrown at the Guards (including Lafayette himself), and that perhaps fifty persons were killed and a dozen wounded.! In the words of a tailor, arrested two days later in the Henri IV Section for protesting at the Guard's conduct: 'on tirait sur les ouvriers comme de la volaille'.' Many arrests were made: only a dozen in the Champ de Mars itself; but maybe another 200 in the Sections, includ. I�g a handful of Cordeliers Club members and other supposed nngleaders, and a far greater number of ordinary petitioners who presumed to criticize the administration or the Guard for their behaviour.' Many of these were released within a month . the rest were discharged under a general amnesty of
l;
September.8 Such was the demonstration and 'massacre' of the Champ de Mars.
r Ibid., pp. 53 fr. (F. Robert's ac<:ount O(evenll). ' Buch et Roux, Hiswi" parftmmlair, de I" RJvoiw"'"fr""fais, (40 vois., Paris, � 18;3-8), "
r.atlOnal Guardsman) were taken to the nearby Gros Caillou Military Hospital r trcatment for wounds {P/v. des 17 '/ 18juilld, p. 12 (printed lext). Arch. Nat.,
�o
�
15;.,no · .737) ·
rch. PrH. PoL, Aa, Ab «(or dctails see page 91 ' note ,, below) ,' Mathiez, . ., p. . , >. , '- J lip. CIt 13�· L< 0,""", oe fa RiIJ(!/UtlO�, no. 402, 18 September ' 791.
• Arch. PrU. Pol., Aa 215. rot. 463 .
88
Y CROWD IN ACT ION THE REVOLUTIONAR
h could, � yet, hope to ?nd guarded in expressing views whic . certamly there IS little little support among the menu ion among th� fiftee� or tw�nty trace of such a body of opin . for expressmg sedillous viewS persons arrested in the Sections king's flight and ignominious during the week following the
ptuple:
return from Varennes.1 not slow to react to the new But the Club was certainly on the Assembly to delay a developments: on 2 1 June it call I the Departments had been decision on the king's future untJ. nteen similar petitions by the eonsulted ; this, the first of seve Three ays l�ter there fo lowed e1ub, was posted all over Paris.1 30,000 WhiCh, accordmg to the so-called 'Petition of the d by the Faubourg Saint.An Madame Roland, was supporte the agitati0r;t co�tinued ! but, toine in full strength.) DuringJuly sembly, WIth Its Feutllant ent on the 15th, the Constitu well alone and of renewed tJ.ng oflet r . majority, declared in favou head of the executIve power. confidence in Louis XVI as the the ranks of the democrats. The decision led to a breach in for in a petition drafte by lh A protest demonstration, called oved by theJacobln Cl�b . Cordeliers Club on I6July, was appr re's initiative, the J�coblns but the same evening, on Robespier s. now face with the elier withdrew their support .• The Cord . or of gomg ahead atIon onstr alternative of cancelling the dem result was t e The se. cour r latte the on their own, decided on c; is Robert and �ouched 10 petition of 17 July, drafted by Fran ? fically demandmg a Re more radical tenru : while not speCl 'de convoquer un nouveau public it called on the Assembly rem lace�ent et a 1'0r corps onstituant pour procede� au exec� b .5 Signatures were ganisation d'un nouveau pouvOlr e1ubs were SOCletJ.es an immediately canvassed;6 and the . 01Oe at -Ant Salnt Porte the at invited to muster in full strength to march from there to the ten or eleven in the moming,7 and demonstration. eful peac a Champ de Mars to hold 172, 182, 206, 2'5' 167, , Mh. prtr. Pol., Aa 74,84, 134, 157, (1923), '7-18. • F. Bracsch, 'w P.!titions du Champ de Mars', &!J. hut. exliii 1 Mathia, op. cit., p. 52. • Ibid., pp. ' 18-20. . • Ln R/lJ(!lutilms d, Paris, no. cvi, .6-23 July '79', pp. 60-6• member of the Soei�t� da Hailes ct • A. E. Primery, a raney.ware worker and Faubourg Saint-Antoine thc ,ame day for de Ja Libert.!, was arrested in the rue du fol. 142). collecling ,ignatulU (Arch. Pr.!r. Pol., Aa 220, • Ibid., Ln RIIJ(!Iwilms de Paris, no. cvi, p. 157.
c:d
�
�
�
�
�
�
p �
�
�
�
89
THE 'MASSACRE' OF THE CHAMP DE MARS
Unfortunately for the petitioners, before their arrival, a curious incident took place that morning in the Champ de
Mars that, in the tense political atmosphere prevailing, pro vided the authorities with a pretext for intervention. Two individuals who had hidden under the 'autd de la patrie' possibly with the intention ofgetting a better view of the ladies'
ankles-were pulled out by suspicious bystanders and uncere
moniously hanged from a nearby window. During the afternoon a peaceful demonstration of 50,000 citizens gathered according
to plan;' of these, over 6,000 had signed the petition before the troops arrived.1 Meanwhile Bailly had been alerted of what was going on by his municipal officers and put into operation a plan that appears to have been premeditated.l Martial law was declared, the red flag of executive violence was unfurled and 10,000 Guardsmen, under the command of Lafayette, advanced on the demonstrators.• Accounts of what followed vary; but it appears that stones were thrown at the Guards (including Lafayette himself), and that perhaps fifty persons were killed and a dozen wounded.! In the words of a tailor, arrested two days later in the Henri IV Section for protesting at the Guard's conduct: 'on tirait sur les ouvriers comme de la volaille'.' Many arrests were made: only a dozen in the Champ de Mars itself; but maybe another 200 in the Sections, includ. I�g a handful of Cordeliers Club members and other supposed nngleaders, and a far greater number of ordinary petitioners who presumed to criticize the administration or the Guard for their behaviour.' Many of these were released within a month . the rest were discharged under a general amnesty of
l;
September.8 Such was the demonstration and 'massacre' of the Champ de Mars.
r Ibid., pp. 53 fr. (F. Robert's ac<:ount O(evenll). ' Buch et Roux, Hiswi" parftmmlair, de I" RJvoiw"'"fr""fais, (40 vois., Paris, � 18;3-8), "
r.atlOnal Guardsman) were taken to the nearby Gros Caillou Military Hospital r trcatment for wounds {P/v. des 17 '/ 18juilld, p. 12 (printed lext). Arch. Nat.,
�o
�
15;.,no · .737) ·
rch. PrH. PoL, Aa, Ab «(or dctails see page 91 ' note ,, below) ,' Mathiez, . ., p. . , >. , '- J lip. CIt 13�· L< 0,""", oe fa RiIJ(!/UtlO�, no. 402, 18 September ' 791.
• Arch. PrU. Pol., Aa 215. rot. 463 .
go
THE 'MASSACRE' OF THE CHAMP DE MARS
WD IN ACT ION THE REVOLUTIONARY CRO
to qualify these peaceful peti Perhaps we should hesitate the d'. Yet, in a wider sense, tioners as a 'revolutionary crow inly of interest to our present certa is term is apposite; and it composed and from which study to inquire how they were e. The direct evidence on this parts of the capital they cam than in the case of the October point, though more plentiful ng the 6,000 signatures col insurrection, is rather slight. Amo military, the organizers claimed lected before the arrival of the municipal were those of that more than Roux, and ez Buch , hand r othe officers, and e1ectors.1 On the fire in by n uctio destr its re befo ion who saw the completed petit qui gens de est tures signa des e mass r871 , maintained that 'la en cont ted, in support of their savaient a peine lire'. and poin ts.a shee ion aring on the petit tion, to the many crosses appe y mar custo with wrote of the demonstrators Again, Lt s�ait ne , crois je un, . . . pas venom : 'Parmi tous ces hommes
2,000
gardn naJionaux,
Babillard
lire.'l in the highly partisan Even if we aUow for exaggeration the uncertainty of the and account presented by u s, we should perhaps si analy l socia literacy test as a guide to ence that the demonstrators accept Buchez's and Roux's infer er sections ofthe Parisian were composed in the main ofthe poor rmed by the few surviving population. Such a picture is confi h directly relate to par documents in the Paris archives whic instance the report ticipants in the demonstration. For killed in the, �� :�; those on pared by municipal officer Filleul Caillou � i Gros the in de Mars and examined by him corpses, ed identifi nine of Hospital nearby reveals that, 'a skirt with an wom a of one n, eyme were of workshop journ of a were s other while s', piece many of many colours and of two saddler, a wine-merchant's son, and of the Paris ts repor e polic The eois.4 bourg dressed a cobbler of the mention only one corpse, that of issariat of the Palais Section brought to the police comm . n register of the Hotel de priso on 17 July S Unfortunately the one of the twelve, only of Force gives the occupation : he was an abbi, I itself Mars de p arrested in the Cham
Babillard
�
>�:�::
, UI RioolulWns tk Ptuis, loc. dt. , U BdiUarIl, no. xxxvi, 19July
4 Arch. Nat.. W !l94. no. !l3.5.
• Buchez ct Roux, op. cit., xi. 113· 1791, p. 4. ' Arch. PrH. Poi., N 85, rol. 768.
91
by name.1 Of thuse arrested in the Sections after the demon_ . strauon, the only five who admitted having been in the Champ de Mars that afternoon were a cook, a tailo' " a J'ourneyman cab'met-maker, a cafe-waiter, and an unemployed boot-black.' . O� these the boot-black descnbed the resistance offered to the . , �tary by tow les ouvriers perruquiers et autres'; and the m taI lor, as we alrea�y �w, claimed 'qu'on tirait sur les ouvriers llle . Further evidence of the attendance of comme de la vola wa�e-earners at the Champ de Man is suggested by u report that po!1-workers had visited journeymen in their lodgmgs !o bring them along to the demonstra �or�hops an� l bon, and B� rette-Vemeres, when accwed of inciting OUmlerS assemble In the champ de Mars, replied 'qu'it est laux ' . . .
BaMI
lard.r (0
parce que ceux auxquels iI aurait preche (?) etaient prets a y entrer'.4 . We have,. besid�, the far more considerable, though largely clrcumstantlal, e Vldence of the police commissionen' re rts and the prison register of the Hotel de la Force, relating
k all
to �me penons arrested for political offences in the Paris Sectlons 10 the months preceding and following the ChamP d Mars demonstration.s Admittedly these cannot furnish an
�50
;
cle�� proofofattendance or ofwillingness to sign the Cordeliers' peuuon; but they provide a rich source for the study of the popular move�ent of the period and of the classes ofpeople and parts of the �apl�al that were drawn into the political movement I that had as ts climax the petition and demonstration of 1 7 July
Onl� a handful of these persons were arrested for remarh �ha� �ght, even remotely, be construed as counter-revolution_ ry? �� nearly every case they were charged with abusing or �nt1C1zmg the administration, the National Guard or Lafoay'tte ID person 10 . terms whic • ' fluence exerted h reveal the m by the dlemocrats and popular societies on the small tradesmen, craftsIl en, and wage-earners of Paris during this period. Thus, of , Arch. Prff. Pot. Ab 3!1ot. p. 60. ""r, "°l., Ab 3!14. pp. 33, 38; A. 148, fol. 30; !l1.5, fol. ,"". IS!I , fol ..Y.;J. 312 ' 'h' N.l.t T (, !l14' ' u BdiUlITII, no. xxxvi, 19 July 1191. Arch. Nat F' 4623, rol. lot. Arch. Pr6. Pol' A. 56 7!1, 74, 76 A. 85, 134, '37, l.a. 1.53, 155. 157. 166. ,' �' 167, 17!1, 173. 18!1 I" , !lOS. !lIS, !II , !llg, !120, 2!14, !l39'' Ab ..., pp . � • �. . ,. A few .... " CIUCt appalt in Arch Nat., ...., dlIl.ona W !l94, no. !l35 (Bailly papcn) ; . T �14� (prvn.,..... Bern ani'. papcn), and DXXIXb, nos. 34 and 36 (Comit� I
:
�
,
52 •
•
••
.•
•
d� R�bcrcbQ).
go
THE 'MASSACRE' OF THE CHAMP DE MARS
WD IN ACT ION THE REVOLUTIONARY CRO
to qualify these peaceful peti Perhaps we should hesitate the d'. Yet, in a wider sense, tioners as a 'revolutionary crow inly of interest to our present certa is term is apposite; and it composed and from which study to inquire how they were e. The direct evidence on this parts of the capital they cam than in the case of the October point, though more plentiful ng the 6,000 signatures col insurrection, is rather slight. Amo military, the organizers claimed lected before the arrival of the municipal were those of that more than Roux, and ez Buch , hand r othe officers, and e1ectors.1 On the fire in by n uctio destr its re befo ion who saw the completed petit qui gens de est tures signa des e mass r871 , maintained that 'la en cont ted, in support of their savaient a peine lire'. and poin ts.a shee ion aring on the petit tion, to the many crosses appe y mar custo with wrote of the demonstrators Again, Lt s�ait ne , crois je un, . . . pas venom : 'Parmi tous ces hommes
2,000
gardn naJionaux,
Babillard
lire.'l in the highly partisan Even if we aUow for exaggeration the uncertainty of the and account presented by u s, we should perhaps si analy l socia literacy test as a guide to ence that the demonstrators accept Buchez's and Roux's infer er sections ofthe Parisian were composed in the main ofthe poor rmed by the few surviving population. Such a picture is confi h directly relate to par documents in the Paris archives whic instance the report ticipants in the demonstration. For killed in the, �� :�; those on pared by municipal officer Filleul Caillou � i Gros the in de Mars and examined by him corpses, ed identifi nine of Hospital nearby reveals that, 'a skirt with an wom a of one n, eyme were of workshop journ of a were s other while s', piece many of many colours and of two saddler, a wine-merchant's son, and of the Paris ts repor e polic The eois.4 bourg dressed a cobbler of the mention only one corpse, that of issariat of the Palais Section brought to the police comm . n register of the Hotel de priso on 17 July S Unfortunately the one of the twelve, only of Force gives the occupation : he was an abbi, I itself Mars de p arrested in the Cham
Babillard
�
>�:�::
, UI RioolulWns tk Ptuis, loc. dt. , U BdiUarIl, no. xxxvi, 19July
4 Arch. Nat.. W !l94. no. !l3.5.
• Buchez ct Roux, op. cit., xi. 113· 1791, p. 4. ' Arch. PrH. Poi., N 85, rol. 768.
91
by name.1 Of thuse arrested in the Sections after the demon_ . strauon, the only five who admitted having been in the Champ de Mars that afternoon were a cook, a tailo' " a J'ourneyman cab'met-maker, a cafe-waiter, and an unemployed boot-black.' . O� these the boot-black descnbed the resistance offered to the . , �tary by tow les ouvriers perruquiers et autres'; and the m taI lor, as we alrea�y �w, claimed 'qu'on tirait sur les ouvriers llle . Further evidence of the attendance of comme de la vola wa�e-earners at the Champ de Man is suggested by u report that po!1-workers had visited journeymen in their lodgmgs !o bring them along to the demonstra �or�hops an� l bon, and B� rette-Vemeres, when accwed of inciting OUmlerS assemble In the champ de Mars, replied 'qu'it est laux ' . . .
BaMI
lard.r (0
parce que ceux auxquels iI aurait preche (?) etaient prets a y entrer'.4 . We have,. besid�, the far more considerable, though largely clrcumstantlal, e Vldence of the police commissionen' re rts and the prison register of the Hotel de la Force, relating
k all
to �me penons arrested for political offences in the Paris Sectlons 10 the months preceding and following the ChamP d Mars demonstration.s Admittedly these cannot furnish an
�50
;
cle�� proofofattendance or ofwillingness to sign the Cordeliers' peuuon; but they provide a rich source for the study of the popular move�ent of the period and of the classes ofpeople and parts of the �apl�al that were drawn into the political movement I that had as ts climax the petition and demonstration of 1 7 July
Onl� a handful of these persons were arrested for remarh �ha� �ght, even remotely, be construed as counter-revolution_ ry? �� nearly every case they were charged with abusing or �nt1C1zmg the administration, the National Guard or Lafoay'tte ID person 10 . terms whic • ' fluence exerted h reveal the m by the dlemocrats and popular societies on the small tradesmen, craftsIl en, and wage-earners of Paris during this period. Thus, of , Arch. Prff. Pot. Ab 3!1ot. p. 60. ""r, "°l., Ab 3!14. pp. 33, 38; A. 148, fol. 30; !l1.5, fol. ,"". IS!I , fol ..Y.;J. 312 ' 'h' N.l.t T (, !l14' ' u BdiUlITII, no. xxxvi, 19 July 1191. Arch. Nat F' 4623, rol. lot. Arch. Pr6. Pol' A. 56 7!1, 74, 76 A. 85, 134, '37, l.a. 1.53, 155. 157. 166. ,' �' 167, 17!1, 173. 18!1 I" , !lOS. !lIS, !II , !llg, !120, 2!14, !l39'' Ab ..., pp . � • �. . ,. A few .... " CIUCt appalt in Arch Nat., ...., dlIl.ona W !l94, no. !l35 (Bailly papcn) ; . T �14� (prvn.,..... Bern ani'. papcn), and DXXIXb, nos. 34 and 36 (Comit� I
:
�
,
52 •
•
••
.•
•
d� R�bcrcbQ).
9:1
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
persons arrested between 14 April and 15 July 1 791, and for whom details ofoccupation are available, 34 were �age.eame.rs. both employed and unemployed; the rest were, In the mam, shopkeepers, workshop masters, or independent craftsmen. Of another 186 persons arrested between 16July and 15 November (the great majority for criticizing the Na�onal Guard or the administration for the violence used against the Champ de Mars petitioners), were wage-earners; while the rest were petty employers, craftsmen, an other small property-own�rs. This evidence, indirect though It be, seems to support th� W!W already suggested by a perusal of the docume?� directly relating to the Champs de Mars affair, that the peuuoners and demonstrators of 1 7 July were typical of the mmu peuplt-trades men, craftsmen, and wage_earners-that made up th� b k of lStncts of the population of theJaubou s and crowded central d the city. . ' tho Which parts of the capital were, in fact, I�VO1ved In � movement? k far as the Champ de M�rs rally IS con�erned It was certainly the intention of the orgamz�rs to mak� It an all Paris affair. While the Cordeliers Club Itself was In the rue Dauphine on the Left Bank, the rallying-point for the and societies was the Porte Saint-Antoine, and the pe?tlon of 16 July, which issued the first call to a dem?ostratlon, was canvassed in places as widely apart as the rue Samt�Honon� th � Porte Saint-Martin, and the rue du Faubourg SalOt-Antome. How far this object was realized it is hard to tell from the com paratively few documents directly relating to attcndance at the Champ de Mars. Yet, evenfrom these, one stri ng fact emerges: the poor response given to the demonstratlon by the F�u bourg Saint-Antoine. Lafayette had filled the Pla.ce d� la Bastll e with troops, and this may well be why FourDier l'! found so few people assembled there early that . e. but Primery, the commissioner appointed by the S Halles, not only found a poor attendance at the rallymg-pelOt, when he tned to but met with little response in the arouse interest.l The distance from the Champ de . three and a half miles, as the crow flies, from the Porte Samt-
102
�
�l
rg
c1�?,
�
�
����;��� �u!t ,
faubourg
I Arch. Pr
no. 37:1, fols. 7-10. o
W RiIlOl�liON tit PllrU,
no. cvi; Arch. PrH. Pol., A2. 2;20, fol. 142:·
THE 'MASSACRE' OF THE CHAMP DE
MARS " Antoine :-may have played some part; again, the withdr awal of ]acobm support m y hav e influenced many-for exa � mple, Santerre, whose behaVIOur appeared to Fournier to be evasive.I Yet an examination of the indirect evidence of the poli ce reports ��ggests that was relatively little involved in the political movement of the whole period : of som e 240 persons arrested between April and November and whose ' addr:sses are given, only ten resided in the Faubourg Sai nt A tolOe, of whom but thre � e in Santerre's Section, the Quinze Vmgts. Admittedly there are conside rable gaps in the records wh ich may produce a false picture . : the relevant police repor have SUrviVed for only twenty-fiv e of the forty-eight Paris Sec tions. et we ca� red ess the balance somewhat by adding the info � rma bO� contamed m the police regi ster of the Hotel de la Force, to which nearly 130 of the pris oners were committed ' besi des ' the Sections in hich the arre sts were made were, in ma � . n cas:s, not those m which the arrested persons lived. On . the basIS of thIS combined evidenc e we find that these 240 Par isians either killed in the Champ de Mars or arrested over the who' peri under review, were drawn from no less than forty-s�ven ecbons--only the lIe-Saint-Lo uis is not aCCOunted for. Thi s �s in itselfstriking proofof the wide dissemination of the pol itic al Id�as o the democrats among the menu peup/e of the capital ; and, thIS bemg the case, we ma y perhaps assume that sup porters flocked t� the Champ de Ma rs from every part of the city . The e dence does not suggest , however, that this support . was evenly d IStnbuted ; we saw already that the Faubourg Saint . Antom e was lukewarm in its resp onse. Not surprisingly the most conccntrated body of support appears to have com e from a number of Sections on the Left Bank and not far dist ant from the Cordeliers Club itse lf: in this quarter three Sec tions alone (Quatre Nations, Thermes de Julien, and Sainte.Gene vieve) account for thirty-eight arrests. Another fifty arreste d persons wer� from the five cen tral and north-central Sec tions of the Arcls, Ponceau, GravilJ iers, Louvre, and Oratoire. The se appear to have been the two main areas of support. Th e crowded central districts betwee n the Hotel de Ville and the Louvre had as lJsual, made a substantial contribution to a movement wit
thefaubourg
�
�
;
�
;
�
�
';l
I Crinus de L4 FaftlU tot Franc t (printed telll, 1791). Arch. Nat. , F' 6504.
h
9:1
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
persons arrested between 14 April and 15 July 1 791, and for whom details ofoccupation are available, 34 were �age.eame.rs. both employed and unemployed; the rest were, In the mam, shopkeepers, workshop masters, or independent craftsmen. Of another 186 persons arrested between 16July and 15 November (the great majority for criticizing the Na�onal Guard or the administration for the violence used against the Champ de Mars petitioners), were wage-earners; while the rest were petty employers, craftsmen, an other small property-own�rs. This evidence, indirect though It be, seems to support th� W!W already suggested by a perusal of the docume?� directly relating to the Champs de Mars affair, that the peuuoners and demonstrators of 1 7 July were typical of the mmu peuplt-trades men, craftsmen, and wage_earners-that made up th� b k of lStncts of the population of theJaubou s and crowded central d the city. . ' tho Which parts of the capital were, in fact, I�VO1ved In � movement? k far as the Champ de M�rs rally IS con�erned It was certainly the intention of the orgamz�rs to mak� It an all Paris affair. While the Cordeliers Club Itself was In the rue Dauphine on the Left Bank, the rallying-point for the and societies was the Porte Saint-Antoine, and the pe?tlon of 16 July, which issued the first call to a dem?ostratlon, was canvassed in places as widely apart as the rue Samt�Honon� th � Porte Saint-Martin, and the rue du Faubourg SalOt-Antome. How far this object was realized it is hard to tell from the com paratively few documents directly relating to attcndance at the Champ de Mars. Yet, evenfrom these, one stri ng fact emerges: the poor response given to the demonstratlon by the F�u bourg Saint-Antoine. Lafayette had filled the Pla.ce d� la Bastll e with troops, and this may well be why FourDier l'! found so few people assembled there early that . e. but Primery, the commissioner appointed by the S Halles, not only found a poor attendance at the rallymg-pelOt, when he tned to but met with little response in the arouse interest.l The distance from the Champ de . three and a half miles, as the crow flies, from the Porte Samt-
102
�
�l
rg
c1�?,
�
�
����;��� �u!t ,
faubourg
I Arch. Pr
no. 37:1, fols. 7-10. o
W RiIlOl�liON tit PllrU,
no. cvi; Arch. PrH. Pol., A2. 2;20, fol. 142:·
THE 'MASSACRE' OF THE CHAMP DE
MARS " Antoine :-may have played some part; again, the withdr awal of ]acobm support m y hav e influenced many-for exa � mple, Santerre, whose behaVIOur appeared to Fournier to be evasive.I Yet an examination of the indirect evidence of the poli ce reports ��ggests that was relatively little involved in the political movement of the whole period : of som e 240 persons arrested between April and November and whose ' addr:sses are given, only ten resided in the Faubourg Sai nt A tolOe, of whom but thre � e in Santerre's Section, the Quinze Vmgts. Admittedly there are conside rable gaps in the records wh ich may produce a false picture . : the relevant police repor have SUrviVed for only twenty-fiv e of the forty-eight Paris Sec tions. et we ca� red ess the balance somewhat by adding the info � rma bO� contamed m the police regi ster of the Hotel de la Force, to which nearly 130 of the pris oners were committed ' besi des ' the Sections in hich the arre sts were made were, in ma � . n cas:s, not those m which the arrested persons lived. On . the basIS of thIS combined evidenc e we find that these 240 Par isians either killed in the Champ de Mars or arrested over the who' peri under review, were drawn from no less than forty-s�ven ecbons--only the lIe-Saint-Lo uis is not aCCOunted for. Thi s �s in itselfstriking proofof the wide dissemination of the pol itic al Id�as o the democrats among the menu peup/e of the capital ; and, thIS bemg the case, we ma y perhaps assume that sup porters flocked t� the Champ de Ma rs from every part of the city . The e dence does not suggest , however, that this support . was evenly d IStnbuted ; we saw already that the Faubourg Saint . Antom e was lukewarm in its resp onse. Not surprisingly the most conccntrated body of support appears to have com e from a number of Sections on the Left Bank and not far dist ant from the Cordeliers Club itse lf: in this quarter three Sec tions alone (Quatre Nations, Thermes de Julien, and Sainte.Gene vieve) account for thirty-eight arrests. Another fifty arreste d persons wer� from the five cen tral and north-central Sec tions of the Arcls, Ponceau, GravilJ iers, Louvre, and Oratoire. The se appear to have been the two main areas of support. Th e crowded central districts betwee n the Hotel de Ville and the Louvre had as lJsual, made a substantial contribution to a movement wit
thefaubourg
�
�
;
�
;
�
�
';l
I Crinus de L4 FaftlU tot Franc t (printed telll, 1791). Arch. Nat. , F' 6504.
h
D IN ACTION TIONARY CROW TH E REVOLU
9-t.
r interest appeal; but what is of greate more than a purely local po rg Saint ou ub cal scene of the Fa bourg is the emergence on the sliti tJau tha of s before, the citizen ini Marcel. Only a few monthparti adm city the praise by ar cul for out d gle sin n had bee r since the l and orderly behaviour eveer stration for their peacefuon to be re nev s wa n tio is reputa Th ,' uti vol Re the of eak tbr ou to remain Faubourg Saint-Marcel wasper iod, gained: from now on, the po litical commotion of the can have in the forefront in every sup and price of bread rs We have seen that the ply Ma de p am ting support for the Ch ocrats, It played little part in stimula dem cal activities of the had petition or for the other politi er the political movementgon aft e e only reappeared as an issu d ha or ed est ders had been arr d an st been crushed and its leaho rve ha d ba a to wever, owing an abroad, In mid-August, ur, the price of the 4-1b. loaf beg fio of d che the bakers' shortage s, by September, to have rea fJOlu once more to rise and appear Rl la urnal de l On 7 September Le Jostil at ion 1 2 SOlIS, or even more, ept rec iny had been given a ho e' eand forced to non reported that Ba d with 'la lantern the corn_market, threatenePin , a button-maker, was arrestt ed to withdraw) The next day, ingche the central markets, and sen ou s sol in the Mail Secllon, adjoin x deu a is ns:a fra t Ie pain the Force for saying: 'II nous fau ce, se battre.'4 cal movement had spent itsstafor a ge But by this time the politiriti uld that the poor wo re we and the fears of the authothe es ter ugh Champ de Mars sla May or spectacular vengeance forthe bre ad crisis appeared in not to be realized,S Had otherwise and the :ssue of the Champ June, it might have been decisive, As it was, the police agent de Man affair been more ort to the Assembly's Comite des Delaborde was able to rep jouit toujours d'un grand Recherches on 9 August: 'Paris calme.'6 1 I'ordre e't a la sion d'l.ppll.udirdam �ilit , . . cette occa l'.!tenduc du • 'Le Corps municipal ion olut R.!v II. uis dep nt casr
•
,
VII THE FALL O F THE MONARCHY
HE
king's illght to Varennes' though 1'18 Imme . d'late effects , a�t�mp18 to �o�et and for were masked by the Assembl�� give and to unite the nation n e Constitution of.1 79 I, ad h far-r�aching consequences, In Augus�, �e ?curts ofVienna and Berhn, incited by the French Imlgres, Issued the joint Declaration ofPiIlnitz with the purpose ofrallying the European ' Powers against the Reva1uUon · Though' not IOvo ' lvlOg Great any l. �med'late armed intervention' the' De arauon both served to umte the forces of counter-revolution at orne and abroad by : m :�d �rovided the new Left within giving them the Assembly, �:��e� ;�� Bnssot and the deputies of the Gironde, with the necessa text to prepare the nation for an offensive crusade agai�st��e crowned heads of Europe. , economic �heir agitation, added to . the. effects of mternai difficulties, met with enthUSI�tlC response among the militants in the Paris Sections ' and, w en war broke out in April 1 792, it had the overwhel�in� su�p�rt of th� political democrats (Robespierre was at fiTSt n a e �xceptlon) and the Parisian IMIU peuple. This state ' of :ev�Iutlonary el�tion was further , �, and the stimulated by military defeat e ef�ects of mHauo growing conviction that the. c�u h gUided by the partl autrithien, was using the war to invelgI� t e en�my into destroying the Revolution by military fi°rce. t was thiS combination offactoTS which, in the spring and summer of 1792, kept the popular ' movem ent in almost contmuous effervescence, cuImmating in ' . Its Overthrow of the . mona"hy 10 ' August and the massacres carried out in the pnsons 0r pans 10 September. I onee more as in 1789, it �� the economic crisis that first drew the men� peupie mto aCtiVity ' but? th" time, It. was not ' so much a shorta f wheat or fl?ur as mflation that forced up ?rices and prov��� popular dISturbance. The war was to lOtenSify thIS ' process; yet, long before its outbreak' the value or , .. For . ..cII. r ��:t���� g;;fi Und to. this chapter and the main lCquenee ofev<:nts G I e rllllflllU, pp. 2'7-.56.
T
�
a
� .
.
IS
ot.:
D IN ACTION TIONARY CROW TH E REVOLU
9-t.
r interest appeal; but what is of greate more than a purely local po rg Saint ou ub cal scene of the Fa bourg is the emergence on the sliti tJau tha of s before, the citizen ini Marcel. Only a few monthparti adm city the praise by ar cul for out d gle sin n had bee r since the l and orderly behaviour eveer stration for their peacefuon to be re nev s wa n tio is reputa Th ,' uti vol Re the of eak tbr ou to remain Faubourg Saint-Marcel wasper iod, gained: from now on, the po litical commotion of the can have in the forefront in every sup and price of bread rs We have seen that the ply Ma de p am ting support for the Ch ocrats, It played little part in stimula dem cal activities of the had petition or for the other politi er the political movementgon aft e e only reappeared as an issu d ha or ed est ders had been arr d an st been crushed and its leaho rve ha d ba a to wever, owing an abroad, In mid-August, ur, the price of the 4-1b. loaf beg fio of d che the bakers' shortage s, by September, to have rea fJOlu once more to rise and appear Rl la urnal de l On 7 September Le Jostil at ion 1 2 SOlIS, or even more, ept rec iny had been given a ho e' eand forced to non reported that Ba d with 'la lantern the corn_market, threatenePin , a button-maker, was arrestt ed to withdraw) The next day, ingche the central markets, and sen ou s sol in the Mail Secllon, adjoin x deu a is ns:a fra t Ie pain the Force for saying: 'II nous fau ce, se battre.'4 cal movement had spent itsstafor a ge But by this time the politiriti uld that the poor wo re we and the fears of the authothe es ter ugh Champ de Mars sla May or spectacular vengeance forthe bre ad crisis appeared in not to be realized,S Had otherwise and the :ssue of the Champ June, it might have been decisive, As it was, the police agent de Man affair been more ort to the Assembly's Comite des Delaborde was able to rep jouit toujours d'un grand Recherches on 9 August: 'Paris calme.'6 1 I'ordre e't a la sion d'l.ppll.udirdam �ilit , . . cette occa l'.!tenduc du • 'Le Corps municipal ion olut R.!v II. uis dep nt casr
•
,
VII THE FALL O F THE MONARCHY
HE
king's illght to Varennes' though 1'18 Imme . d'late effects , a�t�mp18 to �o�et and for were masked by the Assembl�� give and to unite the nation n e Constitution of.1 79 I, ad h far-r�aching consequences, In Augus�, �e ?curts ofVienna and Berhn, incited by the French Imlgres, Issued the joint Declaration ofPiIlnitz with the purpose ofrallying the European ' Powers against the Reva1uUon · Though' not IOvo ' lvlOg Great any l. �med'late armed intervention' the' De arauon both served to umte the forces of counter-revolution at orne and abroad by : m :�d �rovided the new Left within giving them the Assembly, �:��e� ;�� Bnssot and the deputies of the Gironde, with the necessa text to prepare the nation for an offensive crusade agai�st��e crowned heads of Europe. , economic �heir agitation, added to . the. effects of mternai difficulties, met with enthUSI�tlC response among the militants in the Paris Sections ' and, w en war broke out in April 1 792, it had the overwhel�in� su�p�rt of th� political democrats (Robespierre was at fiTSt n a e �xceptlon) and the Parisian IMIU peuple. This state ' of :ev�Iutlonary el�tion was further , �, and the stimulated by military defeat e ef�ects of mHauo growing conviction that the. c�u h gUided by the partl autrithien, was using the war to invelgI� t e en�my into destroying the Revolution by military fi°rce. t was thiS combination offactoTS which, in the spring and summer of 1792, kept the popular ' movem ent in almost contmuous effervescence, cuImmating in ' . Its Overthrow of the . mona"hy 10 ' August and the massacres carried out in the pnsons 0r pans 10 September. I onee more as in 1789, it �� the economic crisis that first drew the men� peupie mto aCtiVity ' but? th" time, It. was not ' so much a shorta f wheat or fl?ur as mflation that forced up ?rices and prov��� popular dISturbance. The war was to lOtenSify thIS ' process; yet, long before its outbreak' the value or , .. For . ..cII. r ��:t���� g;;fi Und to. this chapter and the main lCquenee ofev<:nts G I e rllllflllU, pp. 2'7-.56.
T
�
a
� .
.
IS
ot.:
goG
\
WD IN ACTION THE REV OLU TION ARY CRO
exchange-rate of the the tzSsignat' had begun to decline and the ad. Selling at 70 abro French liure had begun to faU heavily June 1791 , the in don Lon per cent. of its nominal value in s, the assignat, Pari in ch; Mar in livre had fallen to 50 per cent. er 1791 , had emb Nov in e valu inal from 82 per cent. of its nom . in June cent per 57 to and 3ry Janu in declined to 63 pCT cent. outbreak of renewed 1 792.1 Yet the more immediate cause oflhe of sugar, and certain disturbance in the capital was a shortage civil war that had other colonial products, arising from the es in the West broken out between the planters and nativ few days from a in Indies. In January the price of sugar rose broke out in riots and d;l 22-25 sous to g litn'ts or 31 liures a poun t-Denis, Sain and rcel, t-Ma the Faubourg! Saint-Antoine, Sain g. The bour Beau and s illier Grav and in the central Sections of n for reaso real the that cejusti rioters, believing-with some by the merchants the shortage was the withholding of supplies xt rather than the and that colonial disturbance was the prete of some of the large cause, broke into the shops and warehouses sugar be sold at its wholesalers and dealers and demanded that d; while, in some former price of �o, ��, 24, or 26 sous a poun meat, wine, and d, brea districts, extending their operations to of roxatwn popu t emen mov other wares.• It was the first great 775· 1 of laire in the capital since the riots or January The police reports of the Paris Sections f the Section In ts. even these on light February throw some dozen women Beaubourg we learn that, on 20 January, a ent vetues' 'ayant l'air de femmes de marche, passablem r, in the Senio entered the shop of a wholesaler, Commard h were whic on list a Cloitre de Saint-Merry, and displayed rs esale whol and rs entered the names of certain deale rise in the the people held particularly responsible for the cd, was claim they dy, reme only of sugar and coffe e: the , Originally
ilsUIt,�U �;"j'���'_��-bari;"�' """�"�' '�O fi�":'"�"��,\;��;��; �; ...�''/:;:::,::
Church lancb, the Revolution and were " " I. , Mathie>:, Lc Vii tilt 'The Collapse or the French
he became t T N'
Mathiez, • For a general account ofthe dislurbanees ICe those in the Faubourg Saint_Marcel in dre menu des m�moires de Charles-Alexis Alexan April-June 19.5', pp, 148-6,· de 1191 e1 '79�', ,4"", hist, RJu.j,f>.1!f" no. 1::6,
(1916), pp. 300-14,
�::t.:�:��:j::;��:1�E�:;::::�
�
THE FALL OF THE MONARCHY
pi'IIage and bum their shops. Madame Commard h ' �ve ' had the resource to offer them money which theY 109 Y accepted as compensation for time lost " l b· bi �:�te�e � d part � acefulJy.' Three days later ' s op 0 a t y, a merchant grocer of the rue Sainte-Marguente , off the rue du Faubourg Samt-Anto ine, and compelled him to . seII the� sugar a� 2!> sour a pound; they explained to Dumont ' the pohce-commlsslOner of the Montreuil Sec·' ...on, que la subite augmentation du sucre les avait . d,ans la necCSSl'te , nus fair d' . r de faire cette demarche pou en e lI11muer e prIX et faire punir les accapareun. ' �e�nwhile. half a dozen grocers in the same Section had mi1a �y bee� m�lIed to sell sugar at a reduced price before I e National Guard, who cleared their pri a sh Another wave �f rioting broke out in February: in the Fau . bourg Samt-Antome, on the morning of the 14th the P r ere at first overwheimed-'l'insurr�ction e � a d e da g n a e ans e faubourg'-and over twenty grocers in the �e u Faubourg Saint-Antoine alone were threatened with mvas .on; several were forced to sell their sugar at 20 sow a e rd could be restored. At night cartloads of . Lyons were held up by crowds as the e ha un ror ed hr�ugh thefauhourg, and the authorities had to appe e at.lOn Guard to overcome their reluctance to protect t e merchants property.' a wh an ev:n more explosive situation had developed in au urg Samt-Marcel. Since the previous November two dyers, ;\uger and Monnery, of the Gobelins Section who had cog lz�d the potentialities of the rising market in ;ugar had en aytng up large stocks-it was said, 80,000 Ib -in � arehouse 1,0 the rue Saint-Hippolyte. In January a . rotest e o stratlon had been easily dispersed; but matters c me to a a when, �n 14 February, the rumour spread that the StDCks were gomg to be distributed all over Paris Crowds r. m d ea ly in the morning, seized the first loads of sugar as t y cfit t e warehouse under military escort, and sold them in
� ;i �
':���
�� r
! : ���
:� � � �: �� ::: :'����
� l � �� � � !:�� ����; � � f�� � � � �� � ::
;
� �� J
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.
i
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PrH, Pol., Aa 72, foJ. 54. PrM: Poi., Aa 173, foJ. 39,
• Ibid.
goG
\
WD IN ACTION THE REV OLU TION ARY CRO
exchange-rate of the the tzSsignat' had begun to decline and the ad. Selling at 70 abro French liure had begun to faU heavily June 1791 , the in don Lon per cent. of its nominal value in s, the assignat, Pari in ch; Mar in livre had fallen to 50 per cent. er 1791 , had emb Nov in e valu inal from 82 per cent. of its nom . in June cent per 57 to and 3ry Janu in declined to 63 pCT cent. outbreak of renewed 1 792.1 Yet the more immediate cause oflhe of sugar, and certain disturbance in the capital was a shortage civil war that had other colonial products, arising from the es in the West broken out between the planters and nativ few days from a in Indies. In January the price of sugar rose broke out in riots and d;l 22-25 sous to g litn'ts or 31 liures a poun t-Denis, Sain and rcel, t-Ma the Faubourg! Saint-Antoine, Sain g. The bour Beau and s illier Grav and in the central Sections of n for reaso real the that cejusti rioters, believing-with some by the merchants the shortage was the withholding of supplies xt rather than the and that colonial disturbance was the prete of some of the large cause, broke into the shops and warehouses sugar be sold at its wholesalers and dealers and demanded that d; while, in some former price of �o, ��, 24, or 26 sous a poun meat, wine, and d, brea districts, extending their operations to of roxatwn popu t emen mov other wares.• It was the first great 775· 1 of laire in the capital since the riots or January The police reports of the Paris Sections f the Section In ts. even these on light February throw some dozen women Beaubourg we learn that, on 20 January, a ent vetues' 'ayant l'air de femmes de marche, passablem r, in the Senio entered the shop of a wholesaler, Commard h were whic on list a Cloitre de Saint-Merry, and displayed rs esale whol and rs entered the names of certain deale rise in the the people held particularly responsible for the cd, was claim they dy, reme only of sugar and coffe e: the , Originally
ilsUIt,�U �;"j'���'_��-bari;"�' """�"�' '�O fi�":'"�"��,\;��;��; �; ...�''/:;:::,::
Church lancb, the Revolution and were " " I. , Mathie>:, Lc Vii tilt 'The Collapse or the French
he became t T N'
Mathiez, • For a general account ofthe dislurbanees ICe those in the Faubourg Saint_Marcel in dre menu des m�moires de Charles-Alexis Alexan April-June 19.5', pp, 148-6,· de 1191 e1 '79�', ,4"", hist, RJu.j,f>.1!f" no. 1::6,
(1916), pp. 300-14,
�::t.:�:��:j::;��:1�E�:;::::�
�
THE FALL OF THE MONARCHY
pi'IIage and bum their shops. Madame Commard h ' �ve ' had the resource to offer them money which theY 109 Y accepted as compensation for time lost " l b· bi �:�te�e � d part � acefulJy.' Three days later ' s op 0 a t y, a merchant grocer of the rue Sainte-Marguente , off the rue du Faubourg Samt-Anto ine, and compelled him to . seII the� sugar a� 2!> sour a pound; they explained to Dumont ' the pohce-commlsslOner of the Montreuil Sec·' ...on, que la subite augmentation du sucre les avait . d,ans la necCSSl'te , nus fair d' . r de faire cette demarche pou en e lI11muer e prIX et faire punir les accapareun. ' �e�nwhile. half a dozen grocers in the same Section had mi1a �y bee� m�lIed to sell sugar at a reduced price before I e National Guard, who cleared their pri a sh Another wave �f rioting broke out in February: in the Fau . bourg Samt-Antome, on the morning of the 14th the P r ere at first overwheimed-'l'insurr�ction e � a d e da g n a e ans e faubourg'-and over twenty grocers in the �e u Faubourg Saint-Antoine alone were threatened with mvas .on; several were forced to sell their sugar at 20 sow a e rd could be restored. At night cartloads of . Lyons were held up by crowds as the e ha un ror ed hr�ugh thefauhourg, and the authorities had to appe e at.lOn Guard to overcome their reluctance to protect t e merchants property.' a wh an ev:n more explosive situation had developed in au urg Samt-Marcel. Since the previous November two dyers, ;\uger and Monnery, of the Gobelins Section who had cog lz�d the potentialities of the rising market in ;ugar had en aytng up large stocks-it was said, 80,000 Ib -in � arehouse 1,0 the rue Saint-Hippolyte. In January a . rotest e o stratlon had been easily dispersed; but matters c me to a a when, �n 14 February, the rumour spread that the StDCks were gomg to be distributed all over Paris Crowds r. m d ea ly in the morning, seized the first loads of sugar as t y cfit t e warehouse under military escort, and sold them in
� ;i �
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;
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.
i
�� � � : Zen. ch.
PrH, Pol., Aa 72, foJ. 54. PrM: Poi., Aa 173, foJ. 39,
• Ibid.
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
g8
the street at 25 or 30 SQUS a pound,' This was f�llowed, �e ne.: day by attempts to break into the warehouse ltSelf, which w gua�ded, somewhat unwillingly, by a detachment of the local National Guard, Women, laundresses amo?g ,them, sounded the tocsin in the church of Saint-Marcel. ,ThlS, 10 tur?, had the effect ofstirring the Municipality into act.lOn, �nd Peuo�, newly elected mayor of Paris, arrived on the scene with a consl�erable armed force, which cleared the streets and too� pnsone�. Details of these and of other persons arrested dunng the dlS turbances appear in the police records: in January fourteen persons committed to the Conciergerie prison were composed mainly of craftsmen, journeymen, and labourers of the central Sections; in February five persons-ofwhom th�ee or fou: were women-were sent to the Conciergerie for takin� part m the events of the Faubourg Saint-Marcel.l The I:'�ners co� manded considerable local sympathy: a petition for thelr release' sent to the Legislative Assembly on 26 February, con tained the names of 150 local citizens, two of them clencs.3 It was the citizens of the twojaubourgs again who were to �lay the leading part in the next great popular demonstraUon, which took place at the Tuileries on 20 Ju�e the same year,· Ostensibly it was a purely political �ffair-Its pu�se w� to compel the king to accede to the WIShes �f �e .Pans Secbons . grow and Jacobin Club-yet it may well be that IrntaUon With ing economic hardship added to t�e numbers of �emonst�ato� that, on this occasion, filed menacmgly past LOUIS XVI m hIS own palace. Yet this is supposition. There we�e other, even . for discontent and dlsqUlet: the succes-more tangible, . the king's refusal to assent to the sion of military and providing for the 13 June the dismissal of the whom h� had been compelled, much against his will, to in Dumouriez's war government. This last act provided pretext for the demonstration of 20 June. On the �6th . received a request, signed by a small number of cluzens Gobelins Section, but purporting to represent the co:ll"oti,� So: Godechol, op. cil., pp. 1¥J-61. Arch. PrH. Po\., Aa 9 (arrestatioru), fob. 103 37, 1I00-�: ; • For a detailed account, sec: Laura B. Pfeiffer, The UprIsIng ofJune 20, Uniu.-sily $tuditJ �ftM Univ. QfN66raWJ (Lincoln), XII, 3 (July '912), pp. I
�
TH E FALL OF THE MONARCHY
99 wishc:s. of the Faubourgs Saint-Marcel and Sain t-A the Cltlzens of the twofauhourgs to be allowed to ntoine, for arms on the 20th, which marked the anniversary parade under Court Oath �f 1 789, in order to plant a tree of of the Tenni! liberty and to . to the Assembly prese�� a �eUtlOn and the king,l Neither the MUDlClpahty nor the Department Paris, to whom Petion forwarded the request, was willing of to cou nten anc e an armed demonstration; yet there were precedents: less tha n before, 2,000 inhabitants of the Saint-Marce three weeks l district had p�raded before the Assembly bearing an assortm � pitchforks, and firearms.l Pebon, himself a Gir ent of pikes, ondin trie to �emporize: while formally ur�ing the organizers to gi�e updthe Idea of an armed demonstratIon, he was anxious not to lose his �pularity in thef'!"hourgs. He therefore proposed as a com pro mIse, that the Nauonal Guard in the twofaubo urgs be allowed to parade arme� under �heir company comman ders-though not before the king ; their figh . t to bear arms shou ce?ed, as th� comm�nders had expressed the fearld be con might otherwl�e walk IOtO a trap.l As expected, the that they ment Ratly rejected the proposal; but it was nowParis Depart too late and the Gobelins Section, at least, refused to take any At 5 o'clock in the morning the call to arms had notice of it. in the Faubourg Saint-Marcel and, all along been sounded the Boulevard de J'Hopital, from the comer of the rue Mouff'et throng of citizens assembled, both members ard a motley Guard and others, men and women: accordin of th� National g to Petion's own account, 'Invalides, Gardes-Nationales, Piquiers , hommes non armes, femmes, enfants' Charles-Alexis Alexandre, the commander of the Gobelins battalion, which played � prominen t part in the day's events, . ructed by hIS had been Inst Sect to join forces with the Fau bourg Saint-Antoine contingention commanded by Santerre. He accordingly marched his men acro the Ite-Saint-Louis over the Pont �e la Toumel!e and the Ponsst Ma rie and linked up with Santerre to the rue Samt-Antoine. From here , under Santerre's : Arch. Nat. F' 4774'·, (o(s. 472-600 (P�tion papel"l) . .•
Godechot, op. cit., p. ,64. ' 'lJ, ttmoignent des d�fianca et des crainla de marcher .am arma' (Arch DU" ' 7 ; Piit:e. "/QlilJd d I'"",,, ,, ,, ,,," au l/Ojliin 17fp). Alexandre claimed creeli; Ih:' prOpoQl (Godcchol, pp. '712). • RIb. Nat ., nou... acq. fra",.., no. 2667 , fob. 4&-53.
(0:1., N
.
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
g8
the street at 25 or 30 SQUS a pound,' This was f�llowed, �e ne.: day by attempts to break into the warehouse ltSelf, which w gua�ded, somewhat unwillingly, by a detachment of the local National Guard, Women, laundresses amo?g ,them, sounded the tocsin in the church of Saint-Marcel. ,ThlS, 10 tur?, had the effect ofstirring the Municipality into act.lOn, �nd Peuo�, newly elected mayor of Paris, arrived on the scene with a consl�erable armed force, which cleared the streets and too� pnsone�. Details of these and of other persons arrested dunng the dlS turbances appear in the police records: in January fourteen persons committed to the Conciergerie prison were composed mainly of craftsmen, journeymen, and labourers of the central Sections; in February five persons-ofwhom th�ee or fou: were women-were sent to the Conciergerie for takin� part m the events of the Faubourg Saint-Marcel.l The I:'�ners co� manded considerable local sympathy: a petition for thelr release' sent to the Legislative Assembly on 26 February, con tained the names of 150 local citizens, two of them clencs.3 It was the citizens of the twojaubourgs again who were to �lay the leading part in the next great popular demonstraUon, which took place at the Tuileries on 20 Ju�e the same year,· Ostensibly it was a purely political �ffair-Its pu�se w� to compel the king to accede to the WIShes �f �e .Pans Secbons . grow and Jacobin Club-yet it may well be that IrntaUon With ing economic hardship added to t�e numbers of �emonst�ato� that, on this occasion, filed menacmgly past LOUIS XVI m hIS own palace. Yet this is supposition. There we�e other, even . for discontent and dlsqUlet: the succes-more tangible, . the king's refusal to assent to the sion of military and providing for the 13 June the dismissal of the whom h� had been compelled, much against his will, to in Dumouriez's war government. This last act provided pretext for the demonstration of 20 June. On the �6th . received a request, signed by a small number of cluzens Gobelins Section, but purporting to represent the co:ll"oti,� So: Godechol, op. cil., pp. 1¥J-61. Arch. PrH. Po\., Aa 9 (arrestatioru), fob. 103 37, 1I00-�: ; • For a detailed account, sec: Laura B. Pfeiffer, The UprIsIng ofJune 20, Uniu.-sily $tuditJ �ftM Univ. QfN66raWJ (Lincoln), XII, 3 (July '912), pp. I
�
TH E FALL OF THE MONARCHY
99 wishc:s. of the Faubourgs Saint-Marcel and Sain t-A the Cltlzens of the twofauhourgs to be allowed to ntoine, for arms on the 20th, which marked the anniversary parade under Court Oath �f 1 789, in order to plant a tree of of the Tenni! liberty and to . to the Assembly prese�� a �eUtlOn and the king,l Neither the MUDlClpahty nor the Department Paris, to whom Petion forwarded the request, was willing of to cou nten anc e an armed demonstration; yet there were precedents: less tha n before, 2,000 inhabitants of the Saint-Marce three weeks l district had p�raded before the Assembly bearing an assortm � pitchforks, and firearms.l Pebon, himself a Gir ent of pikes, ondin trie to �emporize: while formally ur�ing the organizers to gi�e updthe Idea of an armed demonstratIon, he was anxious not to lose his �pularity in thef'!"hourgs. He therefore proposed as a com pro mIse, that the Nauonal Guard in the twofaubo urgs be allowed to parade arme� under �heir company comman ders-though not before the king ; their figh . t to bear arms shou ce?ed, as th� comm�nders had expressed the fearld be con might otherwl�e walk IOtO a trap.l As expected, the that they ment Ratly rejected the proposal; but it was nowParis Depart too late and the Gobelins Section, at least, refused to take any At 5 o'clock in the morning the call to arms had notice of it. in the Faubourg Saint-Marcel and, all along been sounded the Boulevard de J'Hopital, from the comer of the rue Mouff'et throng of citizens assembled, both members ard a motley Guard and others, men and women: accordin of th� National g to Petion's own account, 'Invalides, Gardes-Nationales, Piquiers , hommes non armes, femmes, enfants' Charles-Alexis Alexandre, the commander of the Gobelins battalion, which played � prominen t part in the day's events, . ructed by hIS had been Inst Sect to join forces with the Fau bourg Saint-Antoine contingention commanded by Santerre. He accordingly marched his men acro the Ite-Saint-Louis over the Pont �e la Toumel!e and the Ponsst Ma rie and linked up with Santerre to the rue Samt-Antoine. From here , under Santerre's : Arch. Nat. F' 4774'·, (o(s. 472-600 (P�tion papel"l) . .•
Godechot, op. cit., p. ,64. ' 'lJ, ttmoignent des d�fianca et des crainla de marcher .am arma' (Arch DU" ' 7 ; Piit:e. "/QlilJd d I'"",,, ,, ,, ,,," au l/Ojliin 17fp). Alexandre claimed creeli; Ih:' prOpoQl (Godcchol, pp. '712). • RIb. Nat ., nou... acq. fra",.., no. 2667 , fob. 4&-53.
(0:1., N
.
100
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
force marched, witho�t encounten g command . a' the combined h the rue de la Verrene, the rue ;e5 o ������ :�� �; :Je Saint Hooore t.O the la n h ' g ts halted and awalted thPe ��s�� !:�:� � :�b;Y� ���; �ere invited to prese t their petition, and paraded befor� the deputies�nd;��rms�� pl ce that afternoon and The. more . notous scenes at evenlOg 10 the Tuileries have often been tald.l It appears that the Porte R yalei a �::::����o�h��;Ia had unaccounlr h ��is breach that the ably been Ie�t u o � � �emonstrato�, ea�ed by the citizens ofSaint-Antoine. strea.med lOto the Toya ap�rtments.3 And so until eight or ten at mght, a constant proceSSiOn fmen and w�men filed past the king who, having donned the �ap Of L"b l erty, was compelled to listen to the endlessly repeated sl�gan�,of the ur . 'A bas Ie veto!', 'Rappel des ministres patnotes. '. prob��IY intersPersed with . more homely or chaIIen.g�ng eplthets such as 'Gros Louis' d 'T mblez tyrans., VOICI les Sans-Culottes .1'4 Petion arrived II s a �: full :unicipa.1 regalia and m � though no promises 0f redressha� �:::��;, �h;��;�����:to� dis �Jee c f !I ��� :� � :�t knowledge of the in urge for lack of police reports or I�. ts of �em�ers :r;! �a���:� the. most Guard we have for ou.r )mpresslon of the . .too rely, �� ::;; to Junify o s The Pans Department, n np I d enera u � � oUf P�tion from office a fortnight later, thought fit Its suspension . the Nabona ' I Guard as to describe those not organized lD d t des hommes pour la plupart inconn� et sans etat de rebellion ouverte . . . et pann� iesquds,a:i:i q�: .i'���n�� . ment l'a demontre, it existait des bngands et des meies de femmes et d'enfants.s e o But this description, quite apart from i ob � s purpose, does not take us any further t�an ;e�i��rs �;� :;�n�� tion of them as 'polqUl'ers hommes non-armes, femmes et . , Godechot, op. CIt., 1 Arch. Nat., F' 4474'·, fol,. 47�-600· pp. I 73_�' . ., . . an ent'"" In .1 dated 20 June , The pollce rcglstc.r f the Seclion des Twenes, notes Ihe ,dfractlollll connatees a. luaieurl paries de l'appartement �u Pnnce 179�, Royal, ... celie de l'appartcment de Jad. fille du Roy el It. demo: armoIres danl l'intl!ricur dud;! app.artcment' (Arch. Prtr Pol Aa 26� fol. 31). • Godcchot, op. Cit., p. 176. ·Arch. Nat., F' 4774", foil. 47�-600. .
assasms s .
.
•
0
•
•
" enfants' that we noted earlier.1 From other accounts, howeve' r, it would appear that the mai impetus to the demonstration was given by the shopkeepers,nwor kshop masters, and artisans of the fauDourgs, with the full suppor of the journeymen and working women. In the Faubourg Saint t-A ntoine, for example, shOps and workshops remained closed for nea rly a week;1 and, in the Faubourg Saint-Marcel, it si evident from xandre's detailed relation of events that the main driving forcAle e was vided by the active citizens organized in the National Guapro from which most wage-earners and smaller property-ownerd, were at this time excluded. At the same time Alexandre rela rs an incident that both sho the active interest taken in tes cvent by the working womws en of the f(wDourg and provides the an interesting link with the grocery s of the previous February: when an order was sent out for hisriot arrest in connexion with the demonstration, the bearer wasown nea rly ched and he was saved from arrest by some of the same womlyn en inst whom, a few months previously, he had defended the proaga per ties ofAuger and Monnery.3 It is simple enough, in rctrospect, to present the eve of 1 0 August, when the Tuileri es Was captured by armed nts forc and the king suspended from offi ce, as the logical and inevitablee outcome of the humiliation inflicte d on the monarchy in June. In one sense it is true enough : the ant i-royalist agitation in the fauDourgs persisted and, in the course of July, both gained local momentum and spread to the other Section s: by the end of the month, forty-seven of them had declared for abdication. Be sides, the dignity ofthe king's office, despite his per lay of courage, had bee y undermined; the fedsoneraall disp vol un teers, too, who werentosevplaerel a prominent part in the attack on the Tuileries, had alreadyy bee ited to the capital ; and, perhaps even more important, na inv sma ll group of determined Republicans had long decided to follow skirmish of20June with a more decisive, andup the preliminary final, blow when a , Oth THE FAL L OF THE MO NA RCH Y
er accounts refer to 'un fort de la halle. arm� d'un sabre' BB" '7) and (Arch. Nat., to 'un homme couvert d'un hab it d�ch;r�' (Godcchot, loe. cit.) t�', " , ofCOUTS<: ; but , very little 10 go by One oflhe more suggestive descripti . gwen by some of ons is that the Tuileries sen.·ants, who clai med to have rccogn,�ed among demqrutrato,." 'Ies gellll de Mr. d'Orl�anset parlanl des mOUlltac 4387. doa. hcs' (Arch. Nat., • Arch. Nal., F' fo[s. Godochol, op. c't., p.
��
�). 4774",
47�-600.
'
'79.
100
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
force marched, witho�t encounten g command . a' the combined h the rue de la Verrene, the rue ;e5 o ������ :�� �; :Je Saint Hooore t.O the la n h ' g ts halted and awalted thPe ��s�� !:�:� � :�b;Y� ���; �ere invited to prese t their petition, and paraded befor� the deputies�nd;��rms�� pl ce that afternoon and The. more . notous scenes at evenlOg 10 the Tuileries have often been tald.l It appears that the Porte R yalei a �::::����o�h��;Ia had unaccounlr h ��is breach that the ably been Ie�t u o � � �emonstrato�, ea�ed by the citizens ofSaint-Antoine. strea.med lOto the Toya ap�rtments.3 And so until eight or ten at mght, a constant proceSSiOn fmen and w�men filed past the king who, having donned the �ap Of L"b l erty, was compelled to listen to the endlessly repeated sl�gan�,of the ur . 'A bas Ie veto!', 'Rappel des ministres patnotes. '. prob��IY intersPersed with . more homely or chaIIen.g�ng eplthets such as 'Gros Louis' d 'T mblez tyrans., VOICI les Sans-Culottes .1'4 Petion arrived II s a �: full :unicipa.1 regalia and m � though no promises 0f redressha� �:::��;, �h;��;�����:to� dis �Jee c f !I ��� :� � :�t knowledge of the in urge for lack of police reports or I�. ts of �em�ers :r;! �a���:� the. most Guard we have for ou.r )mpresslon of the . .too rely, �� ::;; to Junify o s The Pans Department, n np I d enera u � � oUf P�tion from office a fortnight later, thought fit Its suspension . the Nabona ' I Guard as to describe those not organized lD d t des hommes pour la plupart inconn� et sans etat de rebellion ouverte . . . et pann� iesquds,a:i:i q�: .i'���n�� . ment l'a demontre, it existait des bngands et des meies de femmes et d'enfants.s e o But this description, quite apart from i ob � s purpose, does not take us any further t�an ;e�i��rs �;� :;�n�� tion of them as 'polqUl'ers hommes non-armes, femmes et . , Godechot, op. CIt., 1 Arch. Nat., F' 4474'·, fol,. 47�-600· pp. I 73_�' . ., . . an ent'"" In .1 dated 20 June , The pollce rcglstc.r f the Seclion des Twenes, notes Ihe ,dfractlollll connatees a. luaieurl paries de l'appartement �u Pnnce 179�, Royal, ... celie de l'appartcment de Jad. fille du Roy el It. demo: armoIres danl l'intl!ricur dud;! app.artcment' (Arch. Prtr Pol Aa 26� fol. 31). • Godcchot, op. Cit., p. 176. ·Arch. Nat., F' 4774", foil. 47�-600. .
assasms s .
.
•
0
•
•
" enfants' that we noted earlier.1 From other accounts, howeve' r, it would appear that the mai impetus to the demonstration was given by the shopkeepers,nwor kshop masters, and artisans of the fauDourgs, with the full suppor of the journeymen and working women. In the Faubourg Saint t-A ntoine, for example, shOps and workshops remained closed for nea rly a week;1 and, in the Faubourg Saint-Marcel, it si evident from xandre's detailed relation of events that the main driving forcAle e was vided by the active citizens organized in the National Guapro from which most wage-earners and smaller property-ownerd, were at this time excluded. At the same time Alexandre rela rs an incident that both sho the active interest taken in tes cvent by the working womws en of the f(wDourg and provides the an interesting link with the grocery s of the previous February: when an order was sent out for hisriot arrest in connexion with the demonstration, the bearer wasown nea rly ched and he was saved from arrest by some of the same womlyn en inst whom, a few months previously, he had defended the proaga per ties ofAuger and Monnery.3 It is simple enough, in rctrospect, to present the eve of 1 0 August, when the Tuileri es Was captured by armed nts forc and the king suspended from offi ce, as the logical and inevitablee outcome of the humiliation inflicte d on the monarchy in June. In one sense it is true enough : the ant i-royalist agitation in the fauDourgs persisted and, in the course of July, both gained local momentum and spread to the other Section s: by the end of the month, forty-seven of them had declared for abdication. Be sides, the dignity ofthe king's office, despite his per lay of courage, had bee y undermined; the fedsoneraall disp vol un teers, too, who werentosevplaerel a prominent part in the attack on the Tuileries, had alreadyy bee ited to the capital ; and, perhaps even more important, na inv sma ll group of determined Republicans had long decided to follow skirmish of20June with a more decisive, andup the preliminary final, blow when a , Oth THE FAL L OF THE MO NA RCH Y
er accounts refer to 'un fort de la halle. arm� d'un sabre' BB" '7) and (Arch. Nat., to 'un homme couvert d'un hab it d�ch;r�' (Godcchot, loe. cit.) t�', " , ofCOUTS<: ; but , very little 10 go by One oflhe more suggestive descripti . gwen by some of ons is that the Tuileries sen.·ants, who clai med to have rccogn,�ed among demqrutrato,." 'Ies gellll de Mr. d'Orl�anset parlanl des mOUlltac 4387. doa. hcs' (Arch. Nat., • Arch. Nal., F' fo[s. Godochol, op. c't., p.
��
�). 4774",
47�-600.
'
'79.
-
THE FALL OF THE MONARCHY
WD IN ACTION THE RE.VOLUTIONARY CRO
h ld arise So much appears 'dent �avou;::�:;:�t�;�.Zu��: r Amerlcain who, having been sent rom tVl
I'
_ l'
is at Charenton on ' uer WIth the leaders of the Maneilla to COl their arrival on 29 July, told them et u'il u arat?ire avait ete Jete Ie qu'un grand coup prep 2f is:it a :'ns a� p ce que . o a't nu et l PIus question que d achever iIe rui que de sa farm ai , roi mme no u 'd d' IVI I" m . de arer 'tmp S 1I er a ..1. Ui nLD q bnga et du chateau toUS les scelerats t h s royal� e� dc ,' vage escla leur et is as r�� totate des franlia consplraU!n a pe is an incomplete on�. F r Yet, thus presented' the picture mona��y 10 t�e · . while the agitation against the onc thmg ' s and omposl110n of the Sections was a constant factor, the rum threatem��g th� kiog WI'th leaders were not. The initiative in the GJrondms,, Robes removaI from office had been taken by . ders 0f the Mountain (as th-p err and the other topmost lea played no part l dinjacobins begain to be called) had 1 on- 'ron of the day at hero the still ' of '0 June. Pelon was relr . ? m the aua was It d an ; july ? Iy after the Festival of the Federation on 14 �c ocla s the at med mid-july, when the Girondins, alar . de ienc 0��; back In l � quences of their own actions, drew the leadership of the over took monarchy, that the Mountain Robespierre stressed july of end movement; yet, even at the a 0f 'the Constitution as . hat the future of the monarchy, as nu v l ele ted Con hole, should be decided by a .popular � m, t� �ona c�y s��i Aga .1 uon rrec insu ed rather than by arm of re�o utlOnS �rom the had im rtant cards to play : a stream to the kmg,s p.ers::'n. �om DePart nts denounced the affront atures of 'active cItIzens nutted on 20 June," 10 Pan's 20,000 sign est ; th� c.o�mander prot of . were quickly collected for a petition ofl� dIVISlonaI com ral seve in-chief of the National Guard and rg �amt-Marcel) . manders (including that of the Faubou IVed by the rece well was e yett ,., g" men', Lafa avowed IUn d ' ose prop he n whe ne, tive Assembly on 28ju only and ts, ocra dem the .. be taken to destroy the Panslan Ii his chance of mobilizmg a large part of. ms: the queen, or Guard for a coup deforce against thejacob .J but, even help with characteristic folly, refused his •
.
.
.
.
•
•
t'
_
�
�
:
�
•
•
, Mlmmrls $lads ,J, FOInin ,., Am/rica;lI. z
Lefebvre, <:>p. cil., p. 246.
1<:>3
Lafayette's failure and return to the anny, the initiative still often remained with the 'loyalists'. Petion was suspended from office early in July (though, admittedly. he was reinstated a week later); young men of the western Sections showed some determination to uphold the monarchy by volunteering for defence duties at the Tuileries; 'loyalist' battalions of the National Guard even felt secure enough to beat up peaceful crowds in the Tuileries Gardens;1 while the air was thick with rumours of impending punitive measures against 'patriots', and a flood of denunciations of royalist 'conspiracies' poured into the Pam Commune and Department of Police.z That such matters were taken seriously by 'patriots'. and even by more or less uncommitted neutrals, is clear from the of Alexandre for this period. Alexandre himself, although a royalist who had been a lukewarm-if not, unwill. jng-participant in the events of 20 june, was drawn by the fear of a counter-revolutionary coup, which he considered im minent, into active support for the insurrection of 10 August) Such fears were, of course, given only too real a substance by the Brunswick Manifesto of I August, which threatened the Parisian Sections and National Guard with summary ven. geance, should the invaders find them arms in hand. In this sense, then, the August revolution, far from being the logical outcome of a consistently conceived and conducted plan of operations, was an act ofself-defence against dangers, both real and imagined.4 By the last week inJuly, however, a more or less decided plan of action had taken shape; and the outbreak of 10 August was the climax to a series of false starts. In the night of 26-27 July there was a call to arms by federal volunteers parading in the Montreuil Section of the Faubourg Saint-Antoine; ouoritrs sounded the tocsin at the church of Sainte-Marguerite; Santerre was pulled out of bed; and workshops remained closed next day.s On the 30th additional impetus was given to the
Mbrwires
, Arch. Pr6. P<:>I., Aa 226, r<:>l. 30. • Arch. Nat., F" 4387, dOlI. 2. • GOOcch<:>t, op. cit., pp. 187-121. � the passage: 'La Cour c<:>ntinua.it I� manoeuvres sourdes, ses perstcutiolU et ICS calom nies, en attendant qu'c\le put leur faire une guern: plus s�riemc . . . landis que Ie parti contraire Ie lenait sur la dHc'}Iivc, mail avec I'intention tr':l pronon ce de la soutenir vigoureuscme nt' (op. cit., pp. • 87-8). • Lefebvre, op. cit., p. 247. J Arch. Pr�f. Pol., Aa 220, foJ. 63. .
c
.
•
-
THE FALL OF THE MONARCHY
WD IN ACTION THE RE.VOLUTIONARY CRO
h ld arise So much appears 'dent �avou;::�:;:�t�;�.Zu��: r Amerlcain who, having been sent rom tVl
I'
_ l'
is at Charenton on ' uer WIth the leaders of the Maneilla to COl their arrival on 29 July, told them et u'il u arat?ire avait ete Jete Ie qu'un grand coup prep 2f is:it a :'ns a� p ce que . o a't nu et l PIus question que d achever iIe rui que de sa farm ai , roi mme no u 'd d' IVI I" m . de arer 'tmp S 1I er a ..1. Ui nLD q bnga et du chateau toUS les scelerats t h s royal� e� dc ,' vage escla leur et is as r�� totate des franlia consplraU!n a pe is an incomplete on�. F r Yet, thus presented' the picture mona��y 10 t�e · . while the agitation against the onc thmg ' s and omposl110n of the Sections was a constant factor, the rum threatem��g th� kiog WI'th leaders were not. The initiative in the GJrondms,, Robes removaI from office had been taken by . ders 0f the Mountain (as th-p err and the other topmost lea played no part l dinjacobins begain to be called) had 1 on- 'ron of the day at hero the still ' of '0 June. Pelon was relr . ? m the aua was It d an ; july ? Iy after the Festival of the Federation on 14 �c ocla s the at med mid-july, when the Girondins, alar . de ienc 0��; back In l � quences of their own actions, drew the leadership of the over took monarchy, that the Mountain Robespierre stressed july of end movement; yet, even at the a 0f 'the Constitution as . hat the future of the monarchy, as nu v l ele ted Con hole, should be decided by a .popular � m, t� �ona c�y s��i Aga .1 uon rrec insu ed rather than by arm of re�o utlOnS �rom the had im rtant cards to play : a stream to the kmg,s p.ers::'n. �om DePart nts denounced the affront atures of 'active cItIzens nutted on 20 June," 10 Pan's 20,000 sign est ; th� c.o�mander prot of . were quickly collected for a petition ofl� dIVISlonaI com ral seve in-chief of the National Guard and rg �amt-Marcel) . manders (including that of the Faubou IVed by the rece well was e yett ,., g" men', Lafa avowed IUn d ' ose prop he n whe ne, tive Assembly on 28ju only and ts, ocra dem the .. be taken to destroy the Panslan Ii his chance of mobilizmg a large part of. ms: the queen, or Guard for a coup deforce against thejacob .J but, even help with characteristic folly, refused his •
.
.
.
.
•
•
t'
_
�
�
:
�
•
•
, Mlmmrls $lads ,J, FOInin ,., Am/rica;lI. z
Lefebvre, <:>p. cil., p. 246.
1<:>3
Lafayette's failure and return to the anny, the initiative still often remained with the 'loyalists'. Petion was suspended from office early in July (though, admittedly. he was reinstated a week later); young men of the western Sections showed some determination to uphold the monarchy by volunteering for defence duties at the Tuileries; 'loyalist' battalions of the National Guard even felt secure enough to beat up peaceful crowds in the Tuileries Gardens;1 while the air was thick with rumours of impending punitive measures against 'patriots', and a flood of denunciations of royalist 'conspiracies' poured into the Pam Commune and Department of Police.z That such matters were taken seriously by 'patriots'. and even by more or less uncommitted neutrals, is clear from the of Alexandre for this period. Alexandre himself, although a royalist who had been a lukewarm-if not, unwill. jng-participant in the events of 20 june, was drawn by the fear of a counter-revolutionary coup, which he considered im minent, into active support for the insurrection of 10 August) Such fears were, of course, given only too real a substance by the Brunswick Manifesto of I August, which threatened the Parisian Sections and National Guard with summary ven. geance, should the invaders find them arms in hand. In this sense, then, the August revolution, far from being the logical outcome of a consistently conceived and conducted plan of operations, was an act ofself-defence against dangers, both real and imagined.4 By the last week inJuly, however, a more or less decided plan of action had taken shape; and the outbreak of 10 August was the climax to a series of false starts. In the night of 26-27 July there was a call to arms by federal volunteers parading in the Montreuil Section of the Faubourg Saint-Antoine; ouoritrs sounded the tocsin at the church of Sainte-Marguerite; Santerre was pulled out of bed; and workshops remained closed next day.s On the 30th additional impetus was given to the
Mbrwires
, Arch. Pr6. P<:>I., Aa 226, r<:>l. 30. • Arch. Nat., F" 4387, dOlI. 2. • GOOcch<:>t, op. cit., pp. 187-121. � the passage: 'La Cour c<:>ntinua.it I� manoeuvres sourdes, ses perstcutiolU et ICS calom nies, en attendant qu'c\le put leur faire une guern: plus s�riemc . . . landis que Ie parti contraire Ie lenait sur la dHc'}Iivc, mail avec I'intention tr':l pronon ce de la soutenir vigoureuscme nt' (op. cit., pp. • 87-8). • Lefebvre, op. cit., p. 247. J Arch. Pr�f. Pol., Aa 220, foJ. 63. .
c
.
•
".
ACTI ON THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN
THE FALL OF THE MONARCHY
bly decree, movement and to its chances ofsuccess by an Assem were There . Guard nal Natio admitting 'passive' citizens into the and I on and y,' 30Jul on such, of further false starts or rumours ideris andj ans Parisi of g meetin huge a 5 August.1 On 6 August XVV in the Champ de Mars demanded the abdication of Louis taken had uly mid-J since , which ne, Antoi SaintThe Faubourg bly Assem the lead in the sectional movement, noW warned the the or 9th, the that the king must be deposed or suspended by Sections would take armed action. . pon The same night the tocsin sounded. While the 'corres elves thems ormcd f ns Sectio dence' committee of the forty-eight er into a new' revolutionary Commune and kept Petion a prison Guard al Nation the of ions format in his room, the armed advanced on the Tuileries. Though the final outcome was hard.ly in doubt, �he de fenders might have put up a sterner .reslStance. .Guardl�g the and ,hdtuw were goo Swiss, 200 to 300 KOlghts of SalOL-LoUIS, ,000 ers-2 attack -before their wholesale desertion to the National Guardsmen. The besiegers had mustered a far larger force : by 9 o'clock, soon before the attack started, they may r have been 20,000 men, including 400 Marscillais and smalle shot a Before cities.4 other and , Rouen contingents from Brest, was fired, Roederer, the procureur.syndit ofthe Paris Department, who was in attendance on the king, persuaded him to seek refuge with his family in the Assembly, meeting nearby: thus bloodshed might be avoided and a solution found by the depu ties without the dictation ofarmed rebellion. Abandoned by the king, only the Swiss and a handful of grenadiers of the financial quarter prepared to resist. The Marseillais advanced to frat:r nite with the defenders, but were raked by fire from the SWISS. As at the Bastille the cry of treachery went up. The attack was was reduced, the king sent started in earnest. Before the word ordering a cease-fire; but it did not save the Swiss from
dzdttau
• Acxording
Fournier, the plan railed ror lack of rupport by SantclTc and ). S"'tr..s P�tion (MlmuirtS • Arch. Nat, F' 4774'-: uUru II pmos rtlatives aU dix Mill. There Wall a strlkc of not building workers in the Faubourg Saint·Antoine on 3 August, but it don appear to have been connected in any way with the August insurrection (Arch. Prtf. Pol., Aa 2'9, fo!' 30). J Bib. Nat., L� 39 ,0728- (printed text). and obicrvcl"$, ICC P. Sagnac, • For these figures, and those ofothcr h�toriaN u. Clwu d, u. ro)'llldi, 1792 (Paris, 1902), pp. 277 if. to
. . •
•
10�
wholesale massacre: 600 were slaughtered, 60 of them by order, or with the tacit approval, of the revolutionary Commune at the Hotel de Ville, to which they were sent under armed escort. Of the besiegers some go jideris and nearly 300 Paris were killed and wounded; 1 among the latter were 3 women, of whom one was Louise-Reine Audu of the Biblio theque Section, a veteran of 5 October.2 Hostile eyewitnesses and historians have been particularly liberal in their use of lurid epithets to describe the federal volunteers and the men of the Paris Sections that took part in the attack on the Tuileries. These range from Madame de Tourzel's 'cette armee de bandits' and Bigot de Sainte-Croix's 'brigands revoite,' to Taine's 'presque taus de la derniere plebe, ou entretenus par des metiers infames' and Peltier's 'ramas d'hommes perdus, de Barbaresques, de Maltais, d'Italiens, de Ginois, de Piemontais'.l In so far as these descrip tions purport to throw a light on the occupations or social origins-or even on the nationality-of the persons described, we can check their validity by reference to the lists of dead and wounded sent in by the Paris Sections and of those later recognited by the National Convention as having qualified for pensions for themselves or their dependants.4 It is not proposed here to attempt a detailed social analysis of the federal volunteers, whose dead and wounded may have accounted for rather less than a quarter of the total casualties recorded.s Suffice it to say that those appearing on these lists have typical French-sounding names and that the label of Italian or other foreigner was, no doubt, devised to create prejudice. Among a little Over 300 Parisians6 occupations are given in some 120 casesj7 this, then, is the sample on which we have to base any estimate of the professional or social status of the participants. Of this number as many as ninety-five are drawn from fifty of the petty trades and crafts of the capital
sectionnaires
, For the killed and wounded among the belieg.:rs
see
II""al, vol. iv, pp. i-;u:i; see abo Sagoac, op. cit., pp. 300 IT.
A. Tuetcy, Ripnloirr:
• Tuetey, op. cit., vol. iv, pp. iv-v. , Cited by Sagoae, op. cit., pp. '34�, 181, 19o, 300--2. • Arch. Nat., FlO 3269--74; F' 4426. r. • or 376 CaJUaltiCII among the altackel"$ recorded by Tuctcy, thefidirll account or 89 (lip. cit., vol. iv, p. xxi). • Tuetey's figure 0(lt87 ParmaN appears to be an undcr-eotimate. • Tuetcy lisla only a.. occu�tions (op. cit., vol. iv, pp. xxiv.xxv).
".
ACTI ON THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN
THE FALL OF THE MONARCHY
bly decree, movement and to its chances ofsuccess by an Assem were There . Guard nal Natio admitting 'passive' citizens into the and I on and y,' 30Jul on such, of further false starts or rumours ideris andj ans Parisi of g meetin huge a 5 August.1 On 6 August XVV in the Champ de Mars demanded the abdication of Louis taken had uly mid-J since , which ne, Antoi SaintThe Faubourg bly Assem the lead in the sectional movement, noW warned the the or 9th, the that the king must be deposed or suspended by Sections would take armed action. . pon The same night the tocsin sounded. While the 'corres elves thems ormcd f ns Sectio dence' committee of the forty-eight er into a new' revolutionary Commune and kept Petion a prison Guard al Nation the of ions format in his room, the armed advanced on the Tuileries. Though the final outcome was hard.ly in doubt, �he de fenders might have put up a sterner .reslStance. .Guardl�g the and ,hdtuw were goo Swiss, 200 to 300 KOlghts of SalOL-LoUIS, ,000 ers-2 attack -before their wholesale desertion to the National Guardsmen. The besiegers had mustered a far larger force : by 9 o'clock, soon before the attack started, they may r have been 20,000 men, including 400 Marscillais and smalle shot a Before cities.4 other and , Rouen contingents from Brest, was fired, Roederer, the procureur.syndit ofthe Paris Department, who was in attendance on the king, persuaded him to seek refuge with his family in the Assembly, meeting nearby: thus bloodshed might be avoided and a solution found by the depu ties without the dictation ofarmed rebellion. Abandoned by the king, only the Swiss and a handful of grenadiers of the financial quarter prepared to resist. The Marseillais advanced to frat:r nite with the defenders, but were raked by fire from the SWISS. As at the Bastille the cry of treachery went up. The attack was was reduced, the king sent started in earnest. Before the word ordering a cease-fire; but it did not save the Swiss from
dzdttau
• Acxording
Fournier, the plan railed ror lack of rupport by SantclTc and ). S"'tr..s P�tion (MlmuirtS • Arch. Nat, F' 4774'-: uUru II pmos rtlatives aU dix Mill. There Wall a strlkc of not building workers in the Faubourg Saint·Antoine on 3 August, but it don appear to have been connected in any way with the August insurrection (Arch. Prtf. Pol., Aa 2'9, fo!' 30). J Bib. Nat., L� 39 ,0728- (printed text). and obicrvcl"$, ICC P. Sagnac, • For these figures, and those ofothcr h�toriaN u. Clwu d, u. ro)'llldi, 1792 (Paris, 1902), pp. 277 if. to
. . •
•
10�
wholesale massacre: 600 were slaughtered, 60 of them by order, or with the tacit approval, of the revolutionary Commune at the Hotel de Ville, to which they were sent under armed escort. Of the besiegers some go jideris and nearly 300 Paris were killed and wounded; 1 among the latter were 3 women, of whom one was Louise-Reine Audu of the Biblio theque Section, a veteran of 5 October.2 Hostile eyewitnesses and historians have been particularly liberal in their use of lurid epithets to describe the federal volunteers and the men of the Paris Sections that took part in the attack on the Tuileries. These range from Madame de Tourzel's 'cette armee de bandits' and Bigot de Sainte-Croix's 'brigands revoite,' to Taine's 'presque taus de la derniere plebe, ou entretenus par des metiers infames' and Peltier's 'ramas d'hommes perdus, de Barbaresques, de Maltais, d'Italiens, de Ginois, de Piemontais'.l In so far as these descrip tions purport to throw a light on the occupations or social origins-or even on the nationality-of the persons described, we can check their validity by reference to the lists of dead and wounded sent in by the Paris Sections and of those later recognited by the National Convention as having qualified for pensions for themselves or their dependants.4 It is not proposed here to attempt a detailed social analysis of the federal volunteers, whose dead and wounded may have accounted for rather less than a quarter of the total casualties recorded.s Suffice it to say that those appearing on these lists have typical French-sounding names and that the label of Italian or other foreigner was, no doubt, devised to create prejudice. Among a little Over 300 Parisians6 occupations are given in some 120 casesj7 this, then, is the sample on which we have to base any estimate of the professional or social status of the participants. Of this number as many as ninety-five are drawn from fifty of the petty trades and crafts of the capital
sectionnaires
, For the killed and wounded among the belieg.:rs
see
II""al, vol. iv, pp. i-;u:i; see abo Sagoac, op. cit., pp. 300 IT.
A. Tuetcy, Ripnloirr:
• Tuetey, op. cit., vol. iv, pp. iv-v. , Cited by Sagoae, op. cit., pp. '34�, 181, 19o, 300--2. • Arch. Nat., FlO 3269--74; F' 4426. r. • or 376 CaJUaltiCII among the altackel"$ recorded by Tuctcy, thefidirll account or 89 (lip. cit., vol. iv, p. xxi). • Tuetey's figure 0(lt87 ParmaN appears to be an undcr-eotimate. • Tuetcy lisla only a.. occu�tions (op. cit., vol. iv, pp. xxiv.xxv).
106
RY THE RE VO LU TIONA
CROWD IN ACTION
ers, master all traders and manufactur either as shopkeepers, sm only two I are journeymen. There craftsmen, artisans, or n among me al y be termed profession bourgeois and three that ma e rest are Th r. aste n, and a drawing�m them: an architect, a surgeo orkers, t�w por , (9) ts , domestic servan clerks (2) , musicians (2) ing the der nsi Co . (2) ers , and glass�work labourers, and carters (7) a few til un rd gua nal tio s from the Na exclusion of 'passive' citizen ers among surprisingly manywage-eam days previously, there are workers. Yet, ymen and eighteen other them : thirty-three journe a1.z In all, erably less than half the tot even so, they form consid more or of g �tulottlS, with a sprinklin then, they are typical saru plebe', e ier t by no means 'de la dern less prosperous citizens ; bu ieve. bel us e hav ion of Taine would m as the jaundiced imaginat fro wn dra are y the sense that the They are typical, too, in ear app se the of r fou capital: all but nearly every Section in the the west; are the Roule Section in s ion ept on the lists-the exc arter of qu tic cra sto ari tre of the old the Place Royale in the cen IV (now re island Sections of Henri the Marais; and the two rnite). This the lie·Saint�Louis (Frate named Pont Neuf) and traditional Antoine reappears in its time the Faubourg Saint� Quinze the m and 50 wounded are fro role: no less than S killed l (IS eui ntr Mo t on the list come Vingts Section alone ; nex ) (IS e oir vat ser istere (19 ). and Ob s killed and wounded), Fin ourg twb j two e Th 1. rg Saint�Marce of the last two in the Faubou lf �ha one and ird -th between one between them account for d. ere suff all the casualties personal cs lies many a story of Behind these bare statisti ation, ect of days spent in anxious exp heroism and sacrifice and orded rec e late]. M. Thompson has terror, and deprivation. Th iru, oul sm De le cile, the wife of Camil the anxieties and fears of Lu for t tric dis liers g-house in the Corde 10 as she waited in a lodgin 9of ht nig the on on the Tuileries an the outcome of the assault h wit list rna jou r was a popula August.} But Desmoulins family er physical danger,· but his suff ght mi assured public : he
orkerJ, eabinet-maken, 6 gau:te-w I � ,hoe_maken, 8 • Among them there are len. pain 3 lu, amit lock carpenten, 3 4 wig_maken, 4 hallen, 3 g to'la cJasse ouvritre' ribes the majority :u lxlongin , Tuetey, surprisingly, desc , [948), pp. 1 [8-';1 1. (op. (il., vol. iv, p. iii). 01111# Frtndt Rt,'OIul;O" (O"fofd ; avec un ru�l: he I J. M. Thompson, �arfm t sort t!tai liru mou Des ille Cam it: 'Si • Mathiez doubted t), p. 1 1 9)' ; ' (u DiJc Aout (Pam, 193 servf wriles, 'ce n'�tait p:u pour s'en
THE FALL OF THE MONARCHY
.
'0'
' different was were not likeIy to face economic hardSh'Ip, n, x Ulte the case of the small trades e � raf ts�e"., journeymen, and e maJonty of the assailants. labourers who as we saw fo To them and 'their famili'...., _ even the successful 0utc�me .of the events of that night would entail hardshiP and suffenng if they , they were killed ID should return wounded or mrume ' d ," and if " " . befiore the authorities action, there were long months ofwal. �ng might decide on a pension for the W'. oW and children. Thus, Pierre Dumont aged 50, gau ze�worker 0f 25,," 'I' ue dU Faubourg ' the Quinze V'ma Samt�Antoine listed bY his SeCllon, �, as ot. " October 1792 died of his wo nds tW years later; mrume " d ID � ? ntome LobJOlS, aged 39, his wife failed to obtain � pension. A master glazier of the rue de B ne Fontaine de Grenell.e ::� ' f whom onl� two qua h� Section, left a wife and five child tied for a pension. Louis Le RoY' ge� 2 1 , a Journeyman . J goldsmith of the rue du Petit Srunt- ean m the �ection des In valides, left a dependent mother and fath�r, a Widow, and two small children, Pierre Homette, aged 49, aJourneyman ca. binet� " maker of 20 rue du Faubourg du Temple, accompamed hiS employer, Legros, to the Tuileries 0 0 ;ugust : though a wage-earner, he had been a memb ft er o e ational Guard for a year and eight months ,' he Ie a WI"dow and two Ch"ld I reno There are cases which show that the authorities were as chary of spending public to drive a hard ' r. money and as inclined . bugain ... �th appIIcants !or co e on ey ar� t�ay: as th l ";� �:l ri de la Coutellene, In the Lou.is Chauvet, water-car er of Arcls Section was refused gran' because he failed to produce a doctor's ce:nficate that howed ,he nature of his treatment, . as prescnbed by law' and Ph '}' I lp �e Bouvet of the Popincourt Section was also refus� co sallon, as the hernia from which he was suffering a year lat:�l� not appear to have been caused by the events of 10 August O h were mo�e f�rtunate, yet the compensation was usuall s a compare WIth the sacrifice J made, Thus ean Daubanton fther.MoDtreuil Section, though ? Wounded at' the Tuilen","" . enllsted !or the ar and :--,as sent ' 'o the frontiers before his wound had healed , e received 1 43 days, treatment and w.,e ..., subsequently awarded 50 /" IVres as J1r tler pay and a grant Of2 1 4 ['I�res. Another hardened warrior On . appears to have been Henn Bute, aged 11, j(:weller of87 rue � des Gobelins, who had been wounded m hIS left hand at the
:e':i
•
.
'�
��
:
; � ��
•
��
106
RY THE RE VO LU TIONA
CROWD IN ACTION
ers, master all traders and manufactur either as shopkeepers, sm only two I are journeymen. There craftsmen, artisans, or n among me al y be termed profession bourgeois and three that ma e rest are Th r. aste n, and a drawing�m them: an architect, a surgeo orkers, t�w por , (9) ts , domestic servan clerks (2) , musicians (2) ing the der nsi Co . (2) ers , and glass�work labourers, and carters (7) a few til un rd gua nal tio s from the Na exclusion of 'passive' citizen ers among surprisingly manywage-eam days previously, there are workers. Yet, ymen and eighteen other them : thirty-three journe a1.z In all, erably less than half the tot even so, they form consid more or of g �tulottlS, with a sprinklin then, they are typical saru plebe', e ier t by no means 'de la dern less prosperous citizens ; bu ieve. bel us e hav ion of Taine would m as the jaundiced imaginat fro wn dra are y the sense that the They are typical, too, in ear app se the of r fou capital: all but nearly every Section in the the west; are the Roule Section in s ion ept on the lists-the exc arter of qu tic cra sto ari tre of the old the Place Royale in the cen IV (now re island Sections of Henri the Marais; and the two rnite). This the lie·Saint�Louis (Frate named Pont Neuf) and traditional Antoine reappears in its time the Faubourg Saint� Quinze the m and 50 wounded are fro role: no less than S killed l (IS eui ntr Mo t on the list come Vingts Section alone ; nex ) (IS e oir vat ser istere (19 ). and Ob s killed and wounded), Fin ourg twb j two e Th 1. rg Saint�Marce of the last two in the Faubou lf �ha one and ird -th between one between them account for d. ere suff all the casualties personal cs lies many a story of Behind these bare statisti ation, ect of days spent in anxious exp heroism and sacrifice and orded rec e late]. M. Thompson has terror, and deprivation. Th iru, oul sm De le cile, the wife of Camil the anxieties and fears of Lu for t tric dis liers g-house in the Corde 10 as she waited in a lodgin 9of ht nig the on on the Tuileries an the outcome of the assault h wit list rna jou r was a popula August.} But Desmoulins family er physical danger,· but his suff ght mi assured public : he
orkerJ, eabinet-maken, 6 gau:te-w I � ,hoe_maken, 8 • Among them there are len. pain 3 lu, amit lock carpenten, 3 4 wig_maken, 4 hallen, 3 g to'la cJasse ouvritre' ribes the majority :u lxlongin , Tuetey, surprisingly, desc , [948), pp. 1 [8-';1 1. (op. (il., vol. iv, p. iii). 01111# Frtndt Rt,'OIul;O" (O"fofd ; avec un ru�l: he I J. M. Thompson, �arfm t sort t!tai liru mou Des ille Cam it: 'Si • Mathiez doubted t), p. 1 1 9)' ; ' (u DiJc Aout (Pam, 193 servf wriles, 'ce n'�tait p:u pour s'en
THE FALL OF THE MONARCHY
.
'0'
' different was were not likeIy to face economic hardSh'Ip, n, x Ulte the case of the small trades e � raf ts�e"., journeymen, and e maJonty of the assailants. labourers who as we saw fo To them and 'their famili'...., _ even the successful 0utc�me .of the events of that night would entail hardshiP and suffenng if they , they were killed ID should return wounded or mrume ' d ," and if " " . befiore the authorities action, there were long months ofwal. �ng might decide on a pension for the W'. oW and children. Thus, Pierre Dumont aged 50, gau ze�worker 0f 25,," 'I' ue dU Faubourg ' the Quinze V'ma Samt�Antoine listed bY his SeCllon, �, as ot. " October 1792 died of his wo nds tW years later; mrume " d ID � ? ntome LobJOlS, aged 39, his wife failed to obtain � pension. A master glazier of the rue de B ne Fontaine de Grenell.e ::� ' f whom onl� two qua h� Section, left a wife and five child tied for a pension. Louis Le RoY' ge� 2 1 , a Journeyman . J goldsmith of the rue du Petit Srunt- ean m the �ection des In valides, left a dependent mother and fath�r, a Widow, and two small children, Pierre Homette, aged 49, aJourneyman ca. binet� " maker of 20 rue du Faubourg du Temple, accompamed hiS employer, Legros, to the Tuileries 0 0 ;ugust : though a wage-earner, he had been a memb ft er o e ational Guard for a year and eight months ,' he Ie a WI"dow and two Ch"ld I reno There are cases which show that the authorities were as chary of spending public to drive a hard ' r. money and as inclined . bugain ... �th appIIcants !or co e on ey ar� t�ay: as th l ";� �:l ri de la Coutellene, In the Lou.is Chauvet, water-car er of Arcls Section was refused gran' because he failed to produce a doctor's ce:nficate that howed ,he nature of his treatment, . as prescnbed by law' and Ph '}' I lp �e Bouvet of the Popincourt Section was also refus� co sallon, as the hernia from which he was suffering a year lat:�l� not appear to have been caused by the events of 10 August O h were mo�e f�rtunate, yet the compensation was usuall s a compare WIth the sacrifice J made, Thus ean Daubanton fther.MoDtreuil Section, though ? Wounded at' the Tuilen","" . enllsted !or the ar and :--,as sent ' 'o the frontiers before his wound had healed , e received 1 43 days, treatment and w.,e ..., subsequently awarded 50 /" IVres as J1r tler pay and a grant Of2 1 4 ['I�res. Another hardened warrior On . appears to have been Henn Bute, aged 11, j(:weller of87 rue � des Gobelins, who had been wounded m hIS left hand at the
:e':i
•
.
'�
��
:
; � ��
•
��
108
THE FALL OF THE MONARCHY
ACTION ARY CROWD IN THE REVOLUTION to leave from work
.
s' sick given six month for two Bastille and been ies, he was treated Tuiler the at again wounded recover ; nsation of 1 12 livres, awarded a compe and months half four of them in and a la Bastille (there are eur lIainqu r worker Anothe 10 SOIlS. aged 52, a portfortunate: E. Benoit, less at was killed lists) these Vingts Section, was e in the Quinze the Deligr held rue e the of a combatant-h a long career as which he the Tuileries after onal army, in professi diS logis in the rg Saint Faubou rank of tMrechal retired to the 1761 and 1779, 1789.' served between July Bastille in and fought at the of the Antoine as a dyer hard on the heels ed f ollow s frontier the f or must ent Enrolm Tuileries fighter ; and many a Tuileries the the in of more capture before he was once time to recover case little a had such have prussians. We saw time against the of firing line, this master locksmith a n, Chauvi that of Louis the of also e, above ; another is rg Saint-Antoin iere in the Faubou at the the rue Travers been reported dead first Section, who had d and, wounde Quinze Vingts usly serio brother had been other Tuileries. His wife's had died and the child one re, departu his these shortly after his wife as, after ed state of mind of anguish The the to fallen sick. and illiterate letter writes a pathetic she herself ences, for experi assistance Publics, begging for Comite des Secours writes she nd, evident : her husba and family, is joun
de
avange la patrie to Citoyent pour aide qu audameurant fut oblige de partir ave<: VTai est il souvenir puisqu' trouve ctant enfant trop funeste a man s aussi du distric des mon frhe nomme Damoime fut annoncc que mon mari cloit tue.1 i mort l blesse et presque
they en· and anguish thal these and the fear agita erish Such events as offev the state s help to explain the after gendered may perhap even ed continu many of the citizens ed. remov been tion in which had s d from the Tuilerie directe most coup a Tear of office, the Swiss (his suspended from open The king had been or imprisoned; had been massacred rs) defende l loya rounded up and their court had been c � supporters of the ondence. Yet the f� n anns or corresp i t: ; the searched for hidde and the gates ; hundred miles from cal po,li.ii enemy was a few priests, refractory believed fuller) of were full (and
�;
-70, 3�71. fol. I t l , Ar<:h. Nat., P" 3Wg no. 159�, . 3174, P" at. , N Ar<:h. •
enemies of the Revolution a d
.og
a h?�t of fo.rgers whose faked assgnats i were held respo ibr: fior n�tng pnces and inflation. These were thought to be so fi an allies for the Duke of Bruns wick, who were but waiting or t e volunteers to leave for the
�
t
h
frontiers in order to break out 0f prison and massacre the aged, women, and children left behind. ki Thus grew among the mili
�
tants of the Sections-of the s me 'nd, no doubt, as those who . · had stormed the Tuile es t e me tality that led to the groe . some extermination of 10.t e earl � days of September.
;:n ;;
:
�::�puon, cam:d out in a momen on 1 1 August the day after the cat;ure of the Tuileries, a letter It was by no means a sudd
tary fit of passion or as the result of a short-lived panic. Already
i
erron and Vignet, warned from two po ice administrators, Santerre newl appotntcd ' commander-in-chief of the Parisian Nationa Guar :
i
�
On nous informe dans Ie moment' Monsieur' que I'on forme Ie . . de se transporter dans touf:t Ies pnsons proJet de Paris pour y � eniever tous les prisonniers, et en alre une promptejustice.I S'IX days later, Petion wrote to Santerre :
�
.
On me prcvient . . que cette n ' t I� tOCSt� doit sonner dans les fbgs. St. Ant. et St. M�rceau ur u�lr les cltoyeru, les porter sur les prisons et immoler 10 pe nnes qUI sont detenues.1
:
. ed But the movement was not r u t the JaubouTgs : the same rut day, similar threats were re r d rom the Gravilliers and . Ponceau Sections in the ce t o e C.lly;l and, on 2 September, ;ruSSians, the general assembly the day that Verdun fell t of Poissonniere decided t s e other forty-seven Sections
�� ; � � : �� � copies of a resolution th:t I : QII'il n'y avait d'autre rno�en a prend� pour eviter Ie danger et augmenter Ie zele des citoye $U� Ie champ une justice r Splrateurs detenus dans
pour parUr aux frontieres que faire de tous les malfaiteurs et con-
le/p=��4
. The same afternoon' pnsoners ' betng brought under armed
Nat.' F' ¥i11' PiJu: '�I liWJ " l0 coUt, fol. 19· N,. , F' 477�", fo . 3· N her of Ihese I documents is ciled by ..' on ... T (see ";,;8e � 10, nOle I, below). ueley, p. Cit., vol. v, no 367.. '" ch. PrH Pol Aa .... ever, Ilaried before ",,,,., fol. 1103 The �aon,h�how Ih� I to. n could have had any �ffe<:1 ( MIUJIlffU tk s.pumb,�, � pp. 3 . . .... _' Arch
, Arch.
•
...
ell
,,�
.
.,
1
'
wo
108
THE FALL OF THE MONARCHY
ACTION ARY CROWD IN THE REVOLUTION to leave from work
.
s' sick given six month for two Bastille and been ies, he was treated Tuiler the at again wounded recover ; nsation of 1 12 livres, awarded a compe and months half four of them in and a la Bastille (there are eur lIainqu r worker Anothe 10 SOIlS. aged 52, a portfortunate: E. Benoit, less at was killed lists) these Vingts Section, was e in the Quinze the Deligr held rue e the of a combatant-h a long career as which he the Tuileries after onal army, in professi diS logis in the rg Saint Faubou rank of tMrechal retired to the 1761 and 1779, 1789.' served between July Bastille in and fought at the of the Antoine as a dyer hard on the heels ed f ollow s frontier the f or must ent Enrolm Tuileries fighter ; and many a Tuileries the the in of more capture before he was once time to recover case little a had such have prussians. We saw time against the of firing line, this master locksmith a n, Chauvi that of Louis the of also e, above ; another is rg Saint-Antoin iere in the Faubou at the the rue Travers been reported dead first Section, who had d and, wounde Quinze Vingts usly serio brother had been other Tuileries. His wife's had died and the child one re, departu his these shortly after his wife as, after ed state of mind of anguish The the to fallen sick. and illiterate letter writes a pathetic she herself ences, for experi assistance Publics, begging for Comite des Secours writes she nd, evident : her husba and family, is joun
de
avange la patrie to Citoyent pour aide qu audameurant fut oblige de partir ave<: VTai est il souvenir puisqu' trouve ctant enfant trop funeste a man s aussi du distric des mon frhe nomme Damoime fut annoncc que mon mari cloit tue.1 i mort l blesse et presque
they en· and anguish thal these and the fear agita erish Such events as offev the state s help to explain the after gendered may perhap even ed continu many of the citizens ed. remov been tion in which had s d from the Tuilerie directe most coup a Tear of office, the Swiss (his suspended from open The king had been or imprisoned; had been massacred rs) defende l loya rounded up and their court had been c � supporters of the ondence. Yet the f� n anns or corresp i t: ; the searched for hidde and the gates ; hundred miles from cal po,li.ii enemy was a few priests, refractory believed fuller) of were full (and
�;
-70, 3�71. fol. I t l , Ar<:h. Nat., P" 3Wg no. 159�, . 3174, P" at. , N Ar<:h. •
enemies of the Revolution a d
.og
a h?�t of fo.rgers whose faked assgnats i were held respo ibr: fior n�tng pnces and inflation. These were thought to be so fi an allies for the Duke of Bruns wick, who were but waiting or t e volunteers to leave for the
�
t
h
frontiers in order to break out 0f prison and massacre the aged, women, and children left behind. ki Thus grew among the mili
�
tants of the Sections-of the s me 'nd, no doubt, as those who . · had stormed the Tuile es t e me tality that led to the groe . some extermination of 10.t e earl � days of September.
;:n ;;
:
�::�puon, cam:d out in a momen on 1 1 August the day after the cat;ure of the Tuileries, a letter It was by no means a sudd
tary fit of passion or as the result of a short-lived panic. Already
i
erron and Vignet, warned from two po ice administrators, Santerre newl appotntcd ' commander-in-chief of the Parisian Nationa Guar :
i
�
On nous informe dans Ie moment' Monsieur' que I'on forme Ie . . de se transporter dans touf:t Ies pnsons proJet de Paris pour y � eniever tous les prisonniers, et en alre une promptejustice.I S'IX days later, Petion wrote to Santerre :
�
.
On me prcvient . . que cette n ' t I� tOCSt� doit sonner dans les fbgs. St. Ant. et St. M�rceau ur u�lr les cltoyeru, les porter sur les prisons et immoler 10 pe nnes qUI sont detenues.1
:
. ed But the movement was not r u t the JaubouTgs : the same rut day, similar threats were re r d rom the Gravilliers and . Ponceau Sections in the ce t o e C.lly;l and, on 2 September, ;ruSSians, the general assembly the day that Verdun fell t of Poissonniere decided t s e other forty-seven Sections
�� ; � � : �� � copies of a resolution th:t I : QII'il n'y avait d'autre rno�en a prend� pour eviter Ie danger et augmenter Ie zele des citoye $U� Ie champ une justice r Splrateurs detenus dans
pour parUr aux frontieres que faire de tous les malfaiteurs et con-
le/p=��4
. The same afternoon' pnsoners ' betng brought under armed
Nat.' F' ¥i11' PiJu: '�I liWJ " l0 coUt, fol. 19· N,. , F' 477�", fo . 3· N her of Ihese I documents is ciled by ..' on ... T (see ";,;8e � 10, nOle I, below). ueley, p. Cit., vol. v, no 367.. '" ch. PrH Pol Aa .... ever, Ilaried before ",,,,., fol. 1103 The �aon,h�how Ih� I to. n could have had any �ffe<:1 ( MIUJIlffU tk s.pumb,�, � pp. 3 . . .... _' Arch
, Arch.
•
...
ell
,,�
.
.,
1
'
wo
110
Germain escort to the Abbaye prison near the church of Saint· ds an� crow ting wai by , val des-Pres "'ere seized on arri ts a reli summarily executed. The massacre spread to th� Carm ? t, to gious hOUSe in the rue de Vaugirard; and, dunng the rugh ; at ce For la the Conciergerie. the Chatelet. and the Hotel de the On 7th. or the latter, it went on spasmodically until the , t Sam of ma 3Td, executions were carried out at the Sem TY. Bema �tOs monas Firmin, � the rue Saint-Victor, and at r transfer to thei g itin tery, where common criminals were awa same a ter The ort. hef the galleys at Toulon, Brest, and Roc . a� BlcelTe, ered ght slau e an wer noon d the next day, prisoners ; a?d, a prison-hospital for the poor, vagrants, and lunatics detentlon though few in number, at the Salpetriere, a �lace of e were alon for female thieves and prostitutes. Two pns��s de la rue the In untouched._the debtors' prison of Sainte-Pelagte du rue the in n, Clef, and Saint-Lazare, now a women's priso or 6th the on ped Faubourg Saint-Denis. The massacres stop � y (onl rs one pris and 7th; by that time, between 2,800 In of th�m women) had been slaug�tered out of a total of perhaps bernum er larg tly the rune llrisons concerned. A shgh tuted courts �f J ,500 or l ,60had 0been spared by hastily c�nsti Mall justice, o f which the most famous is that preSIded over b� ners pnso the lard at the: Abbaye. Surprisingly, only one_quarte.ro� com wer nty were pric:.sts, nobles, or 'politicals' ; the great maJo mon-or-garden thieves, prostitutes, forgers, and vagrants. s after, While the massacres were going on, and for some day aud appl to ared prep were there wel""e persons in authority who m reco to eve and ice, just as them � a necessary act of popular t , mend the.rn as an example for others to follow. The Circular � s Pan th of � to the D�partments on 3 September in the name l wel IS at) Commu1l.e (often associated with the pen of Mar , pter d ado sera pres known : �t sans doute la nation entiere . . . s'em �bly ce moye1l. necessaire de salut public'. Again, th� general asse no did cel -Mar Saln of the F�tere Section, in the Faubourg ! � called It when Pans1 in n more express the prevailing opinio upon all :forty-eight Sections on September de decla� hautement que Ie peuple est venge, qu'il livre au glaive &-102:. • P. Car �n LIs MIJJSiKFU d, uplmlbrl (Parit, 1935). pp. 3-7. 7or Septtrn"" L _r sec a For co to the end up aaera ma _ the ' nt <.>n . inn n """ -.te mpor_, -r--12:1-6$. Caron, op. 'c:iL, pp.
the
6�
:
7
1,400
1,100
�
c
th�
6
...
THE FALL OF THE MONARCHY
Tit!. REV OLU TIO NARY CROWD IN ACTION
des lois ce qui pourrait avoir echappe vengeance.'
de
corupirateun a la juste
But once the moment of crisis was past, there was no party or faction that would justify or claim credit for the massacres ; and the charge of baving provoked or organized them-or even of having merely failed to put a stop to them-became an accepted
weapon in the struggle between parties, in which the Mountain
sought to discredit the Gironde and the Gironde to blacken the Mountain; while royalists and 'moderates' hurled the accusa
tion at both Gironde and Mountain indiscriminately. After Robespierre's fall in Thermidor, the struggle became more
bitter, and the most common epithet to attach to a Jacobin, apart from being a terrorist or a
septembriStur. ma.rsacrnm.
bUDror de sang, was to have been
It has become all the more difficult to identify a the real Were they many? were they a small band of resolute fanatics? were they, in any sense, typical of Paris as a whole? No certain answer is possible. Pierre Caron, in the course
of a detailed study of the affair, examined every possible piece of evidence that he could lay hands on to determine the authenticity of the numerous documents purporting to give full lists and details of the
septnnbristurs;
he concluded that the
great majority, even when put forward in good faith, were apocryphal. Apart from eyewitness accounts of the presence
gardes nalionaux,
of federal volunteers, and other individuals many of which may be authentic enough-the only solid
evidence is provided by the records of the judicial proceedings taken against thirty·nine persons in the Year IV
I7g2.
(1796)
for
believed participation in the massacres of Though all but three were acquitted for lack of evidence-thus reducing an
already small sample to derisory proportions-the list is signifi cant as showing the sort of persons and classes from which con
massacrturs
temporary opinion was willing to believe that the might have been recruited: they comprise, in the majority of �ases, small masters and craftsmen, shopkeepers, and a sprink
gendarmes;
ling of ex-soldiers and nearly all, at the time of their trial, were over 30 years old. From all this Caron concludes that Fabre d'tglantine was nearer to the truth than most when he decljlred in the Jacobin Club on 5 November 'Ce sont •
Arch. PrH. Pol., As.. 1;166, fol. 42:.
1792:
110
Germain escort to the Abbaye prison near the church of Saint· ds an� crow ting wai by , val des-Pres "'ere seized on arri ts a reli summarily executed. The massacre spread to th� Carm ? t, to gious hOUSe in the rue de Vaugirard; and, dunng the rugh ; at ce For la the Conciergerie. the Chatelet. and the Hotel de the On 7th. or the latter, it went on spasmodically until the , t Sam of ma 3Td, executions were carried out at the Sem TY. Bema �tOs monas Firmin, � the rue Saint-Victor, and at r transfer to thei g itin tery, where common criminals were awa same a ter The ort. hef the galleys at Toulon, Brest, and Roc . a� BlcelTe, ered ght slau e an wer noon d the next day, prisoners ; a?d, a prison-hospital for the poor, vagrants, and lunatics detentlon though few in number, at the Salpetriere, a �lace of e were alon for female thieves and prostitutes. Two pns��s de la rue the In untouched._the debtors' prison of Sainte-Pelagte du rue the in n, Clef, and Saint-Lazare, now a women's priso or 6th the on ped Faubourg Saint-Denis. The massacres stop � y (onl rs one pris and 7th; by that time, between 2,800 In of th�m women) had been slaug�tered out of a total of perhaps bernum er larg tly the rune llrisons concerned. A shgh tuted courts �f J ,500 or l ,60had 0been spared by hastily c�nsti Mall justice, o f which the most famous is that preSIded over b� ners pnso the lard at the: Abbaye. Surprisingly, only one_quarte.ro� com wer nty were pric:.sts, nobles, or 'politicals' ; the great maJo mon-or-garden thieves, prostitutes, forgers, and vagrants. s after, While the massacres were going on, and for some day aud appl to ared prep were there wel""e persons in authority who m reco to eve and ice, just as them � a necessary act of popular t , mend the.rn as an example for others to follow. The Circular � s Pan th of � to the D�partments on 3 September in the name l wel IS at) Commu1l.e (often associated with the pen of Mar , pter d ado sera pres known : �t sans doute la nation entiere . . . s'em �bly ce moye1l. necessaire de salut public'. Again, th� general asse no did cel -Mar Saln of the F�tere Section, in the Faubourg ! � called It when Pans1 in n more express the prevailing opinio upon all :forty-eight Sections on September de decla� hautement que Ie peuple est venge, qu'il livre au glaive &-102:. • P. Car �n LIs MIJJSiKFU d, uplmlbrl (Parit, 1935). pp. 3-7. 7or Septtrn"" L _r sec a For co to the end up aaera ma _ the ' nt <.>n . inn n """ -.te mpor_, -r--12:1-6$. Caron, op. 'c:iL, pp.
the
6�
:
7
1,400
1,100
�
c
th�
6
...
THE FALL OF THE MONARCHY
Tit!. REV OLU TIO NARY CROWD IN ACTION
des lois ce qui pourrait avoir echappe vengeance.'
de
corupirateun a la juste
But once the moment of crisis was past, there was no party or faction that would justify or claim credit for the massacres ; and the charge of baving provoked or organized them-or even of having merely failed to put a stop to them-became an accepted
weapon in the struggle between parties, in which the Mountain
sought to discredit the Gironde and the Gironde to blacken the Mountain; while royalists and 'moderates' hurled the accusa
tion at both Gironde and Mountain indiscriminately. After Robespierre's fall in Thermidor, the struggle became more
bitter, and the most common epithet to attach to a Jacobin, apart from being a terrorist or a
septembriStur. ma.rsacrnm.
bUDror de sang, was to have been
It has become all the more difficult to identify a the real Were they many? were they a small band of resolute fanatics? were they, in any sense, typical of Paris as a whole? No certain answer is possible. Pierre Caron, in the course
of a detailed study of the affair, examined every possible piece of evidence that he could lay hands on to determine the authenticity of the numerous documents purporting to give full lists and details of the
septnnbristurs;
he concluded that the
great majority, even when put forward in good faith, were apocryphal. Apart from eyewitness accounts of the presence
gardes nalionaux,
of federal volunteers, and other individuals many of which may be authentic enough-the only solid
evidence is provided by the records of the judicial proceedings taken against thirty·nine persons in the Year IV
I7g2.
(1796)
for
believed participation in the massacres of Though all but three were acquitted for lack of evidence-thus reducing an
already small sample to derisory proportions-the list is signifi cant as showing the sort of persons and classes from which con
massacrturs
temporary opinion was willing to believe that the might have been recruited: they comprise, in the majority of �ases, small masters and craftsmen, shopkeepers, and a sprink
gendarmes;
ling of ex-soldiers and nearly all, at the time of their trial, were over 30 years old. From all this Caron concludes that Fabre d'tglantine was nearer to the truth than most when he decljlred in the Jacobin Club on 5 November 'Ce sont •
Arch. PrH. Pol., As.. 1;166, fol. 42:.
1792:
ON THE REVO LUTI ONAR Y CROWD I N ACTI
leess.'lprisons de l',.bl,.:ye, letescelhommles d'esOdurleans10 aOletitcelquilaootde eVersnt fonce l i a , c cr ' m'''' e h t f, d s t i n i r appea mus de o s epi h t as y vour a Uns d e t e l comp ey h t nce: a port m i al c i r o t s hi of event an were e h t e or f be s week me o s y enem rnal e t n i e h t of n o i desteertsructat Valmy, on 20 SeptemberThus army s k' � i w , routtehdeBruns bhc, Repu r. e i nt o r f e h t s acros back t i drove what on establitshheedvictory ofthe Revoluattiofinrst becamtioen-by tsholatid autenougumnh ounda its enemies at home and abroad. ...
�
f
VIII THE TRIUMPH OF THE MOUNTAIN
HEequences overth. rNotow ofonlLouiy wass XVIthe Republ had proficoprocl und asoimcied,al conbut s aleld ciequal tizens polwere,iticalforir gththes:firthste tolimde diinstimodem hiswtoeenry, T grant n cti o n bet 'ofactIi78g-gt ve' and-'pwasassisvwe'eptcitiaszeide, anddeareverytoadulthe t'cmalonstietwasutionalhenceists' le to votthee concept in all localof ,Equal departitym, entproclal, aandimednatiotnalhe feloertcthioelnsig. ibThus Decl soneubstofaaratnce.initoennsYetofe ,tinhftoeernrRialghttconflhsiofs, Man tichteratperofhiero78g,dthnowanwasofundergiharvenmreviony:moreewquisowaslitde mertdegree he foreigofn entwar,huswhiiascmh wasby alsulpportgroupsed wiinththaegreatnewleyr orapart aelecteldfersoConventi smiseshadhadariemerged sen to ftraomke tthhee pleleactceioofnsthase olthde. majTheon,onewGirityrondipartantanygonideput irny;thbute As, seParimblsy, tandheirenjequioyedv().. conscal behavi iderabloeursupport i n t h e count their intthheemiAugus ts.revolAgaiuntsitonthemhadstlooodst tthheme Moun ltoailno-whos wing among l i t a nt eaders, Robes pierre,ch wasDantstroon,nglandy backed Maratby, nowthe alParil ssatSectin itohense lConvent i o n-whi bsin, where eir crediltystunfol ood hidignhg fionr tthhee rolauteumn,theythhade conflandplayediccltubecame Augusmorett.hGradual bitetreandr witshpritnhg,e newand round ofinttoreacheri e s and defeat s i n t h e wi n broke open vi o l e nce t h e earl y s u mmer. It was onl y res o l v edtbyhe tGiherondirevolnsutwereion offorMayJ une 1 7 93, when t h e l e ader s of cenrol ibly expel iTheon byJacothe Paribin disiacntatorship, however, ledonlinlyetdhbecame efrNatomiothnalconse Convent Guard. olidated, and its ns-so
I
all
in
t
in
in
saTIJ-cu.ioUes
, Work"rI and others living in furniJhed TOOI1lJ and lodging·houses IUm, how ev"r, to havc .bttn debarred from voting until the revolution of May-June 1793 (ATch. Nat., "fl. 2$20, fol. 53). Women and dome.tie servants, ofcourse, remained Without th.: vote.
ON THE REVO LUTI ONAR Y CROWD I N ACTI
leess.'lprisons de l',.bl,.:ye, letescelhommles d'esOdurleans10 aOletitcelquilaootde eVersnt fonce l i a , c cr ' m'''' e h t f, d s t i n i r appea mus de o s epi h t as y vour a Uns d e t e l comp ey h t nce: a port m i al c i r o t s hi of event an were e h t e or f be s week me o s y enem rnal e t n i e h t of n o i desteertsructat Valmy, on 20 SeptemberThus army s k' � i w , routtehdeBruns bhc, Repu r. e i nt o r f e h t s acros back t i drove what on establitshheedvictory ofthe Revoluattiofinrst becamtioen-by tsholatid autenougumnh ounda its enemies at home and abroad. ...
�
f
VIII THE TRIUMPH OF THE MOUNTAIN
HEequences overth. rNotow ofonlLouiy wass XVIthe Republ had proficoprocl und asoimcied,al conbut s aleld ciequal tizens polwere,iticalforir gththes:firthste tolimde diinstimodem hiswtoeenry, T grant n cti o n bet 'ofactIi78g-gt ve' and-'pwasassisvwe'eptcitiaszeide, anddeareverytoadulthe t'cmalonstietwasutionalhenceists' le to votthee concept in all localof ,Equal departitym, entproclal, aandimednatiotnalhe feloertcthioelnsig. ibThus Decl soneubstofaaratnce.initoennsYetofe ,tinhftoeernrRialghttconflhsiofs, Man tichteratperofhiero78g,dthnowanwasofundergiharvenmreviony:moreewquisowaslitde mertdegree he foreigofn entwar,huswhiiascmh wasby alsulpportgroupsed wiinththaegreatnewleyr orapart aelecteldfersoConventi smiseshadhadariemerged sen to ftraomke tthhee pleleactceioofnsthase olthde. majTheon,onewGirityrondipartantanygonideput irny;thbute As, seParimblsy, tandheirenjequioyedv().. conscal behavi iderabloeursupport i n t h e count their intthheemiAugus ts.revolAgaiuntsitonthemhadstlooodst tthheme Moun ltoailno-whos wing among l i t a nt eaders, Robes pierre,ch wasDantstroon,nglandy backed Maratby, nowthe alParil ssatSectin itohense lConvent i o n-whi bsin, where eir crediltystunfol ood hidignhg fionr tthhee rolauteumn,theythhade conflandplayediccltubecame Augusmorett.hGradual bitetreandr witshpritnhg,e newand round ofinttoreacheri e s and defeat s i n t h e wi n broke open vi o l e nce t h e earl y s u mmer. It was onl y res o l v edtbyhe tGiherondirevolnsutwereion offorMayJ une 1 7 93, when t h e l e ader s of cenrol ibly expel iTheon byJacothe Paribin disiacntatorship, however, ledonlinlyetdhbecame efrNatomiothnalconse Convent Guard. olidated, and its ns-so
I
all
in
t
in
in
saTIJ-cu.ioUes
, Work"rI and others living in furniJhed TOOI1lJ and lodging·houses IUm, how ev"r, to havc .bttn debarred from voting until the revolution of May-June 1793 (ATch. Nat., "fl. 2$20, fol. 53). Women and dome.tie servants, ofcourse, remained Without th.: vote.
...
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
instrument, the Revolutionary Government of the Year n,
�
only emerged after a further popular insuIT:ction in Septe� er. Yet this alliance between the Mountain and the Panslan
sans.culottes which was to be so remarkable a feature of the
�zed �t�out . diffi. culty and without stress. Apart from the gam ofpoliuc�l nghts, ' next phase of the Revolution, was not re
the sans-aJottes had won little from the August revolution. The new Commune, which had conducted the insurrection with
their active participation, was neither of their making nor �ade . in their image : although fewer lawyers and merchants sat In lt . . than in the Communes of 1789 and 179 I. only one·third of ttl members were small shopkeepers, masters, or journeymen; and
the lawyers and journalists, although in a minori�, held the leading posts.1 This, however, would be changed 10 the near future. There were more immediately pressing problems, such
THE TRIUMPH OF THE MOUNTAIN
"5
There had been two deputations of women to the Conven tion on Sunday, 23 February, one of which was composed of laundresses, who complained of the price of soap; 1 and there had been local disturbances, followed by arrests, on the morrow. But the real outbreak began on the morning of the 25th; it took the form of the mass invasion of grocers' and chandlers' shops and the forcible reduction of prices to a level dictated by the insurgents. Starting in the central, commercial, quarter-formed by the Lombards, Gravilliers. and Marches Sectionsz-at 1 0 o'clock i n the morning, the movement spread with remarkable speed to every part of the city.l From surviving police reports we can follow its progress from Section to Section. First east wards : soon after 10, in Maison Commune (H6tel de Ville) ; at midday, in Place des Federes (Place Royale) ; at 2 o'clock in Arsenal; at 3, in Droits de I'Homme ; between 3 and 4, in
as work and food prices. In November the president of the
Quinzc Vingts ; at 4 o'clock, in Montreuil and I'Homme Arme
the Convention to provide bread and work for 'la classe nombreuse de citoyens ouvriers'.2 The rise in food prices, which
de la Patrie at 2.30; and Bondy and Mont Blanc at 5 o'clock. In
Popincourt Section in the Faubourg Saint·Antoine appealed to
had caused the outbreak of February 1792, had slowed down in the summer and autumn,] but it took another sharp upward turn in the early months of 1 793: this time it was far more drastic and covered a far wider range of consumers' goods than in the previous spring. By February refined sugar ( 1 790 p ce:
�
24 sow) was selling at 47-60 sous; unrefined sugar ( 1 790 pnce: 12 sour) was selling at 40 sous; tallow candles ( 1 5 sous) at 18j-20 SOIlS; coffee (34 sow) at 40 sour; soap ( 1 2 suus) at 23-28 s�w. The consequence Wa5 a popular outburst, far more extenslv� and insistent than the sugar riots of the previous year, in which ail,
or nearly all, the Parisian Sections were involved and which, perhaps more clearly than any other incident in the Revolu tion, marked the basic conflict of interests between the t1UIW and the possessing classes, including the extreme demo
peuplt
crats that spoke or applauded at the Jacobin Club, or sat with the Mountain on the upper benches of the National Convention. 4
, F. BraetCh, L4 Communi du 10 oo� 17!}2, p. �67;J. M. ThomJ»On, TIN Fr.MA I Tueley, op. cit., vol. viii, no. 39�. R4ut>luliml, pp. 297-8. • S. E. Harris, TIw AuigMu (Harvard Univ. P«:ss, 1930), p. [02. , For a detailed account, mainly billCd on the police reports ofthe rari, ScctionJ in the archiva of the PrtrCClure de Polic<:, .ee G. Rudi!, 'La £meula da 2�, �6f �vricr 1793'. Ann.ltilt. Rh./rQItf., no. '30, 1953. pp. 3S-�7·
(Marais). Meanwhile, northwards, the movement reached Amis the west it reached the Gardes Fran'1aises at 2.30, the Museum (Louvre) at 4 o'clock, the Butte des Moulins (Palais Royal) at 7, the Tuileries at 8, and Republique (Roule) at 10. From the Tuileries it may have crossed the Pont National (the former Pont Louis XVI) to the Left Bank; at any rate, there were disturbances in the Fontaine de Grenelle Section between 8 and 9 that night. The next day there followed minor incidents in a number of Sections, in which the market women ofthe centre and laundresses of the rue de Bievre. in the Faubourg Saint Marcel, played a conspicuous part. But Santerre, who had been away at Versailles on the 25th, mobilized the National Guard at an early hour and soon succeeded in dispersing the crowds and restoring law and order. This time it was not only sugar that was aimed at, but a whole
...1Itt7tf 1000i�I I(JIIS l� TmtlJT, pp. IU-6. , A. Mathiez La Vie de,. i II u "",u� , Unforlunat;ly these 3 Seclions an:': among Ihc 30 for whom no """is._baliit exilt for the period covering Ihe riOIll. Howew:r, Ihen: are lOme indications given in the case of 14 oflhem in police and prison n:':gislel'3 and in the general reports of Ihe Bureau de Surveillanc," de la Police. , cr. an addr� pr�ented to Ihe National Conw:ntion by the Paris Commune on 27 February 1793: 'r.., dbordre a klal� subilcment avec violence; i1 s'cst prnpagoY avre la rapidil� de la foudn:; du centre ou il avait pris nai!L1ance aux eXlr�mitts de la vil!e leo propri�tts ont �t� vioUel' (Arch. Nat., C 247, no. 360,
rol. 36).
...
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
instrument, the Revolutionary Government of the Year n,
�
only emerged after a further popular insuIT:ction in Septe� er. Yet this alliance between the Mountain and the Panslan
sans.culottes which was to be so remarkable a feature of the
�zed �t�out . diffi. culty and without stress. Apart from the gam ofpoliuc�l nghts, ' next phase of the Revolution, was not re
the sans-aJottes had won little from the August revolution. The new Commune, which had conducted the insurrection with
their active participation, was neither of their making nor �ade . in their image : although fewer lawyers and merchants sat In lt . . than in the Communes of 1789 and 179 I. only one·third of ttl members were small shopkeepers, masters, or journeymen; and
the lawyers and journalists, although in a minori�, held the leading posts.1 This, however, would be changed 10 the near future. There were more immediately pressing problems, such
THE TRIUMPH OF THE MOUNTAIN
"5
There had been two deputations of women to the Conven tion on Sunday, 23 February, one of which was composed of laundresses, who complained of the price of soap; 1 and there had been local disturbances, followed by arrests, on the morrow. But the real outbreak began on the morning of the 25th; it took the form of the mass invasion of grocers' and chandlers' shops and the forcible reduction of prices to a level dictated by the insurgents. Starting in the central, commercial, quarter-formed by the Lombards, Gravilliers. and Marches Sectionsz-at 1 0 o'clock i n the morning, the movement spread with remarkable speed to every part of the city.l From surviving police reports we can follow its progress from Section to Section. First east wards : soon after 10, in Maison Commune (H6tel de Ville) ; at midday, in Place des Federes (Place Royale) ; at 2 o'clock in Arsenal; at 3, in Droits de I'Homme ; between 3 and 4, in
as work and food prices. In November the president of the
Quinzc Vingts ; at 4 o'clock, in Montreuil and I'Homme Arme
the Convention to provide bread and work for 'la classe nombreuse de citoyens ouvriers'.2 The rise in food prices, which
de la Patrie at 2.30; and Bondy and Mont Blanc at 5 o'clock. In
Popincourt Section in the Faubourg Saint·Antoine appealed to
had caused the outbreak of February 1792, had slowed down in the summer and autumn,] but it took another sharp upward turn in the early months of 1 793: this time it was far more drastic and covered a far wider range of consumers' goods than in the previous spring. By February refined sugar ( 1 790 p ce:
�
24 sow) was selling at 47-60 sous; unrefined sugar ( 1 790 pnce: 12 sour) was selling at 40 sous; tallow candles ( 1 5 sous) at 18j-20 SOIlS; coffee (34 sow) at 40 sour; soap ( 1 2 suus) at 23-28 s�w. The consequence Wa5 a popular outburst, far more extenslv� and insistent than the sugar riots of the previous year, in which ail,
or nearly all, the Parisian Sections were involved and which, perhaps more clearly than any other incident in the Revolu tion, marked the basic conflict of interests between the t1UIW and the possessing classes, including the extreme demo
peuplt
crats that spoke or applauded at the Jacobin Club, or sat with the Mountain on the upper benches of the National Convention. 4
, F. BraetCh, L4 Communi du 10 oo� 17!}2, p. �67;J. M. ThomJ»On, TIN Fr.MA I Tueley, op. cit., vol. viii, no. 39�. R4ut>luliml, pp. 297-8. • S. E. Harris, TIw AuigMu (Harvard Univ. P«:ss, 1930), p. [02. , For a detailed account, mainly billCd on the police reports ofthe rari, ScctionJ in the archiva of the PrtrCClure de Polic<:, .ee G. Rudi!, 'La £meula da 2�, �6f �vricr 1793'. Ann.ltilt. Rh./rQItf., no. '30, 1953. pp. 3S-�7·
(Marais). Meanwhile, northwards, the movement reached Amis the west it reached the Gardes Fran'1aises at 2.30, the Museum (Louvre) at 4 o'clock, the Butte des Moulins (Palais Royal) at 7, the Tuileries at 8, and Republique (Roule) at 10. From the Tuileries it may have crossed the Pont National (the former Pont Louis XVI) to the Left Bank; at any rate, there were disturbances in the Fontaine de Grenelle Section between 8 and 9 that night. The next day there followed minor incidents in a number of Sections, in which the market women ofthe centre and laundresses of the rue de Bievre. in the Faubourg Saint Marcel, played a conspicuous part. But Santerre, who had been away at Versailles on the 25th, mobilized the National Guard at an early hour and soon succeeded in dispersing the crowds and restoring law and order. This time it was not only sugar that was aimed at, but a whole
...1Itt7tf 1000i�I I(JIIS l� TmtlJT, pp. IU-6. , A. Mathiez La Vie de,. i II u "",u� , Unforlunat;ly these 3 Seclions an:': among Ihc 30 for whom no """is._baliit exilt for the period covering Ihe riOIll. Howew:r, Ihen: are lOme indications given in the case of 14 oflhem in police and prison n:':gislel'3 and in the general reports of Ihe Bureau de Surveillanc," de la Police. , cr. an addr� pr�ented to Ihe National Conw:ntion by the Paris Commune on 27 February 1793: 'r.., dbordre a klal� subilcment avec violence; i1 s'cst prnpagoY avre la rapidil� de la foudn:; du centre ou il avait pris nai!L1ance aux eXlr�mitts de la vil!e leo propri�tts ont �t� vioUel' (Arch. Nat., C 247, no. 360,
rol. 36).
N RY CROWD IN ACTIO THE REVOLUTIONA
This onial products, as wecorll.dan ce number of other gr�a en'es and colthe con e abl ark was gene��; ��:t ';"h\: ;�es wererem fthe t one P",: T a in fixed between t le aII f which suggests concerted actton. The city a�d another- g �s most commonly demanded by the the . 25 followmg wererange bythem: sugar at2IB-SOILS; ar pnc_es impILSose' dtallow rioters and the at candles 1 f a 12 SO lOU!. Ha SOILS; unrefined SUg;d these amounts do at ee to soap at 10-12 SOILS, dan� ��ff Id ex eet the shopkelfepeofrsthe been strict�y adhereet���gw�i��o�wo -ha one hs or have received sam i' goods' but th'-fl . l'I·act was rarely the m iS, markel-vaIue 0r the . rng with the rioters :! case. There w�re .undoub � ta� ��ft� ;o ;, e-paTticularlY aJ who saw a g onoUfSthop a . a1 Guard had� turned out (some only a small part ? . e��10 b�� riot) Besides, in the melee that Guardsmen even Jom world, it was often the best .lmtenu.0nsn' into the ensued, even withese ve the money and to gODds tha lea e!lSier to hel� on If aym ant grocer . Y. et we find a mehrch � ent obtain a ree�lpt forrtiO the presentmg the police wit following of the rue SaiOt�Maeipts and losses: account of his rec 1,13 4 tivres a 4 Savoir, 420 \ivr es sucre 5 '40 es a 40 Cassonnade, 70 livr "9 s 20 a . cs Chandelle, 229 livr 347 1. 8 5. Bleu a 28 116
0
•
•
s.
s.
Savon,
248 livres Blanc
s.
Avoir comptant
1,850 1. 8 s. 754 1. 5 5•1-
. market value of t of nearIy two�fifthsr ofPiethe eip showing a rec Merville of the rre Anoth�; �:o��; the goods distribu.tedn,. wa had received he that Place .Royale Secho. n retusrna fore goods wpnce , ,547 Ii.",.' t a d . 521 hurtS, 1 5 sous '. others receivt'.edr re exceed·ngly lucofkythe But these Sbopkeepers ofwethe ir wares-lo market value a b�e :en�i�o�;�� Arcis Section, whose receipts amounted exa pl , the ls and Commard of to 2,82.9 out f 2 6 2y6�aliur es, 4 ljur 58 1 lecl 1 , o�l nag�d to coJ �o w es, F,.ran�alS tly ren cur s C' good wel, lor . asngnaIs w,appcd in a tea-to at 27,043 liures.l I
10
I
117
THE TRIUMPH OF THE MOUNTAIN
.
These riots had other remarkable features. Their main victims were, as one would expect, the big merchants and wholesalers, who were generally considered responsible for hoarding and forcing up prices. This probably explains why the movement started in the Gravilliers and Lombards Sections, where there was a concentration of such dealers. But as the riots spread outwards, there appears to have been less discrimination shown, and the shops of small chandlers and grocers suffered with the rest. In the Quinze Vingts Section, for example, the police commissioner drew up a list of twenty-five grocers, of whom thirteen had incurred losses of some kind or another-in some cases amounting to only a few livrts.1 Another significant fact that emcrged was that not only the very poor took part in what was largely a spontaneous protest against high prices. There are plenty of examples, quoted by witnesses, it is true, of wage earners and eity poor taking part in the disturbances: we hear of butcher's boys, building workers, water-carriers, porters, market�women, cooks, and domestic servants playing con spicuous parts in various quarters of the city; and among the forty-nine persons arrested as the result of the riots, twenty. eight were wage-earners of one kind or another; the rest were small shopkeepers and artisans.1 Yet there is ample evidence to show that other shopkeepers-and even occasional bourgtois were quite willing to take advantage of the unhappy plight of the grocers in order to send their cooks or servants, garrons or journeymen, along to mingle with the invading crowds and buy sugar, soap, candles, or coffee at prices highly favourable to themselves.l It is hard to determine how far the riots were the outcome of a concerted plan of action. The Municipal Council, theJacobin Club, and the various parties in the Convention, who all denounced them in most downright terms, while admitting that �ardship had arisen from rising prices, sought to explain them In terms of a 'hidden hand', counter-revolutionary intrigue, or Ibid., Aa ��O. fol,. �4o-l. !'Vidence to '\I"""t that the number of arrats wat far gr at..., but tetltel�lCVant documents (lik.. w m\leh oth... malmal in the form... ke.-ping of the '! , d" Ville) must have disappeared in the fire of 1871. � We !'i.nd the .arne sort oflhing happening in the corn riots of 1775, when small :en took advantag.. of th" laxnl;/Jff /JdIIulni., to buy wheat from the wn.\thi". 'I1ITS at wmelhing like two-fifths of the market price. ,
, Th"r" s i
..
N RY CROWD IN ACTIO THE REVOLUTIONA
This onial products, as wecorll.dan ce number of other gr�a en'es and colthe con e abl ark was gene��; ��:t ';"h\: ;�es wererem fthe t one P",: T a in fixed between t le aII f which suggests concerted actton. The city a�d another- g �s most commonly demanded by the the . 25 followmg wererange bythem: sugar at2IB-SOILS; ar pnc_es impILSose' dtallow rioters and the at candles 1 f a 12 SO lOU!. Ha SOILS; unrefined SUg;d these amounts do at ee to soap at 10-12 SOILS, dan� ��ff Id ex eet the shopkelfepeofrsthe been strict�y adhereet���gw�i��o�wo -ha one hs or have received sam i' goods' but th'-fl . l'I·act was rarely the m iS, markel-vaIue 0r the . rng with the rioters :! case. There w�re .undoub � ta� ��ft� ;o ;, e-paTticularlY aJ who saw a g onoUfSthop a . a1 Guard had� turned out (some only a small part ? . e��10 b�� riot) Besides, in the melee that Guardsmen even Jom world, it was often the best .lmtenu.0nsn' into the ensued, even withese ve the money and to gODds tha lea e!lSier to hel� on If aym ant grocer . Y. et we find a mehrch � ent obtain a ree�lpt forrtiO the presentmg the police wit following of the rue SaiOt�Maeipts and losses: account of his rec 1,13 4 tivres a 4 Savoir, 420 \ivr es sucre 5 '40 es a 40 Cassonnade, 70 livr "9 s 20 a . cs Chandelle, 229 livr 347 1. 8 5. Bleu a 28 116
0
•
•
s.
s.
Savon,
248 livres Blanc
s.
Avoir comptant
1,850 1. 8 s. 754 1. 5 5•1-
. market value of t of nearIy two�fifthsr ofPiethe eip showing a rec Merville of the rre Anoth�; �:o��; the goods distribu.tedn,. wa had received he that Place .Royale Secho. n retusrna fore goods wpnce , ,547 Ii.",.' t a d . 521 hurtS, 1 5 sous '. others receivt'.edr re exceed·ngly lucofkythe But these Sbopkeepers ofwethe ir wares-lo market value a b�e :en�i�o�;�� Arcis Section, whose receipts amounted exa pl , the ls and Commard of to 2,82.9 out f 2 6 2y6�aliur es, 4 ljur 58 1 lecl 1 , o�l nag�d to coJ �o w es, F,.ran�alS tly ren cur s C' good wel, lor . asngnaIs w,appcd in a tea-to at 27,043 liures.l I
10
I
117
THE TRIUMPH OF THE MOUNTAIN
.
These riots had other remarkable features. Their main victims were, as one would expect, the big merchants and wholesalers, who were generally considered responsible for hoarding and forcing up prices. This probably explains why the movement started in the Gravilliers and Lombards Sections, where there was a concentration of such dealers. But as the riots spread outwards, there appears to have been less discrimination shown, and the shops of small chandlers and grocers suffered with the rest. In the Quinze Vingts Section, for example, the police commissioner drew up a list of twenty-five grocers, of whom thirteen had incurred losses of some kind or another-in some cases amounting to only a few livrts.1 Another significant fact that emcrged was that not only the very poor took part in what was largely a spontaneous protest against high prices. There are plenty of examples, quoted by witnesses, it is true, of wage earners and eity poor taking part in the disturbances: we hear of butcher's boys, building workers, water-carriers, porters, market�women, cooks, and domestic servants playing con spicuous parts in various quarters of the city; and among the forty-nine persons arrested as the result of the riots, twenty. eight were wage-earners of one kind or another; the rest were small shopkeepers and artisans.1 Yet there is ample evidence to show that other shopkeepers-and even occasional bourgtois were quite willing to take advantage of the unhappy plight of the grocers in order to send their cooks or servants, garrons or journeymen, along to mingle with the invading crowds and buy sugar, soap, candles, or coffee at prices highly favourable to themselves.l It is hard to determine how far the riots were the outcome of a concerted plan of action. The Municipal Council, theJacobin Club, and the various parties in the Convention, who all denounced them in most downright terms, while admitting that �ardship had arisen from rising prices, sought to explain them In terms of a 'hidden hand', counter-revolutionary intrigue, or Ibid., Aa ��O. fol,. �4o-l. !'Vidence to '\I"""t that the number of arrats wat far gr at..., but tetltel�lCVant documents (lik.. w m\leh oth... malmal in the form... ke.-ping of the '! , d" Ville) must have disappeared in the fire of 1871. � We !'i.nd the .arne sort oflhing happening in the corn riots of 1775, when small :en took advantag.. of th" laxnl;/Jff /JdIIulni., to buy wheat from the wn.\thi". 'I1ITS at wmelhing like two-fifths of the market price. ,
, Th"r" s i
..
IN ACTION NARY CROW D THE REVOLUTIO , ents. Barere, for
118
litical oppon of thelT darkly the machinations . Mountain spoke OC O yet J l d the t to ha and, who D? example, in dis uise' , ent of aristocrats lOcltem ous ' sugar perfidi s as of 'the 'l article UXUrv .l 'ISted that sueh . ar pas popul underline his polOt, excite to . themselves not 1 lY 10 were added : coffee he , and cupation when his malO pre« , . sions', but he showed . ' societb ; car Ii ou Je ne pnnCIpe5 d tautes les les d'ordre pas rn li o o u b N reconnais plus des pfapfl tes, je ne vois point Ie respect •
�
�
��
g
'I
�
�
'
$OCial l
•
attenUon perhaps to draw the CommuDe ' g a hangin The Mountain and d mende recom whose �aper had Jacques on away from Marat, picked oorstep'• . n over thelT own d , as we Dumber 0f groce , '� Section, whlch ra V l G the of t' . pnes d re ' malO the Roux, the as nces, ' disturba the of , t I startmg-po � s view,' saw, had been a , mc ' lined to share thi lez is riots' Math h f rot't tor instiga time that an upper demanded for some ly t certam far had w ho Roux s', but , nsume>'> ...,' good e pn' ces of all co h t on to ible ed lac imposs b� � Section it is bey?nd his own any played hIS 10fluence spread evidence that he there IS no rea1 say ,' and anvway ever. " th'IS affair whatso Bureau de direct part 10 , med'late esults .' a report of the po leeof The riots had no lIl the that insisted e of '27 ebrua hc po la de e nc same at the Surveilla d s et remained leather, s the oppor. sugar, cofree, oil, took ne , t e Commu ore , bef as el lev nt ita t '2 , 'exorb the A lb loaf at to fix the pnce f 0 tumty, on 4: March' 1 . s ite of the increase 1 at th leve , in Yet, and maintamed It ubsidies to baker.;.4 0 w:ages, b ties consumer.;' goods and authori show the the commg we s , ' e to come, anotlnel police reports for e tIm som for ct, exp to d an � tinued to fear populalft.5 outbreak of taxatio� the agitation. crept in to sloke up But soon other Issues , there bread' of e hortag as a temporary s mid-Apn' l there lle and Vi de tel Ho arch to the protest s n me wo a of k ore tal the rue Saint-Hon a baker s Shop in Convention; and i$, . -1799 80 voll., Par ·
·Ilie-
0
li
�
�
.
·
�
;-v
(ut i AfClti.'Cs jl<JT/lmelllafeJ
.
: r;; ���t� � �
:n
senes,
0
I 789
;
'1"- .
,
Mathia, op. cit., pp.
. r. 0 . Arch. Nat., AF I Henceforth, the pnee lll la .ffrtU';' -1 9 n • P. Caron Pans fnnda 7 5 ..; Chapt"r X below). c� 10 be an wu�: ntil l h (C w\n�c� t 4 7, 18 March 1793)· l .pO rcpor or " I Arch. Nat., t\F L
272-4.
•
,
V I
1470.
; 9
(
f
THE TRIUMPH OF THE MOUNTAIN
119
invaded and most of its contenu pillaged b y angry women, In April and May there were reporu that market-women and
others were preparing for a new prison massacre ; and, from
this time on, Marat, the arch-advocate ofspeedy revolutionary justice, becomes the hero of the mnw peupu. On May a
10,000
2
unarmed citizens of the Faubourg Saint deputation of Antoine paraded before the Convention and demanded that
prices be controlled in the interesu of the small consumers ; and women from Ver.;ailles rioted in the Convention and refused to leave the building,' It was against this background that the Convention, with considerable reluctance, voted the .6r.;t law of the Maximum which controlled the price of bread and
flour throughout the country.z And now, as so often in the past, the party contending for power began to turn this movement to its own advantage and
to guide it into channels that accorded with its own political interests. The struggle between Gironde and Mountain had reached a point of open breach, and it is evident from the
Girondin's attempt to incriminate Danton over the treachery of Dumouriez and their subsequent arrest of Marat and his summons before the Revolutionary Tribunal tha.t, had the Mountain not struck when the occasion arose, they would themselves have fallen a victim to their opponenu.
At fir.;t, however, it was not the Mountain or the Jacobin
Club, but the extreme revolutionary group of Enrages, whose leader.; were Jean Varlet and Jacques Roux, that did the
running and tried to push the Paris Commune and Sections into a premature insurrection. Varlet's speeches on the Terrasse
des Feuillants, within earshot of the Tuileries. drew great crowds of supporters ; but the attempt made by Varlet's insurrectional Committee to stage a popular joumie on 10 March with the object of settling accounts with the Girondin leader.;, Roland and Brissot, and of introducing the death penalty for hoarders
and speculators, proved still-born: the resolute opposition of the Jacobin Club, the Commune, and the Faubourg Saint-Antoine doomed it to failure,' Yet the Enrages continued to have a follOwing and there was talk, for several weeks to come, of the
I Ibid. (report. ror '5-16 April, 4 April, '4 May, .s-$ April, 2-3 May). • A,<=hi_ J-I#mt,toll!iru lxiv. s6-,57. I Lerebvn:, 01'. cit., p, 340,
IN ACTION NARY CROW D THE REVOLUTIO , ents. Barere, for
118
litical oppon of thelT darkly the machinations . Mountain spoke OC O yet J l d the t to ha and, who D? example, in dis uise' , ent of aristocrats lOcltem ous ' sugar perfidi s as of 'the 'l article UXUrv .l 'ISted that sueh . ar pas popul underline his polOt, excite to . themselves not 1 lY 10 were added : coffee he , and cupation when his malO pre« , . sions', but he showed . ' societb ; car Ii ou Je ne pnnCIpe5 d tautes les les d'ordre pas rn li o o u b N reconnais plus des pfapfl tes, je ne vois point Ie respect •
�
�
��
g
'I
�
�
'
$OCial l
•
attenUon perhaps to draw the CommuDe ' g a hangin The Mountain and d mende recom whose �aper had Jacques on away from Marat, picked oorstep'• . n over thelT own d , as we Dumber 0f groce , '� Section, whlch ra V l G the of t' . pnes d re ' malO the Roux, the as nces, ' disturba the of , t I startmg-po � s view,' saw, had been a , mc ' lined to share thi lez is riots' Math h f rot't tor instiga time that an upper demanded for some ly t certam far had w ho Roux s', but , nsume>'> ...,' good e pn' ces of all co h t on to ible ed lac imposs b� � Section it is bey?nd his own any played hIS 10fluence spread evidence that he there IS no rea1 say ,' and anvway ever. " th'IS affair whatso Bureau de direct part 10 , med'late esults .' a report of the po leeof The riots had no lIl the that insisted e of '27 ebrua hc po la de e nc same at the Surveilla d s et remained leather, s the oppor. sugar, cofree, oil, took ne , t e Commu ore , bef as el lev nt ita t '2 , 'exorb the A lb loaf at to fix the pnce f 0 tumty, on 4: March' 1 . s ite of the increase 1 at th leve , in Yet, and maintamed It ubsidies to baker.;.4 0 w:ages, b ties consumer.;' goods and authori show the the commg we s , ' e to come, anotlnel police reports for e tIm som for ct, exp to d an � tinued to fear populalft.5 outbreak of taxatio� the agitation. crept in to sloke up But soon other Issues , there bread' of e hortag as a temporary s mid-Apn' l there lle and Vi de tel Ho arch to the protest s n me wo a of k ore tal the rue Saint-Hon a baker s Shop in Convention; and i$, . -1799 80 voll., Par ·
·Ilie-
0
li
�
�
.
·
�
;-v
(ut i AfClti.'Cs jl<JT/lmelllafeJ
.
: r;; ���t� � �
:n
senes,
0
I 789
;
'1"- .
,
Mathia, op. cit., pp.
. r. 0 . Arch. Nat., AF I Henceforth, the pnee lll la .ffrtU';' -1 9 n • P. Caron Pans fnnda 7 5 ..; Chapt"r X below). c� 10 be an wu�: ntil l h (C w\n�c� t 4 7, 18 March 1793)· l .pO rcpor or " I Arch. Nat., t\F L
272-4.
•
,
V I
1470.
; 9
(
f
THE TRIUMPH OF THE MOUNTAIN
119
invaded and most of its contenu pillaged b y angry women, In April and May there were reporu that market-women and
others were preparing for a new prison massacre ; and, from
this time on, Marat, the arch-advocate ofspeedy revolutionary justice, becomes the hero of the mnw peupu. On May a
10,000
2
unarmed citizens of the Faubourg Saint deputation of Antoine paraded before the Convention and demanded that
prices be controlled in the interesu of the small consumers ; and women from Ver.;ailles rioted in the Convention and refused to leave the building,' It was against this background that the Convention, with considerable reluctance, voted the .6r.;t law of the Maximum which controlled the price of bread and
flour throughout the country.z And now, as so often in the past, the party contending for power began to turn this movement to its own advantage and
to guide it into channels that accorded with its own political interests. The struggle between Gironde and Mountain had reached a point of open breach, and it is evident from the
Girondin's attempt to incriminate Danton over the treachery of Dumouriez and their subsequent arrest of Marat and his summons before the Revolutionary Tribunal tha.t, had the Mountain not struck when the occasion arose, they would themselves have fallen a victim to their opponenu.
At fir.;t, however, it was not the Mountain or the Jacobin
Club, but the extreme revolutionary group of Enrages, whose leader.; were Jean Varlet and Jacques Roux, that did the
running and tried to push the Paris Commune and Sections into a premature insurrection. Varlet's speeches on the Terrasse
des Feuillants, within earshot of the Tuileries. drew great crowds of supporters ; but the attempt made by Varlet's insurrectional Committee to stage a popular joumie on 10 March with the object of settling accounts with the Girondin leader.;, Roland and Brissot, and of introducing the death penalty for hoarders
and speculators, proved still-born: the resolute opposition of the Jacobin Club, the Commune, and the Faubourg Saint-Antoine doomed it to failure,' Yet the Enrages continued to have a follOwing and there was talk, for several weeks to come, of the
I Ibid. (report. ror '5-16 April, 4 April, '4 May, .s-$ April, 2-3 May). • A,<=hi_ J-I#mt,toll!iru lxiv. s6-,57. I Lerebvn:, 01'. cit., p, 340,
THE TRIUMPH OF THE MOUNTAIN
ACTION NARY CROWD IN THE REVOLUTIO
whole ction to purge the Convention need for a popular insurre of all essentials.' ate sale and to control the prices leaders were in no immedi while. But the Mountain and Jacobin nce; experie d wisdom from past both willing and hurry. They had learneoppon ents, they were unlike their Girondin movement to promote their political able to use the popular on of allowing its direction to pass into ends, they had no intenti Enrages or to Hebert, the editor of in the other hands-either to the ce was steadily increasing fea influen whose , Dw:hesne red Pere y the the Paris Commune. Besides, the of purge Cordeliers Club and thewould entail too drastic a the resist that a premature rising to would be powerless accom Convention, whose Rumpsans-culo be would ttes; that it ve lea economic demands of the d an s cre of prison massa pro panied by a new outbreeak combined hostility of the the of they ril Ap Paris isolated in the fac ly ear by t ution; bu ca th wi d de cee pro y the So .: rt of vinces programme, win the suptpoon ir the e lat mu for to dy a rea re un we (in which they could como ent vem the Sectional assemblies lea ship of the popular in the majority). and wrest the mider sts'. Accordingly. on 5 April, blicly from either group of 'extre 's yo pu , stin unger brother, Augu the of Jacobin Club. Robespierrepresent bar the themselves at invited the Sections to forcer de mettre en arrestation les Convention and 'nouS response was immediate: three days deputes infideJ.es'.l The Bon Consol Section called on the later, a deputation of the tice the best-known of the Girand;n the Convention to bring to jus Buzot, and others ; and. on e on leaders-Vergniaud. Guadet, nt we tion of the Halle au Ble oval from lOth, the neighbouring Sec rem wo deputies,.. whose for a better by naming twenty-t meet the popular demandtai n the Assembly would both un Mo the ion and assure gan purge of a discredited Convent slo the e am bec it. This now Al a working majority within pe. sha k too e un y-J ion of Ma around which the insurrect-fiv ns the forty-eight Sectio ed ready, by mid-April, thirtyport;e of Paris Commune en,don given their individual sup y, invthe ited the Sections to send bly the demands and, on 19 Maoperation , It was from the "",eon missioners to discuss their 16 April). 0 (reports of 11- 16 March, , �h. Nat., AF'v 147
120
• Lefcbvre, op. cit., p. 333·
, Buche!: et Row<, op. cit. xxv. 294.
• MOfIi� (rliw>J!r,), xvi.
100·
121
thus formed that eventually erne d the Cen�ral R�olutionary ' d t e Panslan revolucommittee which organized an��Irecte tion of 3 1 MaY-2 June. 1 While it is easy enough to folIow th: course of these preparations in the Sectional assembl'Ir' we ave far less knowledge of of how the Parisian mtlW!::P reacted. to these developments t�� orga �lzers to �raw them into and what steps were lake active support. That this su r was orthcommg seems likely aIa:med a� theleveloffood enough. They were as we ha� prices, and dema�ds were al:::;y' bemg VOiced, sometimes r ntrol of the price and with the Enrages as spokesme fi r 'he w . ut?ers' supply ofnot only bread and fl�u:' but 0 all essenbalcoDS gcods. While the Mountain had shown �o great enthusiasm . for such a programme the main OPp�slUon to it came, as all those who crowded the �Pper �n unes of the Assembly " hear for th._ ........elves Irom the G'Ironde and Its could see and .m the Convention Pn��es co�tmued to rise. and supporters police reports of April and M�y�e ;c� � e popular .view that :C e y theJacoblDS, might a purge of the Convention, as . hoarders and to lead to more energetic measur� t deal with . t�ere are indications that ensure supplies At the saffie brne theJacobins and their affil,".,es were usmg theelubsand popular . . to draw SOCieties in support from the men and women of the mtnu peuplt. Thus a police agent reports to the Minister of the Interior on 1 3 May that . Lo femmes perseverent dam Ie Jet �e de�ander la retraite des :� Ues . , mcm
;
.
Z
. ; e 22 deputes par les hommes.J
ont
espolr qu dies seront secondees
on 29 Ma . y, we hear that an ex-Jacobin bookb" der 0r the ' dlstnct Pantheon trollve scandaleux que I'on veuiUe sublItl'�uer aux bourgeois tow les ' •
and,
10
ouvriers de I eglise Sainte-Genevieve, qu' 5e sont fo�es en clubs et '
, apres I assemblee de la sectiOn.4 . . When It came to the pomt, the or�amzers of the Revolution fOUnd, as we shall see, a more practIcal expedient for ensunng <: , For a �hOlarlY, YCI Mlmewhat tendenciout account P Sainte·C1air ' ' ,. Deviuc L4 946)' .pp. .� th flJll ll (Parill, 1
se
reunissent en dehors et
.
.
. ......;,. N , at., AFIV I470 (reporu for April-May) '' F' 3683', d011. 11• Ibid. ' ' A. Sc mldt, TabU4W1 U 14 RilltllwionJrlll>f1liu (, �"., LciPZ�i, " 867 7 330. , I«
. •
�
1 - 1), i.
THE TRIUMPH OF THE MOUNTAIN
ACTION NARY CROWD IN THE REVOLUTIO
whole ction to purge the Convention need for a popular insurre of all essentials.' ate sale and to control the prices leaders were in no immedi while. But the Mountain and Jacobin nce; experie d wisdom from past both willing and hurry. They had learneoppon ents, they were unlike their Girondin movement to promote their political able to use the popular on of allowing its direction to pass into ends, they had no intenti Enrages or to Hebert, the editor of in the other hands-either to the ce was steadily increasing fea influen whose , Dw:hesne red Pere y the the Paris Commune. Besides, the of purge Cordeliers Club and thewould entail too drastic a the resist that a premature rising to would be powerless accom Convention, whose Rumpsans-culo be would ttes; that it ve lea economic demands of the d an s cre of prison massa pro panied by a new outbreeak combined hostility of the the of they ril Ap Paris isolated in the fac ly ear by t ution; bu ca th wi d de cee pro y the So .: rt of vinces programme, win the suptpoon ir the e lat mu for to dy a rea re un we (in which they could como ent vem the Sectional assemblies lea ship of the popular in the majority). and wrest the mider sts'. Accordingly. on 5 April, blicly from either group of 'extre 's yo pu , stin unger brother, Augu the of Jacobin Club. Robespierrepresent bar the themselves at invited the Sections to forcer de mettre en arrestation les Convention and 'nouS response was immediate: three days deputes infideJ.es'.l The Bon Consol Section called on the later, a deputation of the tice the best-known of the Girand;n the Convention to bring to jus Buzot, and others ; and. on e on leaders-Vergniaud. Guadet, nt we tion of the Halle au Ble oval from lOth, the neighbouring Sec rem wo deputies,.. whose for a better by naming twenty-t meet the popular demandtai n the Assembly would both un Mo the ion and assure gan purge of a discredited Convent slo the e am bec it. This now Al a working majority within pe. sha k too e un y-J ion of Ma around which the insurrect-fiv ns the forty-eight Sectio ed ready, by mid-April, thirtyport;e of Paris Commune en,don given their individual sup y, invthe ited the Sections to send bly the demands and, on 19 Maoperation , It was from the "",eon missioners to discuss their 16 April). 0 (reports of 11- 16 March, , �h. Nat., AF'v 147
120
• Lefcbvre, op. cit., p. 333·
, Buche!: et Row<, op. cit. xxv. 294.
• MOfIi� (rliw>J!r,), xvi.
100·
121
thus formed that eventually erne d the Cen�ral R�olutionary ' d t e Panslan revolucommittee which organized an��Irecte tion of 3 1 MaY-2 June. 1 While it is easy enough to folIow th: course of these preparations in the Sectional assembl'Ir' we ave far less knowledge of of how the Parisian mtlW!::P reacted. to these developments t�� orga �lzers to �raw them into and what steps were lake active support. That this su r was orthcommg seems likely aIa:med a� theleveloffood enough. They were as we ha� prices, and dema�ds were al:::;y' bemg VOiced, sometimes r ntrol of the price and with the Enrages as spokesme fi r 'he w . ut?ers' supply ofnot only bread and fl�u:' but 0 all essenbalcoDS gcods. While the Mountain had shown �o great enthusiasm . for such a programme the main OPp�slUon to it came, as all those who crowded the �Pper �n unes of the Assembly " hear for th._ ........elves Irom the G'Ironde and Its could see and .m the Convention Pn��es co�tmued to rise. and supporters police reports of April and M�y�e ;c� � e popular .view that :C e y theJacoblDS, might a purge of the Convention, as . hoarders and to lead to more energetic measur� t deal with . t�ere are indications that ensure supplies At the saffie brne theJacobins and their affil,".,es were usmg theelubsand popular . . to draw SOCieties in support from the men and women of the mtnu peuplt. Thus a police agent reports to the Minister of the Interior on 1 3 May that . Lo femmes perseverent dam Ie Jet �e de�ander la retraite des :� Ues . , mcm
;
.
Z
. ; e 22 deputes par les hommes.J
ont
espolr qu dies seront secondees
on 29 Ma . y, we hear that an ex-Jacobin bookb" der 0r the ' dlstnct Pantheon trollve scandaleux que I'on veuiUe sublItl'�uer aux bourgeois tow les ' •
and,
10
ouvriers de I eglise Sainte-Genevieve, qu' 5e sont fo�es en clubs et '
, apres I assemblee de la sectiOn.4 . . When It came to the pomt, the or�amzers of the Revolution fOUnd, as we shall see, a more practIcal expedient for ensunng <: , For a �hOlarlY, YCI Mlmewhat tendenciout account P Sainte·C1air ' ' ,. Deviuc L4 946)' .pp. .� th flJll ll (Parill, 1
se
reunissent en dehors et
.
.
. ......;,. N , at., AFIV I470 (reporu for April-May) '' F' 3683', d011. 11• Ibid. ' ' A. Sc mldt, TabU4W1 U 14 RilltllwionJrlll>f1liu (, �"., LciPZ�i, " 867 7 330. , I«
. •
�
1 - 1), i.
AC TIO N RY CROWD IN
raw oftheir armed no defection from the that there should be t from work; yet thist to anxiety over timenolospar supporters owing me t at aU in stimula re and played was a last-minute theasueve lf. ing support before insurrectntionitsedev ord. ped more or less accgon Meanwhile the tral Revolutioelo e had e itte mm Co nary ing to plan. The Cen une mm Co the ht nig t ion on 29 May; the nex into permanent sessrep nriot, a former ented on it, and HaNa lly became officia givres tional Guard. command of the tion customs clerk, wass decenidethe olu d to raise in the Secd at sthea rev In addition it wa 20,000 san e of rat lottlS to be pai tionary militia ofspent unders-cuarm in tocs the t On the 31 S 40 SOIlS per day and the barriJress,l we tain cer he -t sed pealed at 3 a.m., nts. But it was a workirengcloday (Friday) and, prelude to great eveen and workers responded. Consequently, as yet, few craftsm atively little externaJg nd itself under compar the Convention fou e its face by passinof e to win tiJ;lel. and sav pressure and was abl mmittee for ly ition to its new RemevoldutiCoona on the inevitable apetrep m� ort. The Central pace: on rySunCoday , Public Safety for decide ce the mittee, however,rounded dthetoTufor oM tali bat ies with loyal 2 June, they sur , supported iler ments additional detachoic by the National Guard her an ng es, after attemptied sans-culottes. The deputi ignominiously der ren sur d, cke blo t exi and finding everydem uties and dep ands. Twenty-nine the insurgents' jority se anres·C' er und ced party were pla about foohou ministers of the mag said, for d prices, moment, There was nothin achievedthe mediate aims. the Mountain hade of the Basitstillim e of the T g;��� and e Like the captur Girondin deputiesthewasieg :: s a largely � the expulsion of the In ,u.cl ns. tio ma for itary out by organized mil operation, carrie,dwe of e tur pic a ain not hope to obt s case, are there cases, of course policecan thi records;l nor, in insurgents from 122
NA THE RE VO LU TIO
\
dca. 1 6. , Arch. Nat., BB' 50, cit., pp. te-CIa.iff; Deville, op. • Ldebvu, op. cit., pp. 34HZ; Sain look-out for women anned·w;
THE TRIUMPH OF THE MOUNTAIN
f23
. her Damqueurs . us. We do, . or ofdead and wou d t0 ulde or elt however, get a certain impression ot;:,� t! ��J:!����f the fo�nesfispecially enrolled an� :::�oe�y��� t o e t �d �orresp ndence ofthe Sections������ C��:�:e �� ���� a ety ofthe P�ris Department;' this relates to the claim a or compensatlon u!:' ar�ns. We on behalf of those who had lost wor: :y �:: . ngputtIng learn, for example, that, ofthirt e S ctlons In f?r a total claim of 114,291 livm : �-::.� o/another two Sectlons separately listed,l the following' were able to muster the k"rgest contingents of sans-tulOllts: Montmartre Montreuil . 2,946 IA38 Quinze Vingts 2,039 1,400 Bon Corueil Croix Rouge Invalides . 1,458 1,358 Gravilliers . 1,457 Popincourt 970 In fact once again the Fa bo S ' i t n::ly �� apPslic�n� ouUt�fa�:t�������I!So:er �:,!:� :�\�e F urg atnt-Marcel-wtth 907 cIalrnants · from the Observatoire and 660 from Finiste ems to have played a smaller part. Yet the point t o � e presse� too far: there are considerable gaps in the�wr;es,�.. nd. whtle they are a rough guide to the number 0 sans-cu�ottn enrolled by the Sections making claims we h��; no means of knowing what proportion they formed'of the al nurnbers under arms. But, wh·le we may be reasonablY certam ' tha.t the numbers herelisted areofsans-culottes_though not necessanly as members . .' u
IC
•
I
This was the new name iven to the former Central Revolutiona.ry Com. m'ltee, purged of Varlet and auoaatet, after the uprising. • Areh. Nat.' DB' 80' d0lIl· 7· . • The Bon Consetl Section claimed in a ..:parate note, to have had 1,400 men under anna on 2 June (Areh Nat BB: 80 d0lIl. 1 1 ) ; whi l e Bonne Nouvelle, which ' had requisitioned on behalf of iu'�r�rt1 armes, 490 4·lb. loava from II baken 2�un��. �. 1 June and 213 loaves from ln bak Po!., AI. 71. fa!. 4�), that it had returned : list mmmtt ad, p�mably, 1011 e 1 had gone one better in the provision orfood ) r c . Nat., BB80, dOlll. 7). Montreu'l . . for iu 'volontaires indigenu" on 2 une we find tho Ill. ralllng :i6 4·lb. loaves, ' " j lb. 0r sausage, 30 lb. of (heac' &c., to a total value of 542 livru, e sow (Arch. Pol., Aa 173, fob. 92 93) . Sc I' Thus, apart from the nd' g no re at al\, the Panth�n turn.J m . ::; See o giva a return for only 2� 3 mpan;es and Mustum admits to ", � Cl) : h ng sent n i only a partial return (ArC . N� p _ � � � , w _
�it
(��cd p �r.
�"
.
l:i
d'
���
I��:
Pr��.
AC TIO N RY CROWD IN
raw oftheir armed no defection from the that there should be t from work; yet thist to anxiety over timenolospar supporters owing me t at aU in stimula re and played was a last-minute theasueve lf. ing support before insurrectntionitsedev ord. ped more or less accgon Meanwhile the tral Revolutioelo e had e itte mm Co nary ing to plan. The Cen une mm Co the ht nig t ion on 29 May; the nex into permanent sessrep nriot, a former ented on it, and HaNa lly became officia givres tional Guard. command of the tion customs clerk, wass decenidethe olu d to raise in the Secd at sthea rev In addition it wa 20,000 san e of rat lottlS to be pai tionary militia ofspent unders-cuarm in tocs the t On the 31 S 40 SOIlS per day and the barriJress,l we tain cer he -t sed pealed at 3 a.m., nts. But it was a workirengcloday (Friday) and, prelude to great eveen and workers responded. Consequently, as yet, few craftsm atively little externaJg nd itself under compar the Convention fou e its face by passinof e to win tiJ;lel. and sav pressure and was abl mmittee for ly ition to its new RemevoldutiCoona on the inevitable apetrep m� ort. The Central pace: on rySunCoday , Public Safety for decide ce the mittee, however,rounded dthetoTufor oM tali bat ies with loyal 2 June, they sur , supported iler ments additional detachoic by the National Guard her an ng es, after attemptied sans-culottes. The deputi ignominiously der ren sur d, cke blo t exi and finding everydem uties and dep ands. Twenty-nine the insurgents' jority se anres·C' er und ced party were pla about foohou ministers of the mag said, for d prices, moment, There was nothin achievedthe mediate aims. the Mountain hade of the Basitstillim e of the T g;��� and e Like the captur Girondin deputiesthewasieg :: s a largely � the expulsion of the In ,u.cl ns. tio ma for itary out by organized mil operation, carrie,dwe of e tur pic a ain not hope to obt s case, are there cases, of course policecan thi records;l nor, in insurgents from 122
NA THE RE VO LU TIO
\
dca. 1 6. , Arch. Nat., BB' 50, cit., pp. te-CIa.iff; Deville, op. • Ldebvu, op. cit., pp. 34HZ; Sain look-out for women anned·w;
THE TRIUMPH OF THE MOUNTAIN
f23
. her Damqueurs . us. We do, . or ofdead and wou d t0 ulde or elt however, get a certain impression ot;:,� t! ��J:!����f the fo�nesfispecially enrolled an� :::�oe�y��� t o e t �d �orresp ndence ofthe Sections������ C��:�:e �� ���� a ety ofthe P�ris Department;' this relates to the claim a or compensatlon u!:' ar�ns. We on behalf of those who had lost wor: :y �:: . ngputtIng learn, for example, that, ofthirt e S ctlons In f?r a total claim of 114,291 livm : �-::.� o/another two Sectlons separately listed,l the following' were able to muster the k"rgest contingents of sans-tulOllts: Montmartre Montreuil . 2,946 IA38 Quinze Vingts 2,039 1,400 Bon Corueil Croix Rouge Invalides . 1,458 1,358 Gravilliers . 1,457 Popincourt 970 In fact once again the Fa bo S ' i t n::ly �� apPslic�n� ouUt�fa�:t�������I!So:er �:,!:� :�\�e F urg atnt-Marcel-wtth 907 cIalrnants · from the Observatoire and 660 from Finiste ems to have played a smaller part. Yet the point t o � e presse� too far: there are considerable gaps in the�wr;es,�.. nd. whtle they are a rough guide to the number 0 sans-cu�ottn enrolled by the Sections making claims we h��; no means of knowing what proportion they formed'of the al nurnbers under arms. But, wh·le we may be reasonablY certam ' tha.t the numbers herelisted areofsans-culottes_though not necessanly as members . .' u
IC
•
I
This was the new name iven to the former Central Revolutiona.ry Com. m'ltee, purged of Varlet and auoaatet, after the uprising. • Areh. Nat.' DB' 80' d0lIl· 7· . • The Bon Consetl Section claimed in a ..:parate note, to have had 1,400 men under anna on 2 June (Areh Nat BB: 80 d0lIl. 1 1 ) ; whi l e Bonne Nouvelle, which ' had requisitioned on behalf of iu'�r�rt1 armes, 490 4·lb. loava from II baken 2�un��. �. 1 June and 213 loaves from ln bak Po!., AI. 71. fa!. 4�), that it had returned : list mmmtt ad, p�mably, 1011 e 1 had gone one better in the provision orfood ) r c . Nat., BB80, dOlll. 7). Montreu'l . . for iu 'volontaires indigenu" on 2 une we find tho Ill. ralllng :i6 4·lb. loaves, ' " j lb. 0r sausage, 30 lb. of (heac' &c., to a total value of 542 livru, e sow (Arch. Pol., Aa 173, fob. 92 93) . Sc I' Thus, apart from the nd' g no re at al\, the Panth�n turn.J m . ::; See o giva a return for only 2� 3 mpan;es and Mustum admits to ", � Cl) : h ng sent n i only a partial return (ArC . N� p _ � � � , w _
�it
(��cd p �r.
�"
.
l:i
d'
���
I��:
Pr��.
III.
TION TH E REVOLU
IN ACTION ARY CROWD
le to distin mations-it is not possib of separate sans.cuioltes for and city ers ymen or the wage-earn In a en. guish masters from journe ftsm cra and independent en rte poor from the shopkeepers thi g on am : distinction appears n me fts few cases, it is true, the cra g on am Neuf Section, nt Po the by ed list ts can nt; appli assista tobacco-worker and a shop and shopkeepers we find a Invalides the of ny pa of the 5th com and we read of a farmer anging a ation for a Parisian!) arr o farm Section (an unusual occup tw r arms for himself and his Unite rota of attendances unde the litary force mustered by er of hands.1 Again, in the mi mb nu r must have been a fai close Section, at least, there to y Ma 1 ided at dawn on 3 their to journeymen, as it was dec ort rep to ' er 'tous les ouvriers em every workshop and to ord all sm ed lud inc , t this, of course respective companies ; bu ple.1 ployers as well as workpeo m these ught it possible to show fro Yet Henri Calvet has tho citizens letarians among the armed figures the proportion of pro ass the ump His argument is based on of the various Sections) lost were rk for compensation for wo ubtedly tion that the applicants do Un refore, proletarians. necesas rily needy and, the scheme the g ttin Committee, in pu the Central Revolutionary intended that the 40 SOUl a day d erwise before the Convention, ha whose attendance would oth se tho to ly on id pa be uld newly sho Commune, in asking the entail hardship;. and the draw up mmittees of the Sections to in need formed Revolutionary Co re uld be only of such as we lists, stresscd that they sho e Sections acted strictly according of assistance.s Yet, while som ons,' others-for a variety of tructi to the letter of these ins urning erwise; and we find them ret reasons-decidcd to do oth liers, rna jou s )'en dlo dtoyens pm aisJs, or e of not only DOlontaires indigents, err Gu r me far ing ployers-includ em and ers eep pk sho t bu
allen fixed up a total of four atlendancc: hinuelf and , The farmer made one labourcft (ibid.). duoca for hiJ twO rol. 22. "anent du 31 mai-I"-2juiJa 1 Arch. Nat., p. 2507. tion da sections aumou , H. Calvet, 'La Panicipa · " (t928). 366-9· blique Ie 793'. AJI.II ,hisl. Rio.friUOf en de rake a la rtpu qui n'on! piu Ie moy rien ouv Ie dOlI. 16). touS e • '� .• BB' 50, Nat h. (Arc &e. r', jou v par rcce ront ¥IS. avoir laerifiee de leurs joun arma et qui pcuVi:nt ecux qui IOltl sous la • 'Falta une lisle de tOUS 14)' ch. Nat., P' 2517. fol. s (Archbesoln de seeours' (Ar its de I'Homme Section Bit, Mont.reuil, Dro • cr. relurns or Halle au 7; p. 2497. fol. 29) · Nat., DBl 50, dos.s 5,
1
THE
TRIUMPH OF THE MOUNTAIN
12S
the Invalides Section I-and even whole companies without discrimination. I . Meanwhile the problems of Ii00d nd poces remained. The � revolution ofMay-June ha.d done ot ing to solve them and the c an� downward spiral of the upward movement of . assignal went on all bef!.� �h.e llSSIgnat, having fallen to 36 per cent. of its nominal v�lU In June, slumped further to 22 per cent. in August 1 Wh'leI \ t e wages of skilled journeymen may have doubled SiOce : the early days of the RevoIUti·on, the prices of food and other es nt. aIs ten��d to outstrip them-at a pace that became increa:i.:gty preCIpitOUS between June and September• as the t;011OWIng comparative figures will show: •
-
'7!P
Comntodity
Wine (litre) Meat (lb.) BUller (lb.)
'791
J-
J-
101. 1 2 I.
16 • . 19' · 26. ,. 27' •. 100 •.
'. .
2 1 I. 24'.
Egg! (25) .
Sugar (lb.) Coffee (lb.) . Tallow candia (lb.) . Soap (lb.)
.. .. 0 . '. 4
,.. 15"
".
23-28 •.
'791 201.
".
35" 5° '· 1 0 1.
1
9G'"IOO I. .. ..
701.'
What these figures do not reveal are the sudden fluctuations in price that roused suddcn t neou outbursts of anger. A �� � bare week after the June r:� 0 u on t ere was further talk of a general assault on gro ers an butchers. A few days later .::. queues began to form ag n a�b kers' shops ; and even police agents spoke of the need t� cur . �e greed of the wealthy shop keepers and wholesaler s' q�e �ette c1asse en masse est la seule qui ait profite d� l:��a l utlon .� T�ere were soap riots va between 25 and 28 Jun " n one u h mCldent, on the 25th, a crowd in the rue Sain� ·� zare �e�d p a lorry loaded with � � ten crates of soap and sold Its contents 10 the street at 20 sous
�
•
\
' Cf. returns or Panlh&wi. Pont Ncuf.• and MUJbJm Scctiom (A r ch Nat P 52 .s+' BB i t�in doll � g o e t ' 80 �crordin t � . la� CT: 'quctowav en c:. , ;"" tl �1,I'au�n �e " Iait ne paruapaJtnt i. ca sc.coun ' toUi ,6. 66, Haml, op. tiL, pp. 1
��
ISW. foil.
C. Rud�, 'Prica W a d o lar Movementl in Par � during the French ::-V., v� "i �� �:v�lulion" Eam. . 19 , pp. 254-7· Wu h bread. of coune' 3 5<1 , , ue wu one of ahOl'lagC and n0t 0', pncc. i 'a Arch. Nat., AF1V 1.70 (1tp01'tI for 7-10, 14. 16-17, 25, 2?-29June).
Hi�l.
III.
TION TH E REVOLU
IN ACTION ARY CROWD
le to distin mations-it is not possib of separate sans.cuioltes for and city ers ymen or the wage-earn In a en. guish masters from journe ftsm cra and independent en rte poor from the shopkeepers thi g on am : distinction appears n me fts few cases, it is true, the cra g on am Neuf Section, nt Po the by ed list ts can nt; appli assista tobacco-worker and a shop and shopkeepers we find a Invalides the of ny pa of the 5th com and we read of a farmer anging a ation for a Parisian!) arr o farm Section (an unusual occup tw r arms for himself and his Unite rota of attendances unde the litary force mustered by er of hands.1 Again, in the mi mb nu r must have been a fai close Section, at least, there to y Ma 1 ided at dawn on 3 their to journeymen, as it was dec ort rep to ' er 'tous les ouvriers em every workshop and to ord all sm ed lud inc , t this, of course respective companies ; bu ple.1 ployers as well as workpeo m these ught it possible to show fro Yet Henri Calvet has tho citizens letarians among the armed figures the proportion of pro ass the ump His argument is based on of the various Sections) lost were rk for compensation for wo ubtedly tion that the applicants do Un refore, proletarians. necesas rily needy and, the scheme the g ttin Committee, in pu the Central Revolutionary intended that the 40 SOUl a day d erwise before the Convention, ha whose attendance would oth se tho to ly on id pa be uld newly sho Commune, in asking the entail hardship;. and the draw up mmittees of the Sections to in need formed Revolutionary Co re uld be only of such as we lists, stresscd that they sho e Sections acted strictly according of assistance.s Yet, while som ons,' others-for a variety of tructi to the letter of these ins urning erwise; and we find them ret reasons-decidcd to do oth liers, rna jou s )'en dlo dtoyens pm aisJs, or e of not only DOlontaires indigents, err Gu r me far ing ployers-includ em and ers eep pk sho t bu
allen fixed up a total of four atlendancc: hinuelf and , The farmer made one labourcft (ibid.). duoca for hiJ twO rol. 22. "anent du 31 mai-I"-2juiJa 1 Arch. Nat., p. 2507. tion da sections aumou , H. Calvet, 'La Panicipa · " (t928). 366-9· blique Ie 793'. AJI.II ,hisl. Rio.friUOf en de rake a la rtpu qui n'on! piu Ie moy rien ouv Ie dOlI. 16). touS e • '� .• BB' 50, Nat h. (Arc &e. r', jou v par rcce ront ¥IS. avoir laerifiee de leurs joun arma et qui pcuVi:nt ecux qui IOltl sous la • 'Falta une lisle de tOUS 14)' ch. Nat., P' 2517. fol. s (Archbesoln de seeours' (Ar its de I'Homme Section Bit, Mont.reuil, Dro • cr. relurns or Halle au 7; p. 2497. fol. 29) · Nat., DBl 50, dos.s 5,
1
THE
TRIUMPH OF THE MOUNTAIN
12S
the Invalides Section I-and even whole companies without discrimination. I . Meanwhile the problems of Ii00d nd poces remained. The � revolution ofMay-June ha.d done ot ing to solve them and the c an� downward spiral of the upward movement of . assignal went on all bef!.� �h.e llSSIgnat, having fallen to 36 per cent. of its nominal v�lU In June, slumped further to 22 per cent. in August 1 Wh'leI \ t e wages of skilled journeymen may have doubled SiOce : the early days of the RevoIUti·on, the prices of food and other es nt. aIs ten��d to outstrip them-at a pace that became increa:i.:gty preCIpitOUS between June and September• as the t;011OWIng comparative figures will show: •
-
'7!P
Comntodity
Wine (litre) Meat (lb.) BUller (lb.)
'791
J-
J-
101. 1 2 I.
16 • . 19' · 26. ,. 27' •. 100 •.
'. .
2 1 I. 24'.
Egg! (25) .
Sugar (lb.) Coffee (lb.) . Tallow candia (lb.) . Soap (lb.)
.. .. 0 . '. 4
,.. 15"
".
23-28 •.
'791 201.
".
35" 5° '· 1 0 1.
1
9G'"IOO I. .. ..
701.'
What these figures do not reveal are the sudden fluctuations in price that roused suddcn t neou outbursts of anger. A �� � bare week after the June r:� 0 u on t ere was further talk of a general assault on gro ers an butchers. A few days later .::. queues began to form ag n a�b kers' shops ; and even police agents spoke of the need t� cur . �e greed of the wealthy shop keepers and wholesaler s' q�e �ette c1asse en masse est la seule qui ait profite d� l:��a l utlon .� T�ere were soap riots va between 25 and 28 Jun " n one u h mCldent, on the 25th, a crowd in the rue Sain� ·� zare �e�d p a lorry loaded with � � ten crates of soap and sold Its contents 10 the street at 20 sous
�
•
\
' Cf. returns or Panlh&wi. Pont Ncuf.• and MUJbJm Scctiom (A r ch Nat P 52 .s+' BB i t�in doll � g o e t ' 80 �crordin t � . la� CT: 'quctowav en c:. , ;"" tl �1,I'au�n �e " Iait ne paruapaJtnt i. ca sc.coun ' toUi ,6. 66, Haml, op. tiL, pp. 1
��
ISW. foil.
C. Rud�, 'Prica W a d o lar Movementl in Par � during the French ::-V., v� "i �� �:v�lulion" Eam. . 19 , pp. 254-7· Wu h bread. of coune' 3 5<1 , , ue wu one of ahOl'lagC and n0t 0', pncc. i 'a Arch. Nat., AF1V 1.70 (1tp01'tI for 7-10, 14. 16-17, 25, 2?-29June).
Hi�l.
NA TH E REVOLUTIO
AC TIO N RY CROWD IN
e by, powerless to intervene" Th on a pound, while the police stood nti nve Co the howled down in same day, Jacques Roux waswh ich he was presenting on behalf n for accompanying a petitio acks on the Mountain for failing of the Cordelien Club with attofbread continued, after a lull in to feed the poor. The shortage tember: among various persons July, during August and Sep months for disorderly behaviour arrested in the course of theseand small shopkeepen taken into we find several wage-earners nal Guard or for creating distur custody for abusing the Natio bances in baken' shops.' on' of 4 and 5 September, There followed the 'insurrecti k under its wing to further its which the Paris Commune tooat 5 o'clock in the morning in own political plans.' It began districts, north of the Hotel de the Temple and Saint-Avoiefetched out from workshops and Ville, where worken were another demonstration seems to building sites. Meanwhile ards, near the Ministry of War, have started on the boulevbert's lieutenants, had his offices. where Vincent, one of He traton advanced on the Place de Calling for bread, the demoru s, Hebert and Chaumette, tried Greve.4 The Commune's leader display of oratory; but it was at first to fob them off with a, that they should reassemble the agreed, on Hebert's suggestionorder to march to the Convention next morning at I I o'clock in against hoarders and political to demand severe measurespromised to join in. The same suspects; the Jacobins also ered workshops to close on the evening the Commune ord journeymen might attend the morrow, so that masters andwe should therefore be tempted demonstration. But, in case erin, that the 'insurrection' of to consider, with Daniel Gurking-class affair,s we should note 4 September was a largely wo Commune gave instructions that n, the that, at the same sessio g be mustered to disperse buildin uld sho ce !' a military for ges wa g for bread and higher workers who were demonstratin
126
, op. cit., pp. fob. 329-30. See abo Mathia , Arcb. Prtf. Pol., Aa 226, la FOI'Cf:) , pp. 361-7.5. de ltre (rqi 3�7 Ab da • Arch. Prtr. Pol., 'LeI Ouvriers auxjoum� pp. 322 fr.; E. Sorr;a.u,
2�'
•
Mathia, op. cit.,
,5 scptembre 1793',
. 9 anf· ,uv ( 1 37), 436-47 Anti. /lUI. Rlu·ft day (Arcb. }'rtf. the ' ng duri s thop en at b.alr.
There were varioIU arrats
fol. g6; 208, fol. 143)' , 946), i. 13°· All 39, fol. 13�; 139, .. (2 vob., Pam 1 iii dasus lUlU ltI � RlprJ,liq Lvl" 1.. • D. Gutrin, .57�· • M___ (m.;r.), mi. •
THE TRIUMPH OF THE MOUNTAIN
121
. In the flood ofrhet?nc that accompanied the demonstration ri on the 5th th d sup lie.s, though they �Iy a ptal.ion � � had been the �ri���:e i� e on the 4th, � were once more convenientl fi Y�t Important decisions were taken: Sections were t:�:!����. .y tWIce a week, but needy sans-culottes were to be com ens�ted wI . �h tO sous perattendance; suspects were to be rounded �n t e l�ng-delayed annie ,ilJ(}[utionnaire was set on foot' Ph' , as a� .Instrument of the �� Terror, was to ensure the ad:q te proVlSlo� of supplies of grain and meat to Paris Ii h e g�bou nn� .countrys�de. �':m��e: .!an. b di e o th me et the �slS and aglta ate lem pr im � hon continued unabated.. At last' h.avmg tned or debated every other expedient th Conven o� yielded to popular pressure and, on 29 Se�te�ber' ��e� e famous . law of the Maximum Gen .t.ral, Wh"ICh put a lilJUt. on th.e pnces of a large range of essential goods and sel"Vlces, ' !Deluding labour.: The new problems th reate� �ere of the future. For the � moment shopkeepers m'.:t ' an Journey�en welcomed the "n, WI. th enthuSIasm Maximum, their ow� creatio . ' . Le peupIe', wrote an agent of the Ministry of the Intenor, a ret;u avec transport les d�crets de la Conv. Na� sur la taxe des denrees de premiere necessi[� 'J I e o �ugur -:vell for the alliance of Jacobins and sans'-culo�:; :�!�' P� at least, was the foundation on which emerged the Revolubonary Government of the Year II.
�
c.
'
10
• See Nationd Guard and police .gen�' r.eports for September: Arch. Nit.,
AFlv 1 �10; F" 3688' dOSl
, . Ca.ro , op. c ,t.I . !j6 210. .: ' c: n .... )', xvu. ) Caron, op. cit. i. 210. _ ; 11,5...... . "T" ' MotlikllT (rl
-
NA TH E REVOLUTIO
AC TIO N RY CROWD IN
e by, powerless to intervene" Th on a pound, while the police stood nti nve Co the howled down in same day, Jacques Roux waswh ich he was presenting on behalf n for accompanying a petitio acks on the Mountain for failing of the Cordelien Club with attofbread continued, after a lull in to feed the poor. The shortage tember: among various persons July, during August and Sep months for disorderly behaviour arrested in the course of theseand small shopkeepen taken into we find several wage-earners nal Guard or for creating distur custody for abusing the Natio bances in baken' shops.' on' of 4 and 5 September, There followed the 'insurrecti k under its wing to further its which the Paris Commune tooat 5 o'clock in the morning in own political plans.' It began districts, north of the Hotel de the Temple and Saint-Avoiefetched out from workshops and Ville, where worken were another demonstration seems to building sites. Meanwhile ards, near the Ministry of War, have started on the boulevbert's lieutenants, had his offices. where Vincent, one of He traton advanced on the Place de Calling for bread, the demoru s, Hebert and Chaumette, tried Greve.4 The Commune's leader display of oratory; but it was at first to fob them off with a, that they should reassemble the agreed, on Hebert's suggestionorder to march to the Convention next morning at I I o'clock in against hoarders and political to demand severe measurespromised to join in. The same suspects; the Jacobins also ered workshops to close on the evening the Commune ord journeymen might attend the morrow, so that masters andwe should therefore be tempted demonstration. But, in case erin, that the 'insurrection' of to consider, with Daniel Gurking-class affair,s we should note 4 September was a largely wo Commune gave instructions that n, the that, at the same sessio g be mustered to disperse buildin uld sho ce !' a military for ges wa g for bread and higher workers who were demonstratin
126
, op. cit., pp. fob. 329-30. See abo Mathia , Arcb. Prtf. Pol., Aa 226, la FOI'Cf:) , pp. 361-7.5. de ltre (rqi 3�7 Ab da • Arch. Prtr. Pol., 'LeI Ouvriers auxjoum� pp. 322 fr.; E. Sorr;a.u,
2�'
•
Mathia, op. cit.,
,5 scptembre 1793',
. 9 anf· ,uv ( 1 37), 436-47 Anti. /lUI. Rlu·ft day (Arcb. }'rtf. the ' ng duri s thop en at b.alr.
There were varioIU arrats
fol. g6; 208, fol. 143)' , 946), i. 13°· All 39, fol. 13�; 139, .. (2 vob., Pam 1 iii dasus lUlU ltI � RlprJ,liq Lvl" 1.. • D. Gutrin, .57�· • M___ (m.;r.), mi. •
THE TRIUMPH OF THE MOUNTAIN
121
. In the flood ofrhet?nc that accompanied the demonstration ri on the 5th th d sup lie.s, though they �Iy a ptal.ion � � had been the �ri���:e i� e on the 4th, � were once more convenientl fi Y�t Important decisions were taken: Sections were t:�:!����. .y tWIce a week, but needy sans-culottes were to be com ens�ted wI . �h tO sous perattendance; suspects were to be rounded �n t e l�ng-delayed annie ,ilJ(}[utionnaire was set on foot' Ph' , as a� .Instrument of the �� Terror, was to ensure the ad:q te proVlSlo� of supplies of grain and meat to Paris Ii h e g�bou nn� .countrys�de. �':m��e: .!an. b di e o th me et the �slS and aglta ate lem pr im � hon continued unabated.. At last' h.avmg tned or debated every other expedient th Conven o� yielded to popular pressure and, on 29 Se�te�ber' ��e� e famous . law of the Maximum Gen .t.ral, Wh"ICh put a lilJUt. on th.e pnces of a large range of essential goods and sel"Vlces, ' !Deluding labour.: The new problems th reate� �ere of the future. For the � moment shopkeepers m'.:t ' an Journey�en welcomed the "n, WI. th enthuSIasm Maximum, their ow� creatio . ' . Le peupIe', wrote an agent of the Ministry of the Intenor, a ret;u avec transport les d�crets de la Conv. Na� sur la taxe des denrees de premiere necessi[� 'J I e o �ugur -:vell for the alliance of Jacobins and sans'-culo�:; :�!�' P� at least, was the foundation on which emerged the Revolubonary Government of the Year II.
�
c.
'
10
• See Nationd Guard and police .gen�' r.eports for September: Arch. Nit.,
AFlv 1 �10; F" 3688' dOSl
, . Ca.ro , op. c ,t.I . !j6 210. .: ' c: n .... )', xvu. ) Caron, op. cit. i. 210. _ ; 11,5...... . "T" ' MotlikllT (rl
-
was
IX
BESPIERRE
THERMIDOR
ittee of Public Safety had joined the Comm downfall. Saint-Just his year before on 26July 1793, just a t associates, re to become his closes and Cauthon, who we the 'in mmitte e; and, after y members of the Co were alread ned by twO leading ' tember, they were joi surrection of 4-5 Sep arenne and Collot liers Club, Billaud-V members of the Corde central core of the n were to form the d'Herbois.1 These me which ruled the ment of the Year II, Revolutionary ,Govern ution, arrested vol t critical year aCthe Re country during the mos pli sup ed the armies, of inRation, fed and the disastrous course . So much has been m invasion and defeat and saved France fro tics. ir most hostile of the cri conceded by even the l history of this era gen the cerned with Here we are not con ses of its dissolution with the general cau government or eveD but rather with its July) of the Year IIin Thermidor (27-28 and their defec the Parisian loss of support among on the eve of their its leading members tion from the side of roach the question d, of course, that to app downfal1.z It is realize n followed up to bee e the process that has in this way is to revers pment of the elo dev been to trace the this point, which has tionary situa olu rev a tors making for human and material fac in action and to revolutionary crowd tion, to present the hand, it is proposed n. Here, on the other analy.se its compositio rather than of ses of the abstention, to examine the cau Yet this may sons most concerned. participation, of the per t instance by the fact tha 1ustified in the present of his ion ult rather of the defe<:t overthrow was the res onents, if opp his of tionary action allies than of the revolu from on ion rat ope o planned the except a small handful wh i' . the ali,," s wa how n, the ing us is, The essential question fac d ine gradually underm � between Jacobins and e
R
sans-culotus
�;?�:I�;,:�
1
sans-culottes
Public Safety wer the 'gN:at' Committee of r, w,dPri� , The other memben. of ndrt, prieur de la (;6te d'O t_A Sain n nbo Ju et, Carnot, Robert Lind de la Marne. For the most detailed, recent and lbert to A t ques ion, the reader is referred II (lICe p, 8, note 4, above), •
m
r6/t
h' :'�:!:::r.:'::�'F.:.�:_:�";:��.��;::
ng
THERMJDOR
how this reflected in the dramatic events of 9th-loth \ Thermidor? In the first place there can be little doubt of the government's vigour a.nd oi-the confidence and suppo,t that lts ' actlons at rst arouse(. among the Pan" Slan and their milinu me , tants in the clubs and Sectlona1 commtttees. Mentlon ' has that the mere enactment ' a ready been made of the enthuSlasm of the law of the Maximum evoked among them. The aw of , 29 September, supplemented b an amend mg �aw of t Novem ber, provided for the increase 0 nces at the pomt ofproduction by one-third over June I P rate per league for trans r th portation, plus 5 per cent ?Iesal�r and 10 per cent. d l for the retailer. The law afli me commodities of ; ded genera� consumption, but cod, fish, tobacco, salt, mllk, and poultry In the ase 0f w es it provided for an � � , increase of 50 per cent' ov r ra es prevalh ng 10 June 1 790. 1 An inquiry conducted in un l,793 had revealed that, taking th� , country as a wholr. th of e entlal commodities had � bled, or even tr�ble I 790, and that, over the same do� penod, allowing for wide divergenc<":, between districts and types of work done' wages may have nsen' on a brcad average, . . bY 100--15° per cent.1 With the June mqu�ry as a basis the Districts were now instructed to prepare h sts of maximum . . . prices and wages m ' accordance Wlth the provlslons 0f the law e of 29 September-which c urse, th�t . eventually, when these operations we t the XlSung level of both pric�s and wages should be as c';ny re uced. , It IS eVident that such a law' enacted m a country depending on the output of thousands 0f petty producers and confided, for its execution to a g er me t and to officials who believed � basically in the sanc t ° pnvat� property, would be impos sible of operation Y t wh. tev � Its faults as � piece of social legislation and what �er 1 u tlmate economic and political
fi
-
�tuple
I
I
1' r� ;
:� e:��� � j : �:�: �
!�; �
: ��� �; : lr �
�
:� � � t :
. , H. E. Bourne 'Q H sltJrictJ. . ' 'Maximurn Pnccs .In Franee' 1793�1794', AIPWTiC ...lI ( 1917), I07�13' &rid (b th �uilw, lUU fu;' ; :::ue aUlho�). 'Food Control and Price. � : lIlg in Revolutionary Fr nee' �f P<>iitictJ. &c-m)" xxvii (1919),
'
ill J
.
,
73�4' 188-.:109. . . retu E�rpdu · rft_ � d'JU'" '793· Arch, Nat., F" 1 " � . The report campn': y_. I ' d, . ... ,rom ¥I Dtpartm��lI ;:�I:: �:v�r�g th� prices of 38 articles of eonsum . :�n and wage! n i about t e u IDg Ole of daily labourers (except in eaae of Paris),
'
was
IX
BESPIERRE
THERMIDOR
ittee of Public Safety had joined the Comm downfall. Saint-Just his year before on 26July 1793, just a t associates, re to become his closes and Cauthon, who we the 'in mmitte e; and, after y members of the Co were alread ned by twO leading ' tember, they were joi surrection of 4-5 Sep arenne and Collot liers Club, Billaud-V members of the Corde central core of the n were to form the d'Herbois.1 These me which ruled the ment of the Year II, Revolutionary ,Govern ution, arrested vol t critical year aCthe Re country during the mos pli sup ed the armies, of inRation, fed and the disastrous course . So much has been m invasion and defeat and saved France fro tics. ir most hostile of the cri conceded by even the l history of this era gen the cerned with Here we are not con ses of its dissolution with the general cau government or eveD but rather with its July) of the Year IIin Thermidor (27-28 and their defec the Parisian loss of support among on the eve of their its leading members tion from the side of roach the question d, of course, that to app downfal1.z It is realize n followed up to bee e the process that has in this way is to revers pment of the elo dev been to trace the this point, which has tionary situa olu rev a tors making for human and material fac in action and to revolutionary crowd tion, to present the hand, it is proposed n. Here, on the other analy.se its compositio rather than of ses of the abstention, to examine the cau Yet this may sons most concerned. participation, of the per t instance by the fact tha 1ustified in the present of his ion ult rather of the defe<:t overthrow was the res onents, if opp his of tionary action allies than of the revolu from on ion rat ope o planned the except a small handful wh i' . the ali,," s wa how n, the ing us is, The essential question fac d ine gradually underm � between Jacobins and e
R
sans-culotus
�;?�:I�;,:�
1
sans-culottes
Public Safety wer the 'gN:at' Committee of r, w,dPri� , The other memben. of ndrt, prieur de la (;6te d'O t_A Sain n nbo Ju et, Carnot, Robert Lind de la Marne. For the most detailed, recent and lbert to A t ques ion, the reader is referred II (lICe p, 8, note 4, above), •
m
r6/t
h' :'�:!:::r.:'::�'F.:.�:_:�";:��.��;::
ng
THERMJDOR
how this reflected in the dramatic events of 9th-loth \ Thermidor? In the first place there can be little doubt of the government's vigour a.nd oi-the confidence and suppo,t that lts ' actlons at rst arouse(. among the Pan" Slan and their milinu me , tants in the clubs and Sectlona1 commtttees. Mentlon ' has that the mere enactment ' a ready been made of the enthuSlasm of the law of the Maximum evoked among them. The aw of , 29 September, supplemented b an amend mg �aw of t Novem ber, provided for the increase 0 nces at the pomt ofproduction by one-third over June I P rate per league for trans r th portation, plus 5 per cent ?Iesal�r and 10 per cent. d l for the retailer. The law afli me commodities of ; ded genera� consumption, but cod, fish, tobacco, salt, mllk, and poultry In the ase 0f w es it provided for an � � , increase of 50 per cent' ov r ra es prevalh ng 10 June 1 790. 1 An inquiry conducted in un l,793 had revealed that, taking th� , country as a wholr. th of e entlal commodities had � bled, or even tr�ble I 790, and that, over the same do� penod, allowing for wide divergenc<":, between districts and types of work done' wages may have nsen' on a brcad average, . . bY 100--15° per cent.1 With the June mqu�ry as a basis the Districts were now instructed to prepare h sts of maximum . . . prices and wages m ' accordance Wlth the provlslons 0f the law e of 29 September-which c urse, th�t . eventually, when these operations we t the XlSung level of both pric�s and wages should be as c';ny re uced. , It IS eVident that such a law' enacted m a country depending on the output of thousands 0f petty producers and confided, for its execution to a g er me t and to officials who believed � basically in the sanc t ° pnvat� property, would be impos sible of operation Y t wh. tev � Its faults as � piece of social legislation and what �er 1 u tlmate economic and political
fi
-
�tuple
I
I
1' r� ;
:� e:��� � j : �:�: �
!�; �
: ��� �; : lr �
�
:� � � t :
. , H. E. Bourne 'Q H sltJrictJ. . ' 'Maximurn Pnccs .In Franee' 1793�1794', AIPWTiC ...lI ( 1917), I07�13' &rid (b th �uilw, lUU fu;' ; :::ue aUlho�). 'Food Control and Price. � : lIlg in Revolutionary Fr nee' �f P<>iitictJ. &c-m)" xxvii (1919),
'
ill J
.
,
73�4' 188-.:109. . . retu E�rpdu · rft_ � d'JU'" '793· Arch, Nat., F" 1 " � . The report campn': y_. I ' d, . ... ,rom ¥I Dtpartm��lI ;:�I:: �:v�r�g th� prices of 38 articles of eonsum . :�n and wage! n i about t e u IDg Ole of daily labourers (except in eaae of Paris),
'
. ,.
Y THE REVOLUTIONAR
CROWD IN ACT ION
enactment of the Maximum results, it is undoubted that the te consequences that both General had important immedia strengthen the government's served to arrest inflation and to by itself the law might not act ties with the sans-cuJotus. Taken g and speculation ; but intro. as any great deterrent to hoardin er measures to strengthen duced as it was with a host of oth tect the currency, and to en the organs of government, to pro means of terror, it helped force compliance with the law by prices and to ensure the pro for a period at least-to stabilize both the army and the vision of adequate supplies to feed hically illustr�ted by grap t U mos civilian population. 1'll fact is nt of the a1Stgnat dunng the the sudden reversal in the moveme passed: from 22 per cent. first three months after the law was , it rose to 33 per cent. in of its nominal value in August 1793 in December.1 During these November and to 48 per cent. in the government appears weeks the confidence of the people that its policy will ensure the to be based on the double hope to feed the citizens and of supply of cheap and adequate food' enemies; 50 we real1 in a s c military victories over the Republi er: emb police agent's report of 30 Sept d nombre a la maison Les ouvrien qui se trouvent en gran repas, se rejouissent de la commune sur la place, a l'heure des unesse en requisition, et laje diminution des denrees, de l'aroeur de Republique.l la de phe triom particulierement du prochain meat, groceries, and vege And, even in late December-when and rationing cards had tables had long been in short supply ry lack of bread-we are been introduced to meet a tempora sm for Robespierre, the told of the market women's enthusia the legislators of the Re Mountain (La Sainu Montagne) , and d'une gait!! charmante: public: 'Les femmes de la halle sont ion.'l This loyalty may vent Con . dies chantent les louanges de la this period, for the ng duri use, beca have survived the longer selves who formed the first time, it was the sans-culottu them their militants dominated backbone of the Paris administration: committees-particu the majority of Sectional assemblies and y Committees-and larly the all-important Revolutionar Commune. Albert the of the general assembly and executive
Harril, n, AJsifMls, pp. 176-85·114 . For li.mil.ar expraaiOlll sec abo pp. 168, 1 • Caron Pilril JIntdaN lIS Tmwr, i. Ibid. ii. 14·
•
1 97.
'
I
THERMIDOR
. ,.
S�boul has f?und that, of 454 members of Revolutionary Com nuttees holding office in Paris in the course of the Year 11, 9'9 per cent. were wage-earners, 63·8 per cent were shopkeepers smaU workshop masters, and independent craftsmen whil� only 26·3 per cent. were rentiers, manufacturers, civil s�rvantJ, and members of the liberal professioru.1 Similarly, Sainte . Claire Deville has shown that, of 132 General Councillors of the Commune, holding office between July 1 793 and July 1794, and whose occupations are listed, 82 were small manu facturers, craftsmen, and tradesmen; 2 were manual workers and 9 'blackcoated' workers; while 8 were merchants and con tractors, and 3 1 belonged to the professions.1 This was' of course, not just a fortuitous distribution of public setvants thrown up by the tide of revolution; we shall see in the nex; chapter what Robespierre's successors did after Thermidor to redress the social balance. Mean�hile t�e �ve�n?Ient's inability to operate the law of the M�xlmum 10 Its eXlstmg form was proving evident. Even 10 P�ns, where the Revolutionary Committeees and com mtIsalres �. (UcaparemenLr were vigilant and strongly backed by . OpInIOn, breaches of the law by merchants and shop pubhc keepers were becoming daily more blatant. But the real problem lay elsewhere. The growers, producers, and middlemen who kep� the cap�tal supplied �ere in a more favourable position to �vold detectIOn and, finding the margins provided by the law htt�e to their liking, they tended to withhold supplies while . wa..!ung for better times, to sell on the 'black market' or to enter into illicit deals with retailers or merchants. Canse quen�ly the Paris grocers and butchers, having paid their suppliers above the Maximum, passed the burden back to the co�sumer: thus, from December until April, when meat was rationed, . butche� regularly sold at 25-50 per cent. above the ile pork butchers, to evade the law sold only lawful pnce;J wh ked �rk (the price of raw . meat alone was c�ntrolled). eanwhile, an army of mercandurs and Teuendwrs invaded the
:O
capitaJiune'' 1.4 p t A. SobouJ, 'U e pp. �B-9. 'rule, • Deville, La u.mmUIII de r�1I II' pp• ,6.- . D. '" E:<e(:U.. Ye L CounClilof•• (Co!"pi M . . th . � -4 merchant.! ac� ' . .. 1 7• J profCU'Olll• II. . <;11.11.
n DisclWion hislorique du f&xlaJilme au no. 65 (1956), Sainte-Ciaire e 79 unlcLpai) , ere were ��Imall manufacturers and tradesmen; ' and busin�men' and 1 members ofJiberal .. bJ -eoated workers; CaTOn, op , ��9, �51, �99, 330; iii. 30; iv.
. ,.
Y THE REVOLUTIONAR
CROWD IN ACT ION
enactment of the Maximum results, it is undoubted that the te consequences that both General had important immedia strengthen the government's served to arrest inflation and to by itself the law might not act ties with the sans-cuJotus. Taken g and speculation ; but intro. as any great deterrent to hoardin er measures to strengthen duced as it was with a host of oth tect the currency, and to en the organs of government, to pro means of terror, it helped force compliance with the law by prices and to ensure the pro for a period at least-to stabilize both the army and the vision of adequate supplies to feed hically illustr�ted by grap t U mos civilian population. 1'll fact is nt of the a1Stgnat dunng the the sudden reversal in the moveme passed: from 22 per cent. first three months after the law was , it rose to 33 per cent. in of its nominal value in August 1793 in December.1 During these November and to 48 per cent. in the government appears weeks the confidence of the people that its policy will ensure the to be based on the double hope to feed the citizens and of supply of cheap and adequate food' enemies; 50 we real1 in a s c military victories over the Republi er: emb police agent's report of 30 Sept d nombre a la maison Les ouvrien qui se trouvent en gran repas, se rejouissent de la commune sur la place, a l'heure des unesse en requisition, et laje diminution des denrees, de l'aroeur de Republique.l la de phe triom particulierement du prochain meat, groceries, and vege And, even in late December-when and rationing cards had tables had long been in short supply ry lack of bread-we are been introduced to meet a tempora sm for Robespierre, the told of the market women's enthusia the legislators of the Re Mountain (La Sainu Montagne) , and d'une gait!! charmante: public: 'Les femmes de la halle sont ion.'l This loyalty may vent Con . dies chantent les louanges de la this period, for the ng duri use, beca have survived the longer selves who formed the first time, it was the sans-culottu them their militants dominated backbone of the Paris administration: committees-particu the majority of Sectional assemblies and y Committees-and larly the all-important Revolutionar Commune. Albert the of the general assembly and executive
Harril, n, AJsifMls, pp. 176-85·114 . For li.mil.ar expraaiOlll sec abo pp. 168, 1 • Caron Pilril JIntdaN lIS Tmwr, i. Ibid. ii. 14·
•
1 97.
'
I
THERMIDOR
. ,.
S�boul has f?und that, of 454 members of Revolutionary Com nuttees holding office in Paris in the course of the Year 11, 9'9 per cent. were wage-earners, 63·8 per cent were shopkeepers smaU workshop masters, and independent craftsmen whil� only 26·3 per cent. were rentiers, manufacturers, civil s�rvantJ, and members of the liberal professioru.1 Similarly, Sainte . Claire Deville has shown that, of 132 General Councillors of the Commune, holding office between July 1 793 and July 1794, and whose occupations are listed, 82 were small manu facturers, craftsmen, and tradesmen; 2 were manual workers and 9 'blackcoated' workers; while 8 were merchants and con tractors, and 3 1 belonged to the professions.1 This was' of course, not just a fortuitous distribution of public setvants thrown up by the tide of revolution; we shall see in the nex; chapter what Robespierre's successors did after Thermidor to redress the social balance. Mean�hile t�e �ve�n?Ient's inability to operate the law of the M�xlmum 10 Its eXlstmg form was proving evident. Even 10 P�ns, where the Revolutionary Committeees and com mtIsalres �. (UcaparemenLr were vigilant and strongly backed by . OpInIOn, breaches of the law by merchants and shop pubhc keepers were becoming daily more blatant. But the real problem lay elsewhere. The growers, producers, and middlemen who kep� the cap�tal supplied �ere in a more favourable position to �vold detectIOn and, finding the margins provided by the law htt�e to their liking, they tended to withhold supplies while . wa..!ung for better times, to sell on the 'black market' or to enter into illicit deals with retailers or merchants. Canse quen�ly the Paris grocers and butchers, having paid their suppliers above the Maximum, passed the burden back to the co�sumer: thus, from December until April, when meat was rationed, . butche� regularly sold at 25-50 per cent. above the ile pork butchers, to evade the law sold only lawful pnce;J wh ked �rk (the price of raw . meat alone was c�ntrolled). eanwhile, an army of mercandurs and Teuendwrs invaded the
:O
capitaJiune'' 1.4 p t A. SobouJ, 'U e pp. �B-9. 'rule, • Deville, La u.mmUIII de r�1I II' pp• ,6.- . D. '" E:<e(:U.. Ye L CounClilof•• (Co!"pi M . . th . � -4 merchant.! ac� ' . .. 1 7• J profCU'Olll• II. . <;11.11.
n DisclWion hislorique du f&xlaJilme au no. 65 (1956), Sainte-Ciaire e 79 unlcLpai) , ere were ��Imall manufacturers and tradesmen; ' and busin�men' and 1 members ofJiberal .. bJ -eoated workers; CaTOn, op , ��9, �51, �99, 330; iii. 30; iv.
.,'
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
back streets and markets, selling sugar, butter, and poor cuts
of meat above the controlled price ;1 and, in December and
January, agents of the Ministry of the Interior reported that butter was being sold in Paris markets at 36-44 sow per lb. (controlled price : 22 sow) and eggs at 80-100 sous for 25 (com
�93,
pared with 2 1 sow in June 1790, 271 so� in June 1 and 50 . . sow in September) .z The sans-culottes, while complammg bltterly at this evasion of the law at their expense, were inclined to see
the merchants and the shopkeepers rather than the Government
as the villains of the piece, and called upon the authorities
insistently to remedy the abuses by a more continuous and
effective use of the organs of repression. It was in fact im possible to leave things as they were: either t e Government must seek to en oree tlie � extsting aw 0J!!.ensifyfug . t e error, S)fi of or it must try to win the more wholehearted co-o ,trati peasants and prOducers b relaxin the re ulations andIn creasmg t e margms of profit. It deci ed on the second course.
'n fallait guenr Ie commcrcc', said Barcre, 'et non Ie tuer:l But it meant losing friends and allies elsewhere. Hebert and
his associates, the champions of domiciliary visits and sterner
revolutionary justice, who had dominated the Commune since the spring of 1793, were executed on 22 March ; a little later the
armie riuolutionnaire was disbanded together with the local
popular societies and committees for tracking down hoarders. The currency speculators had already begun to emerge from
their hiding-places in late December,· and the assignat was
allowed to slip back again: by July it had fallen to 36 per cent. of its value.s Finally, in late March, an amended Maximum
was published, which provided for higher prices and profit
margins and which, wrote a police agent, seemed to 'favour the merchants and not the people'.' But, some time before this, the sans-culottes had begun to pass
to more direct forms of protest and, on occasion, to tum their anger against the Government itself. On 20 February, in the crowded popular market of the Place Maubert, a woman encountered no opposition from her hearers when she an-
I Bourne, op. cit., pp. 206-7'(ba$ed on the r<:pe>rts ofpoliee agenu, Grivel and Siret). • Caron, op. cit. i. 344; ii. 20, 26-27, 102, 185, 251, 3'0. • Caron, op. cit. ii. 61, 194, \181. , MOIIikur (rlimp••) , xix. 631. • Houris. loc. cit. • Arch. Nat., F'· III Seine 13 (report of 2 9 �f&reh 1794)·
THERMIDOR '33 nounced: 'Si je ne me reten ais, j'enverrais faire foutre Ie nouveau regime.' The next day, in the same market, butter was �eized from a merchant by angry women, and others, asse mbled lD the HaIles, held up five cart loads of eggs and butter and com pelled the drivers to sell the butt er at 22 soU! a pound and _ at 24 soU! for . of .
.,'
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
back streets and markets, selling sugar, butter, and poor cuts
of meat above the controlled price ;1 and, in December and
January, agents of the Ministry of the Interior reported that butter was being sold in Paris markets at 36-44 sow per lb. (controlled price : 22 sow) and eggs at 80-100 sous for 25 (com
�93,
pared with 2 1 sow in June 1790, 271 so� in June 1 and 50 . . sow in September) .z The sans-culottes, while complammg bltterly at this evasion of the law at their expense, were inclined to see
the merchants and the shopkeepers rather than the Government
as the villains of the piece, and called upon the authorities
insistently to remedy the abuses by a more continuous and
effective use of the organs of repression. It was in fact im possible to leave things as they were: either t e Government must seek to en oree tlie � extsting aw 0J!!.ensifyfug . t e error, S)fi of or it must try to win the more wholehearted co-o ,trati peasants and prOducers b relaxin the re ulations andIn creasmg t e margms of profit. It deci ed on the second course.
'n fallait guenr Ie commcrcc', said Barcre, 'et non Ie tuer:l But it meant losing friends and allies elsewhere. Hebert and
his associates, the champions of domiciliary visits and sterner
revolutionary justice, who had dominated the Commune since the spring of 1793, were executed on 22 March ; a little later the
armie riuolutionnaire was disbanded together with the local
popular societies and committees for tracking down hoarders. The currency speculators had already begun to emerge from
their hiding-places in late December,· and the assignat was
allowed to slip back again: by July it had fallen to 36 per cent. of its value.s Finally, in late March, an amended Maximum
was published, which provided for higher prices and profit
margins and which, wrote a police agent, seemed to 'favour the merchants and not the people'.' But, some time before this, the sans-culottes had begun to pass
to more direct forms of protest and, on occasion, to tum their anger against the Government itself. On 20 February, in the crowded popular market of the Place Maubert, a woman encountered no opposition from her hearers when she an-
I Bourne, op. cit., pp. 206-7'(ba$ed on the r<:pe>rts ofpoliee agenu, Grivel and Siret). • Caron, op. cit. i. 344; ii. 20, 26-27, 102, 185, 251, 3'0. • Caron, op. cit. ii. 61, 194, \181. , MOIIikur (rlimp••) , xix. 631. • Houris. loc. cit. • Arch. Nat., F'· III Seine 13 (report of 2 9 �f&reh 1794)·
THERMIDOR '33 nounced: 'Si je ne me reten ais, j'enverrais faire foutre Ie nouveau regime.' The next day, in the same market, butter was �eized from a merchant by angry women, and others, asse mbled lD the HaIles, held up five cart loads of eggs and butter and com pelled the drivers to sell the butt er at 22 soU! a pound and _ at 24 soU! for . of .
134
NA RY THE RE VO LU TIO
N CROWD I N AC TIO
other epithets, he letter, in which, among Guard, a threatening re' and a 'foutu phized as a 'jean fout is indelicately apostro ' ,I satdite de Robespierre ation had deeveD more serious situ an hilt: anw me But of the few one s. This was, in fact, veloped in the workshop ge_earners wa the the Revolution when periods in the history of ges than wa ir the of amount cern for showed even more con utations dep and kes s, and when stri for the prices of foodstuff form ant ific sign re mo re Crequent and about wages were a mo rk a ma not does it so n n d riots.� Eve of social protest tha foo &J1lniel s betw CJl.9.-gitalanajaJiQW new stage in the relation from a quite be1iev� ;3 it arose rather Guerinwou1d -' i\a'V'e us eated. As we es that would not be rep peculiar sct" 6f'C1t1Cums ancM vided for aximum General had pro have seen, the law of the prices; of l ling rates of wages as wel a reduction in the prevai new up g win initiative in dra Districts were to take the and nt me ern gov hed of the'recently establis lists--except in the case in ts tric Dis of acture of arms, and workshops for the manuf ted imi unl d oye enj 1eprbtTIiants tTl mission which the government's e result was of the local authorities. Th se tho powers, overriding the opera erent schemes, in which a patchwork of widely diff with the ied var ires sala des m the maximu tion, or non_operation, of local the of authority, the resistance social composition of the r inte the in existing rates, and sans-culoUtS to any reductions b pro the is t or its agents. In Par ference of the governmen s for the the case of the workshop in lem was merely twofol d: mittee Com the h decision rested wit manufacture of arms the Paris the h wit y ustr t of private ind of Public Safety; in tha the by ed app dic han ng nt, not bei Commune. The governme to the law the lied app rs, rke s and wo rival pressures of employer ber skilled : in October and Decem y dela t hou wit rs armsworke 5 livrtS a day, workshops were :warded. men in a number of new Meanwhile a became the usual pattern unskilled men s liofes; this , in Decem· ady s introduced and alre severe disciplinary code wa l n in rs' ng imposedon 'agitato ber, we read ofpenalties bei \\ , as r, late ble was to come workshops.4 The main trou
the
the
368, fo\' 37· , Arch. Nal., AFII 47, plaq.
• See pages 21_22 above.
::��::fr :�
THERMIDOR
ISS
!
The 'Heb r t' e sti in control of the Commune and as long as the re ereappe�red to be no intention of drawingupa table ofm mu�wagesm accordancewiththelaw of29 September.1 It was a pen� of labour shortage and rising wages', and the report drawn up mJanua by two government � agents, Grivel and Siret, in which they claimed that wages had trebled or quadrupled since I 790, may not be greatly exaggerated:
/ ��:e� •
a:
Tel oUvrier, tel comm issionn .
.
. de sa joumee que alt
� '. qUI UT ' 4 ou 5 Iivres' en tire auJourd hu) 20 et 24 livres et quelquefois
davantage.1
•
ne
:���� ;
We find bakers refusing to a ageofI5 1iowa week (includ. . ing board), where the h: Y ee� earrung 8 /lflTtS; the Paris M Department as te as ... arch mtroduced new scates lor ' . . bUIOld'mg workers well above double t ose p3..1d 10 1 and even in the arms workshops' in spi. te 0f oveT?ment we hear . of workers three, or ourumes their 1 79O.J But once time
L
itself
�
it
e :�i'�'::��������������� itselfat���
took When a dele presented the Hotel de Ville in . . Payan, t�e national agent of the reconstituted -- ler. uc:;p . Ro1.. Commune, mvoked the Loi Le Chapelier, forbidding associ ' . abons ofworkpeop e, and referred the matter to the police, wh0 made five arrests. Otherstrikesand wage-c13..l. ms followed involv· . 109 plasterers bakers rk b tchers, and port-workers. Besides c � making furth r ar res ' e mmune threatened to prosecute
I
.
� :
�
[ceux] qUI, au mepris des I°ll'S, abandolUlalent des travaux qui doivent leur ctre d'autant p w chen qu"1s I sont nccessaires A I'eXisten ce publique.4
.
°
,l.
, See C. Rudi! and A Sobo I ' mum da salaira: parisiens el Ie 9 .. th�" idor" Alllt. llis, R/1l. tlJI(., . 9 oTT ' pp. 1-112. 7 ' rnal' I gcx:s on: 'Ib (la jou n ont pas bonte d'�gcr 100 lOb pour un I �ra"ail qui eill i!u pay.! menl 1 0.1O� I Y • un an' (quoled by I ) op. cil., pp. .5116-7 . See. ron, op. Clt. II. ,. • . . Marion' 'La Lao,I de mlUtlmu el I• taU.tlon dcs salaira lOW 1& Ri!voluhon' 8lUlU i"UrM,iontl{, til soeiDIo . m 7), 1117· Marion exaggerales the un"'ill" t;" ;:V (191. "gtlcu of theJacobins 10 app y e Maxlmum to wages. , '. . . udi! and SobouI• op. al., pp. 10-12', Mathiez, 0p. CIl·. P· ,!o91.
::; �cr,
f,
��. � � a:: ";
�enJ �
.
134
NA RY THE RE VO LU TIO
N CROWD I N AC TIO
other epithets, he letter, in which, among Guard, a threatening re' and a 'foutu phized as a 'jean fout is indelicately apostro ' ,I satdite de Robespierre ation had deeveD more serious situ an hilt: anw me But of the few one s. This was, in fact, veloped in the workshop ge_earners wa the the Revolution when periods in the history of ges than wa ir the of amount cern for showed even more con utations dep and kes s, and when stri for the prices of foodstuff form ant ific sign re mo re Crequent and about wages were a mo rk a ma not does it so n n d riots.� Eve of social protest tha foo &J1lniel s betw CJl.9.-gitalanajaJiQW new stage in the relation from a quite be1iev� ;3 it arose rather Guerinwou1d -' i\a'V'e us eated. As we es that would not be rep peculiar sct" 6f'C1t1Cums ancM vided for aximum General had pro have seen, the law of the prices; of l ling rates of wages as wel a reduction in the prevai new up g win initiative in dra Districts were to take the and nt me ern gov hed of the'recently establis lists--except in the case in ts tric Dis of acture of arms, and workshops for the manuf ted imi unl d oye enj 1eprbtTIiants tTl mission which the government's e result was of the local authorities. Th se tho powers, overriding the opera erent schemes, in which a patchwork of widely diff with the ied var ires sala des m the maximu tion, or non_operation, of local the of authority, the resistance social composition of the r inte the in existing rates, and sans-culoUtS to any reductions b pro the is t or its agents. In Par ference of the governmen s for the the case of the workshop in lem was merely twofol d: mittee Com the h decision rested wit manufacture of arms the Paris the h wit y ustr t of private ind of Public Safety; in tha the by ed app dic han ng nt, not bei Commune. The governme to the law the lied app rs, rke s and wo rival pressures of employer ber skilled : in October and Decem y dela t hou wit rs armsworke 5 livrtS a day, workshops were :warded. men in a number of new Meanwhile a became the usual pattern unskilled men s liofes; this , in Decem· ady s introduced and alre severe disciplinary code wa l n in rs' ng imposedon 'agitato ber, we read ofpenalties bei \\ , as r, late ble was to come workshops.4 The main trou
the
the
368, fo\' 37· , Arch. Nal., AFII 47, plaq.
• See pages 21_22 above.
::��::fr :�
THERMIDOR
ISS
!
The 'Heb r t' e sti in control of the Commune and as long as the re ereappe�red to be no intention of drawingupa table ofm mu�wagesm accordancewiththelaw of29 September.1 It was a pen� of labour shortage and rising wages', and the report drawn up mJanua by two government � agents, Grivel and Siret, in which they claimed that wages had trebled or quadrupled since I 790, may not be greatly exaggerated:
/ ��:e� •
a:
Tel oUvrier, tel comm issionn .
.
. de sa joumee que alt
� '. qUI UT ' 4 ou 5 Iivres' en tire auJourd hu) 20 et 24 livres et quelquefois
davantage.1
•
ne
:���� ;
We find bakers refusing to a ageofI5 1iowa week (includ. . ing board), where the h: Y ee� earrung 8 /lflTtS; the Paris M Department as te as ... arch mtroduced new scates lor ' . . bUIOld'mg workers well above double t ose p3..1d 10 1 and even in the arms workshops' in spi. te 0f oveT?ment we hear . of workers three, or ourumes their 1 79O.J But once time
L
itself
�
it
e :�i'�'::��������������� itselfat���
took When a dele presented the Hotel de Ville in . . Payan, t�e national agent of the reconstituted -- ler. uc:;p . Ro1.. Commune, mvoked the Loi Le Chapelier, forbidding associ ' . abons ofworkpeop e, and referred the matter to the police, wh0 made five arrests. Otherstrikesand wage-c13..l. ms followed involv· . 109 plasterers bakers rk b tchers, and port-workers. Besides c � making furth r ar res ' e mmune threatened to prosecute
I
.
� :
�
[ceux] qUI, au mepris des I°ll'S, abandolUlalent des travaux qui doivent leur ctre d'autant p w chen qu"1s I sont nccessaires A I'eXisten ce publique.4
.
°
,l.
, See C. Rudi! and A Sobo I ' mum da salaira: parisiens el Ie 9 .. th�" idor" Alllt. llis, R/1l. tlJI(., . 9 oTT ' pp. 1-112. 7 ' rnal' I gcx:s on: 'Ib (la jou n ont pas bonte d'�gcr 100 lOb pour un I �ra"ail qui eill i!u pay.! menl 1 0.1O� I Y • un an' (quoled by I ) op. cil., pp. .5116-7 . See. ron, op. Clt. II. ,. • . . Marion' 'La Lao,I de mlUtlmu el I• taU.tlon dcs salaira lOW 1& Ri!voluhon' 8lUlU i"UrM,iontl{, til soeiDIo . m 7), 1117· Marion exaggerales the un"'ill" t;" ;:V (191. "gtlcu of theJacobins 10 app y e Maxlmum to wages. , '. . . udi! and SobouI• op. al., pp. 10-12', Mathiez, 0p. CIl·. P· ,!o91.
::; �cr,
f,
��. � � a:: ";
�enJ �
.
due to the efficacy of these A month's lull followed-possibly cause by an attempt to threats or to the temporary diversion . d'Herbols. B�t 10 J�ne the assassinate Robespierre and Collot to subside untll after movement started up again and was not workers, who had arms Thermidor. This time it began with the eaders w�re �r ringl ed kept fairly quiet since December. Alleg those agltatmg both ding inclu , rested in a number of workshops left their shops had who s other and spot for higher wages on the elsewhere.1 tions condi ctive restri less and in search of better pay bra er ot to d sprea have to rs �ches of appea The movement the ctlng e mstru government employment, as we find Barer name the in l, T buna public prosecutor of the Revoluti�nary st what he termed again s eding prote take to ittee, Comm the of man�uvres crimi Its contre_rcvolutionnaires qui ont employe des ats, d'annes, de d'assign neUes dans les atelien de fabrication
�
�
�
poudres et salpetres.'
July we rea of Other trades joined in; and in June and ed on a vanety engag n worke and , building worken, potten wages ; and higher for claims their g pressin of public contracts rs struck worke ting pri own ittee's Comm the even ? on 7 July des. comra thetr of three of arrest the to g work leadin Commune ile this excitement was still going on, the Paris rates of new the h decided at long last, on 23 July, to publis doc ous disastr . This �ment wages to operate in the capital u� MaXlm the of al law origin the of followed the provisions . In es Increas recent t of accoun no took General to the letter, the o jority ma grea the ace f and es, pri � food either wages or � s me mes working population With substantla re u�tlOns, ? gs. amounting to one-half or more of their e.xlSting earmn make to ted calcula Such a provocative measure was hardly e d th to closely more for social peace or to bind the worken . � tung comml After l crisis. politica deep ministration at a time of the realized have to seems une Comm this imprudence, the ances: disturb urther f of in case action ive prevent need. to take worke�, on the 25th Hanriot was warned that several arms left thor 'doubtless led astray by the enemies of the people', had
�
wh
�
, Richard Gp. cic., pp. 709-27.
�
�
• MIlfliInJr (riimpr.),
�
�
xx 699·
the cam;ng 8 UIJI'IS would be rcdu«:d to 3 /ierts, 15 JDI<S, and ThUll. s wov.ld be reduced from highcSI-paid blaclumith or fictel' in the anILS workshop 1&-'7)· 16 IWru. 10 jIIfU 10 5 liDm, 5 JIIlIJ'( Rud� and Soboul, op. cit., pp. I
�.rpcnter
131
THERMIDOR
ACT ION THE REVO LUTI ONA RY CRO WD IN
136
.
workshops; and the mayor, Fleuriot-Lescot, on the morning of 9 Thermidor ('27 July), obviously unaware of the drama that was already unfolding inside the government Committees and in the lobbies of the Convention, ordered a military force to keep the workers in check on the following day, which was a public holiday. I Meanwhile the political crisis had come to a head. Since the Republic's victory at Fleurus ('26 June), the main body of the Convention, whose members sat silent on the benches of 'the Plain', had shown less inclination to continue their support for a government whose watchwords still appeared to them to be Terror and tightened belts, and the conAicts of principle and personality within and between the two principal Committees -that of Public Safety and of General Security-had broken into the open.' In the early afternoon of 9 Thermidor Robes pierre was refused a hearing in the Convention, and his arrest was ordered together with that of his principal associates. As the news spread around the capital, a prolonged and involved tussle ensued for the loyalties of the Paris Sections and sans culoUes and, above all, for the control of the Parisian armed forces, which nominally still remained largely under the orders of the Commune and its commander-in-chief, Hanriot) Despite this considerable initial advantage the Commune was, as is known, defeated. And yet this was to all intents and purposes the same armed force with the same commander at its head which, in June '793, had compelled the Convention to submit to its will ; this time it was to abandon the Commune and the Jacobin leaders and rally to their enemies after a few hours of indecision by a minority ofits units. When every allowance is made for the bungling of Hanriot and the refusal or inability ofRobespierre and Saint-Just to lead a popular revolt against a hostile majority in the Assembly, and for all the chances and mischances in a tangled series ofevents, the essential fact remains that they had lost the support of the ParisianJQQ,[-cul2llls. • � A. Ording, Lt 81lWJIl ti, �ict till Comi" tit $tUM/ /Nblu (Oslo, 1930) ; A. Mathiez, AIiIollT til RoINspif"Tr. (Paris, '926), pp. 149 fT. ; and, for thePUI played in , Arch.
Nat., AFII 47, plaq. 368, fol. 38; AFII 48, plaq. 374, fol. 10.
. Ih,� �ri.i. by Ihe Parisian
P4""<ns;t/t /'C� II. pp. 9 ' 7 (T.
Seclions and SC"s-<:IlWllts,
� For Ihe moS! dec.ailed faClUal account of the Sa'nle·Claire Deville, op. cit., pp. 18g-3'4'
A. Soboui, us SeIlS.GIl/CI/II
evcnu of 9-10 Thermidor
ICC
due to the efficacy of these A month's lull followed-possibly cause by an attempt to threats or to the temporary diversion . d'Herbols. B�t 10 J�ne the assassinate Robespierre and Collot to subside untll after movement started up again and was not workers, who had arms Thermidor. This time it began with the eaders w�re �r ringl ed kept fairly quiet since December. Alleg those agltatmg both ding inclu , rested in a number of workshops left their shops had who s other and spot for higher wages on the elsewhere.1 tions condi ctive restri less and in search of better pay bra er ot to d sprea have to rs �ches of appea The movement the ctlng e mstru government employment, as we find Barer name the in l, T buna public prosecutor of the Revoluti�nary st what he termed again s eding prote take to ittee, Comm the of man�uvres crimi Its contre_rcvolutionnaires qui ont employe des ats, d'annes, de d'assign neUes dans les atelien de fabrication
�
�
�
poudres et salpetres.'
July we rea of Other trades joined in; and in June and ed on a vanety engag n worke and , building worken, potten wages ; and higher for claims their g pressin of public contracts rs struck worke ting pri own ittee's Comm the even ? on 7 July des. comra thetr of three of arrest the to g work leadin Commune ile this excitement was still going on, the Paris rates of new the h decided at long last, on 23 July, to publis doc ous disastr . This �ment wages to operate in the capital u� MaXlm the of al law origin the of followed the provisions . In es Increas recent t of accoun no took General to the letter, the o jority ma grea the ace f and es, pri � food either wages or � s me mes working population With substantla re u�tlOns, ? gs. amounting to one-half or more of their e.xlSting earmn make to ted calcula Such a provocative measure was hardly e d th to closely more for social peace or to bind the worken . � tung comml After l crisis. politica deep ministration at a time of the realized have to seems une Comm this imprudence, the ances: disturb urther f of in case action ive prevent need. to take worke�, on the 25th Hanriot was warned that several arms left thor 'doubtless led astray by the enemies of the people', had
�
wh
�
, Richard Gp. cic., pp. 709-27.
�
�
• MIlfliInJr (riimpr.),
�
�
xx 699·
the cam;ng 8 UIJI'IS would be rcdu«:d to 3 /ierts, 15 JDI<S, and ThUll. s wov.ld be reduced from highcSI-paid blaclumith or fictel' in the anILS workshop 1&-'7)· 16 IWru. 10 jIIfU 10 5 liDm, 5 JIIlIJ'( Rud� and Soboul, op. cit., pp. I
�.rpcnter
131
THERMIDOR
ACT ION THE REVO LUTI ONA RY CRO WD IN
136
.
workshops; and the mayor, Fleuriot-Lescot, on the morning of 9 Thermidor ('27 July), obviously unaware of the drama that was already unfolding inside the government Committees and in the lobbies of the Convention, ordered a military force to keep the workers in check on the following day, which was a public holiday. I Meanwhile the political crisis had come to a head. Since the Republic's victory at Fleurus ('26 June), the main body of the Convention, whose members sat silent on the benches of 'the Plain', had shown less inclination to continue their support for a government whose watchwords still appeared to them to be Terror and tightened belts, and the conAicts of principle and personality within and between the two principal Committees -that of Public Safety and of General Security-had broken into the open.' In the early afternoon of 9 Thermidor Robes pierre was refused a hearing in the Convention, and his arrest was ordered together with that of his principal associates. As the news spread around the capital, a prolonged and involved tussle ensued for the loyalties of the Paris Sections and sans culoUes and, above all, for the control of the Parisian armed forces, which nominally still remained largely under the orders of the Commune and its commander-in-chief, Hanriot) Despite this considerable initial advantage the Commune was, as is known, defeated. And yet this was to all intents and purposes the same armed force with the same commander at its head which, in June '793, had compelled the Convention to submit to its will ; this time it was to abandon the Commune and the Jacobin leaders and rally to their enemies after a few hours of indecision by a minority ofits units. When every allowance is made for the bungling of Hanriot and the refusal or inability ofRobespierre and Saint-Just to lead a popular revolt against a hostile majority in the Assembly, and for all the chances and mischances in a tangled series ofevents, the essential fact remains that they had lost the support of the ParisianJQQ,[-cul2llls. • � A. Ording, Lt 81lWJIl ti, �ict till Comi" tit $tUM/ /Nblu (Oslo, 1930) ; A. Mathiez, AIiIollT til RoINspif"Tr. (Paris, '926), pp. 149 fT. ; and, for thePUI played in , Arch.
Nat., AFII 47, plaq. 368, fol. 38; AFII 48, plaq. 374, fol. 10.
. Ih,� �ri.i. by Ihe Parisian
P4""<ns;t/t /'C� II. pp. 9 ' 7 (T.
Seclions and SC"s-<:IlWllts,
� For Ihe moS! dec.ailed faClUal account of the Sa'nle·Claire Deville, op. cit., pp. 18g-3'4'
A. Soboui, us SeIlS.GIl/CI/II
evcnu of 9-10 Thermidor
ICC
158
CROWD I N ACTION THE REVOLUTIONARY
every chance to make up The militanu in the Sections had pres ented to them by the their minds on the important issue ughout the afternoon and two contending parties which, thro ers, threau, and decla�a. evening, sent mutually conflicting ord should they rally to the SIde tions, appealing to their loyalties:uld reject and abandon of 'les patriotes opprimes' or shoned,they finally outlawed, by and them to their fate as men condem Convention ? The Com�une l the lawfully constituted Nationa n of the thir , ty compa of had some early successes: seventee ional Guard) rem�� atmng s Nat canonnUrs (forming part of the Pari e; Gr� de e de in the Pla� in the capital obeyed the call to para e, tom t-An bourg Sam they included two companies from the Fau and ge Rou t ne the Bon , . two from the markeu, and two from k. In a�dtuon �nother ��n Left the on ions Luxembourg Sect ers and plkeme,n, I�clud. dozen Sections sent battalions of fosth Pantheon Section m the ing a strong force of 1,200 from t�e there we�e over 3,000 Faubourg Saint-Marcel. At .one hme de Ville. But they Hot the armed men drawn up outside and, el debate went o� � ose; lacked both direction and purp assembhes,thethe whole of this in the Sectional committees and gradually melted a,,:,ay : force, left largely idle and unattended,or, 200 .men of the. Fmls at 1.30 in the morning of 10 Thermid esplerre.and hIS � tere Section, the last armed support of Robbou rg Satnt.Marce�. , ciates, marched silently back to the Fau e from the cl�l o resp of More significant still was the lack trad?� bour�tots luon the t authorities in the Sections, Tha mps Elysees,ally ubhque Rep Cha Sections of the west-Tuileries, even d a f), Neu t (Pon �jre � ionn (Roule), Louvre, Revolut de kly �l� have qUic sup Piques (Robespierre's own Secuon)-sho y ear� nslOg;. but clared for the Convention is hardly surp radIcal Secuons as such de� inclu also mbly porters of the Asse mune, as ,,:,ell. Com n the Quinze Vingu, Unite, and Mal�tled of the achons stud Sainte-Claire Deville, who made a deta and comymitt ee on that bly and affiliations of every local assem all the civil authorities in of day, found that less than one-fifth however half-hearted, to the capital showed any inclination,e : these mclu . ded n:-elve rally to the side of the Commun . h that of the FIDl , st�re Revolutionary Committees, among whic t conclUSive showed the most eager response. Finally-and mos l , op. cit., pp. 201-14· , Sainle-CI.ire Devile
THERMIDOR
."
evide�ce of all-during the night thirty·nine of the Sectioru were 10 �ennanent session, debating and receiving reports. Of these, thirty·five declared unequivocally for the Convention; tw� others-Sans-Culottes (Hanriot's Section) and Finistere hesltate� at first, but rallied later; only two--the Observatoire . (Cluny) Sections of the Faubourg Saint-Marcel and Chaher showed clea�ly their sy�pathies for the Robespierrists; yet, under the weight of opposlOg opinion and seeing that the game was lost, they too surrendered to the majority before the night was out.1 The repo.rts of these proceedings were, in the great majority of cases, wntten after the event-at a time when the victors of T�e�midor were already seated firmly in the saddle. The OplDlOns of the minority who favoured the Commune were therefore rar:ly recorded; but here and there we find among them the vOice of a sans·ctJiotte, who was not so easily to be swayed fro� his pas� loyalties, In the general assembly of the ��atre �atlOns SectIOn, for example, we read of a citizen who InSisted 10 the face of hostile interruption that a letter from J:Ianriot should be read, instead of being ignored as the cmana. t1?n of '1a Commune co�pi�atrice'. When challenged to give hiS name, he stoutly replies: le me nomme Lanbrine, demeu rant. rue du Sepulcre, compagnon [journryman] de Graseau .'J AgalD, �e r�ad of Charles Joly, wallpaper worker and corporal ofthe Reumon (Beaubo,urg) Section, who tore up the papers ofa woman newsvendor which announced the arrest of HanriOl' he w�s arr�sted as an �ccomplice of the Communc and kep� in pmon till the followmg December.l But these are but isolated cases; once the tide had begun to turn, Robespierre's vocal defenders o� that day were but a small and ineffectual body, , , submerged in the growing flood were qUIckly whose 0plOlOns of anti-Jacobin reaction. More evident still ":as the particular hostility of the wage ear�ers, who ha� been IOcensed by the recent publication of the maxImum des sa/Qlres by the Robespierrist Communc. Presumably Arch. P..ef. Po\., Aa 266, rol, 242. : Ibid., pp. 273-8.
Arch. Pr�r. Pol., Aa 163, rol. 293.There is also the rather eonfwcd account of 'erre Rose, gunpowder worker of the Homme Arm� (Marais) Scction' who was ked "-tp fo� reporting to his neighboUr! what he had heard in the Place de he that n'ght�that anyone publicly announcing the oullawry of Robespierre and othen would be arrested by the Commune (Arch. Pr�f, PoL, Ab 356, fol, 2). p'
�
•
I
158
CROWD I N ACTION THE REVOLUTIONARY
every chance to make up The militanu in the Sections had pres ented to them by the their minds on the important issue ughout the afternoon and two contending parties which, thro ers, threau, and decla�a. evening, sent mutually conflicting ord should they rally to the SIde tions, appealing to their loyalties:uld reject and abandon of 'les patriotes opprimes' or shoned,they finally outlawed, by and them to their fate as men condem Convention ? The Com�une l the lawfully constituted Nationa n of the thir , ty compa of had some early successes: seventee ional Guard) rem�� atmng s Nat canonnUrs (forming part of the Pari e; Gr� de e de in the Pla� in the capital obeyed the call to para e, tom t-An bourg Sam they included two companies from the Fau and ge Rou t ne the Bon , . two from the markeu, and two from k. In a�dtuon �nother ��n Left the on ions Luxembourg Sect ers and plkeme,n, I�clud. dozen Sections sent battalions of fosth Pantheon Section m the ing a strong force of 1,200 from t�e there we�e over 3,000 Faubourg Saint-Marcel. At .one hme de Ville. But they Hot the armed men drawn up outside and, el debate went o� � ose; lacked both direction and purp assembhes,thethe whole of this in the Sectional committees and gradually melted a,,:,ay : force, left largely idle and unattended,or, 200 .men of the. Fmls at 1.30 in the morning of 10 Thermid esplerre.and hIS � tere Section, the last armed support of Robbou rg Satnt.Marce�. , ciates, marched silently back to the Fau e from the cl�l o resp of More significant still was the lack trad?� bour�tots luon the t authorities in the Sections, Tha mps Elysees,ally ubhque Rep Cha Sections of the west-Tuileries, even d a f), Neu t (Pon �jre � ionn (Roule), Louvre, Revolut de kly �l� have qUic sup Piques (Robespierre's own Secuon)-sho y ear� nslOg;. but clared for the Convention is hardly surp radIcal Secuons as such de� inclu also mbly porters of the Asse mune, as ,,:,ell. Com n the Quinze Vingu, Unite, and Mal�tled of the achons stud Sainte-Claire Deville, who made a deta and comymitt ee on that bly and affiliations of every local assem all the civil authorities in of day, found that less than one-fifth however half-hearted, to the capital showed any inclination,e : these mclu . ded n:-elve rally to the side of the Commun . h that of the FIDl , st�re Revolutionary Committees, among whic t conclUSive showed the most eager response. Finally-and mos l , op. cit., pp. 201-14· , Sainle-CI.ire Devile
THERMIDOR
."
evide�ce of all-during the night thirty·nine of the Sectioru were 10 �ennanent session, debating and receiving reports. Of these, thirty·five declared unequivocally for the Convention; tw� others-Sans-Culottes (Hanriot's Section) and Finistere hesltate� at first, but rallied later; only two--the Observatoire . (Cluny) Sections of the Faubourg Saint-Marcel and Chaher showed clea�ly their sy�pathies for the Robespierrists; yet, under the weight of opposlOg opinion and seeing that the game was lost, they too surrendered to the majority before the night was out.1 The repo.rts of these proceedings were, in the great majority of cases, wntten after the event-at a time when the victors of T�e�midor were already seated firmly in the saddle. The OplDlOns of the minority who favoured the Commune were therefore rar:ly recorded; but here and there we find among them the vOice of a sans·ctJiotte, who was not so easily to be swayed fro� his pas� loyalties, In the general assembly of the ��atre �atlOns SectIOn, for example, we read of a citizen who InSisted 10 the face of hostile interruption that a letter from J:Ianriot should be read, instead of being ignored as the cmana. t1?n of '1a Commune co�pi�atrice'. When challenged to give hiS name, he stoutly replies: le me nomme Lanbrine, demeu rant. rue du Sepulcre, compagnon [journryman] de Graseau .'J AgalD, �e r�ad of Charles Joly, wallpaper worker and corporal ofthe Reumon (Beaubo,urg) Section, who tore up the papers ofa woman newsvendor which announced the arrest of HanriOl' he w�s arr�sted as an �ccomplice of the Communc and kep� in pmon till the followmg December.l But these are but isolated cases; once the tide had begun to turn, Robespierre's vocal defenders o� that day were but a small and ineffectual body, , , submerged in the growing flood were qUIckly whose 0plOlOns of anti-Jacobin reaction. More evident still ":as the particular hostility of the wage ear�ers, who ha� been IOcensed by the recent publication of the maxImum des sa/Qlres by the Robespierrist Communc. Presumably Arch. P..ef. Po\., Aa 266, rol, 242. : Ibid., pp. 273-8.
Arch. Pr�r. Pol., Aa 163, rol. 293.There is also the rather eonfwcd account of 'erre Rose, gunpowder worker of the Homme Arm� (Marais) Scction' who was ked "-tp fo� reporting to his neighboUr! what he had heard in the Place de he that n'ght�that anyone publicly announcing the oullawry of Robespierre and othen would be arrested by the Commune (Arch. Pr�f, PoL, Ab 356, fol, 2). p'
�
•
I
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
THERMIDOR
ignorant of the political struggle that had just broken into
the wage-earners, who, in Paris, formed so substantial a part of the sans-culottes, had come to believe that the removal or Robes
140
the open, workers gathered for a protest meeting in the place
de Greve on 4 o'clock that afternoon: it must have made an impression, as it is recorded in the minutes of five Civil Com mittees of neighbouring Sections. It must also have been some what confusing to observers to see the demonstrators converging on the square almost at the same time as the first military formations were beginning to appear in response to the Com mune's summons ; so we find in these reports such varying interpretations of the workers' meeting as that it was (rightly enough) 'a revolt because of the Maximum'; that the workers were about to march on the Convention; and even that Robespierre had been assassinated by the demonstrators. I The Commune, despite its other preoccupations, took the workers' protest seriously enough and did not invite further disfavour by attempting to disperse them by force of arms: at 8 o'clock that evening, in a proclamation to the citizens, the mayor, Fleuriot-Lescot, publicly saddled Barere, one of Robespierre's principal opponents, with responsibility for the reduction in wagesce Barere qui appartient a touta Its factions tour a tour et qui a fait
fixer Ie pri}!.:des joumees des ouvriers pour les faire perir de faim.1
But it was too late to have any effect on the course of events. The workers remained either hostile, or indifferent to such pleas. Earlier that evening, eyewitnesses reported that General Hanriot, seeking to win allies for the arrested deputies, harangued a score of paviors, urging them to leave their work, as their 'protector' and 'father' was in danger. 'Les ouvriers', concludes the report, 'I'ecoutent un moment, crient Vive la Rtpublique, et reprennent leur ouvrage.') Others showed more
marked hostility. When, two days later, after Robespierre and his principal lieutenants had been disposed of, the councillors of the Commune were, in turn, being driven to the place of execution, workers are said to have shouted as they passed, 'foutu maximum !'. From other accounts, too, it appears that
• Arch. N..t., AFII 47, pl..q. 365, fob:. 8, 28; plaq. 366, fob:. 1, 6, 34, 50. Sainte_ Cl..ire Deville, surprisingly, don not mention this incident ' Ibid., pl..q. 9, fol. 4· , Areh. N..t., f1 #32, plaq. I, fol. 40. • A. Aul..rd, Paris JNndall1. la .llKlion Ihnmidorilrw (5 vob:., P..ris, 18g8-1902), .
i. 1 1 .
'.'
pier�e and his �iates would mean the end of the hated des salal�u and clear the way for higher wages.t In a sense they were fight; but the outcome was neither what they
maxImum
hopcd nor expected.
, It w:as l..ter reported by a brush-m..ker of the Lomb.. rdi Section that hi, workpeo?1e ..d g':" ted the exttution of Robespierre ..nd his � associalet with the . obserVllu�n. el volta le max,mum danl le p;lnier!', .. nd promptly put in for a . per cent. �ncre:ase to the.. v.:..gea! (R. Cobb, 'Une "Coalition" do ga�onl brossi de I.. secl,on da Lombarda , AM. hul. R/c.jro"f., no. '30 (19.53), pp. 67-70).
�
;�
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
THERMIDOR
ignorant of the political struggle that had just broken into
the wage-earners, who, in Paris, formed so substantial a part of the sans-culottes, had come to believe that the removal or Robes
140
the open, workers gathered for a protest meeting in the place
de Greve on 4 o'clock that afternoon: it must have made an impression, as it is recorded in the minutes of five Civil Com mittees of neighbouring Sections. It must also have been some what confusing to observers to see the demonstrators converging on the square almost at the same time as the first military formations were beginning to appear in response to the Com mune's summons ; so we find in these reports such varying interpretations of the workers' meeting as that it was (rightly enough) 'a revolt because of the Maximum'; that the workers were about to march on the Convention; and even that Robespierre had been assassinated by the demonstrators. I The Commune, despite its other preoccupations, took the workers' protest seriously enough and did not invite further disfavour by attempting to disperse them by force of arms: at 8 o'clock that evening, in a proclamation to the citizens, the mayor, Fleuriot-Lescot, publicly saddled Barere, one of Robespierre's principal opponents, with responsibility for the reduction in wagesce Barere qui appartient a touta Its factions tour a tour et qui a fait
fixer Ie pri}!.:des joumees des ouvriers pour les faire perir de faim.1
But it was too late to have any effect on the course of events. The workers remained either hostile, or indifferent to such pleas. Earlier that evening, eyewitnesses reported that General Hanriot, seeking to win allies for the arrested deputies, harangued a score of paviors, urging them to leave their work, as their 'protector' and 'father' was in danger. 'Les ouvriers', concludes the report, 'I'ecoutent un moment, crient Vive la Rtpublique, et reprennent leur ouvrage.') Others showed more
marked hostility. When, two days later, after Robespierre and his principal lieutenants had been disposed of, the councillors of the Commune were, in turn, being driven to the place of execution, workers are said to have shouted as they passed, 'foutu maximum !'. From other accounts, too, it appears that
• Arch. N..t., AFII 47, pl..q. 365, fob:. 8, 28; plaq. 366, fob:. 1, 6, 34, 50. Sainte_ Cl..ire Deville, surprisingly, don not mention this incident ' Ibid., pl..q. 9, fol. 4· , Areh. N..t., f1 #32, plaq. I, fol. 40. • A. Aul..rd, Paris JNndall1. la .llKlion Ihnmidorilrw (5 vob:., P..ris, 18g8-1902), .
i. 1 1 .
'.'
pier�e and his �iates would mean the end of the hated des salal�u and clear the way for higher wages.t In a sense they were fight; but the outcome was neither what they
maxImum
hopcd nor expected.
, It w:as l..ter reported by a brush-m..ker of the Lomb.. rdi Section that hi, workpeo?1e ..d g':" ted the exttution of Robespierre ..nd his � associalet with the . obserVllu�n. el volta le max,mum danl le p;lnier!', .. nd promptly put in for a . per cent. �ncre:ase to the.. v.:..gea! (R. Cobb, 'Une "Coalition" do ga�onl brossi de I.. secl,on da Lombarda , AM. hul. R/c.jro"f., no. '30 (19.53), pp. 67-70).
�
;�
."
GERMINAL-PRAIRIAL
�ubli� Safety and General S«urity; the latter, while continuing ID bemg, were reduced both in powers and in independence :
x
HE T
above all, the anned forces (including the Parisian National Guard) were removed from their control and Elaced. und �a.t of a lly constituted Milita!y_ Committee, resP-2�bl to ecia
G E R M I NAL-P R A I R I A L
inal and t st·4th Prairial popularinsufrections of12thGerm 1795 ) marked the May 3 of the Year III ( I April and 20-2 the arisian sans of t effor final, and the most considerable, an lOdependent as s ruler their culottes to impose their will on they ceas�d to ial Prair in t political force. After their defea . lutiOns In the revo of d roun next the play any effective part until r extc::nt these movements are early nineteenth century. To a lesse pt of th� rem?�nts of the important as marking the final attem ture their pohucal ascen Mountain and the Jacobins to recap Paris Sections; but this time, dancy in the Convention and the tion to the �pular mo�e though they gave some political direc in protest agamst worserung ment which arose in the first place on was timorous and half· economic conditions, their interventi to failure. To understand hearted and doomed the movement trace the policy of the must we its range and significance it aroused among the that ntent disco Thennidorians and the 1 794. 1 of mn autu the sans-culottes back to time in dismantling the Robespierre's successors lost little by the Jacobins, and in re· machinery of government created that accorded better with verting to a freer economic system majority in the Convention. the wishes and interests of the new committees were set up to By a decree of 24 August sixteen by the Committees of done y carry out the work previOusl
�
,..;e A. Mathiez, Ul Rlad"", Jlrnmitkwi� I For a general account ofthese events (� is, 1937). e. us Lerebvr ; G. �36-.s8 9, 166-20 pp. (Paris, 19119), inJ (Moscow. I 1 pm Jtr1I1lM Tad!!, E. ,..;e 'lUdi� d detaile pp. 1 1 1 -39. For more SIIIU�JW ; dts llik Dif Ul n, 6nneao T D. K. 1953); 1951; German edition, Berlin, hesu for (Doctoral I i t II T/Mtitm bour,�iu d Paris m 1"1111 III IIII/IIWtIMI J>rIInIUz . is based, more particularly. 011 Unh'enilY of Oslo, 1959)' J'he praent chapter populaire de 1.1. Ri!volul1On " R. Cobb and G. Rud!!, 'Le Demier mouvelmc:nl IUQ14 hi�/Qriql#, Oc:10� III', an prairia de el l na i m r g e de s Pam: Ic:s joum« on polLee records, Whl� w:ly extensi draws taue, The 1. 25()-8 December 1955, pp. uding I�e �publl� -inel period Ihis during e re u lQ il . form a parlic::ularly rruiul IMmudarinw, .J. .llIdJon III l peM"n (Paris opinion' bulktins edited by A. Aulard al Se<:urity (Arch. �at:, F' [sI!�e 1-756), the papen or Ihe Committe<: or Gener of the tQmmlSSIllftS rh pdP a1phabl!tiquel [Police Bl!n�rale]). and ,he procb-_ba= Aa). .eriel Pol., pur. (Arch. Se<:tions of ilK Paris
T��� ..
tfO
t,J.Q.n. AJ drastic was the reorganization of local the � .ll
�
govern�ent. T e old comites tie surveillance and Revolutionary Comrruttees which at the local level had been the main props
of the Jacobin dictatorship, were swept away wholesale or brou,ght under central control. In the provinces they only SUrvived at the District level. In Paris the Commune was
abolished and the forty-eight Revolutionary Committees were grouped together in twelve comites d'arroruiisstTTWlt, from which allJacobin militants were excluded and in which the predomi nant social element was no longer the small shopkeeper and c�af�man, but the merchant, civil servant, or professional man.' Similarly the Ci l Committees of the Sections were purged,
�
put under the dIrect control of the Convention and their onvention's numbers made up by persons selected by the
C
Committee of Legislation; once more a social transformation was effected in the process, and on the committees that emerged the
saru-:ulotus andJacobins of the Year II gave way before the
substantIal property.ownen and 'moderates' who had dominated
the Sections beforeJune 1 793.1 In the Sectional assemblies them. selves the influence of the sans-culotles was further drastically re�uced by the removal ofthe fortysous' compensation ; the assem. biles were, besides, to meet only once every dicotie, or ten days.l Th� new government's economic policy was in keeping. In spite of continuing war and shortage, it owed it to its sup. porters-the large producers of town and countryside, the merchants, and shipbuilders, 'the hard·faced men who had done wei out of the war'-to liberate the economy from the
!
controls Imposed by their predecessors. AJ a first step, in October, the Maximum legislation was so amended as to allow Rrices to rise to a level two-thirds above that ofJune 1790; on 23 Decemb�r the Maximum Jaws were virtually abolished : the . pnce of ratIoned bread was stin maintained at 1 2 sous for the
, M." Bouloi.!eau, W CAmilb d, s�'l!IillllNf des ammdisumtnh jl4risitnS (Paril 1 9 o , p. 88. ' Brit. MUI., F- 61, nos. I I, 20, �l, �7 (printed lisllI). ' � . ....,_febvre. op. Cit pp. '4-IIQ.
}
.•
."
GERMINAL-PRAIRIAL
�ubli� Safety and General S«urity; the latter, while continuing ID bemg, were reduced both in powers and in independence :
x
HE T
above all, the anned forces (including the Parisian National Guard) were removed from their control and Elaced. und �a.t of a lly constituted Milita!y_ Committee, resP-2�bl to ecia
G E R M I NAL-P R A I R I A L
inal and t st·4th Prairial popularinsufrections of12thGerm 1795 ) marked the May 3 of the Year III ( I April and 20-2 the arisian sans of t effor final, and the most considerable, an lOdependent as s ruler their culottes to impose their will on they ceas�d to ial Prair in t political force. After their defea . lutiOns In the revo of d roun next the play any effective part until r extc::nt these movements are early nineteenth century. To a lesse pt of th� rem?�nts of the important as marking the final attem ture their pohucal ascen Mountain and the Jacobins to recap Paris Sections; but this time, dancy in the Convention and the tion to the �pular mo�e though they gave some political direc in protest agamst worserung ment which arose in the first place on was timorous and half· economic conditions, their interventi to failure. To understand hearted and doomed the movement trace the policy of the must we its range and significance it aroused among the that ntent disco Thennidorians and the 1 794. 1 of mn autu the sans-culottes back to time in dismantling the Robespierre's successors lost little by the Jacobins, and in re· machinery of government created that accorded better with verting to a freer economic system majority in the Convention. the wishes and interests of the new committees were set up to By a decree of 24 August sixteen by the Committees of done y carry out the work previOusl
�
,..;e A. Mathiez, Ul Rlad"", Jlrnmitkwi� I For a general account ofthese events (� is, 1937). e. us Lerebvr ; G. �36-.s8 9, 166-20 pp. (Paris, 19119), inJ (Moscow. I 1 pm Jtr1I1lM Tad!!, E. ,..;e 'lUdi� d detaile pp. 1 1 1 -39. For more SIIIU�JW ; dts llik Dif Ul n, 6nneao T D. K. 1953); 1951; German edition, Berlin, hesu for (Doctoral I i t II T/Mtitm bour,�iu d Paris m 1"1111 III IIII/IIWtIMI J>rIInIUz . is based, more particularly. 011 Unh'enilY of Oslo, 1959)' J'he praent chapter populaire de 1.1. Ri!volul1On " R. Cobb and G. Rud!!, 'Le Demier mouvelmc:nl IUQ14 hi�/Qriql#, Oc:10� III', an prairia de el l na i m r g e de s Pam: Ic:s joum« on polLee records, Whl� w:ly extensi draws taue, The 1. 25()-8 December 1955, pp. uding I�e �publl� -inel period Ihis during e re u lQ il . form a parlic::ularly rruiul IMmudarinw, .J. .llIdJon III l peM"n (Paris opinion' bulktins edited by A. Aulard al Se<:urity (Arch. �at:, F' [sI!�e 1-756), the papen or Ihe Committe<: or Gener of the tQmmlSSIllftS rh pdP a1phabl!tiquel [Police Bl!n�rale]). and ,he procb-_ba= Aa). .eriel Pol., pur. (Arch. Se<:tions of ilK Paris
T��� ..
tfO
t,J.Q.n. AJ drastic was the reorganization of local the � .ll
�
govern�ent. T e old comites tie surveillance and Revolutionary Comrruttees which at the local level had been the main props
of the Jacobin dictatorship, were swept away wholesale or brou,ght under central control. In the provinces they only SUrvived at the District level. In Paris the Commune was
abolished and the forty-eight Revolutionary Committees were grouped together in twelve comites d'arroruiisstTTWlt, from which allJacobin militants were excluded and in which the predomi nant social element was no longer the small shopkeeper and c�af�man, but the merchant, civil servant, or professional man.' Similarly the Ci l Committees of the Sections were purged,
�
put under the dIrect control of the Convention and their onvention's numbers made up by persons selected by the
C
Committee of Legislation; once more a social transformation was effected in the process, and on the committees that emerged the
saru-:ulotus andJacobins of the Year II gave way before the
substantIal property.ownen and 'moderates' who had dominated
the Sections beforeJune 1 793.1 In the Sectional assemblies them. selves the influence of the sans-culotles was further drastically re�uced by the removal ofthe fortysous' compensation ; the assem. biles were, besides, to meet only once every dicotie, or ten days.l Th� new government's economic policy was in keeping. In spite of continuing war and shortage, it owed it to its sup. porters-the large producers of town and countryside, the merchants, and shipbuilders, 'the hard·faced men who had done wei out of the war'-to liberate the economy from the
!
controls Imposed by their predecessors. AJ a first step, in October, the Maximum legislation was so amended as to allow Rrices to rise to a level two-thirds above that ofJune 1790; on 23 Decemb�r the Maximum Jaws were virtually abolished : the . pnce of ratIoned bread was stin maintained at 1 2 sous for the
, M." Bouloi.!eau, W CAmilb d, s�'l!IillllNf des ammdisumtnh jl4risitnS (Paril 1 9 o , p. 88. ' Brit. MUI., F- 61, nos. I I, 20, �l, �7 (printed lisllI). ' � . ....,_febvre. op. Cit pp. '4-IIQ.
}
.•
NARY THE REVOLUTIO
N CROWD IN ACTIO
wed in addition toounbed bread was now allo 4-lb. loaf-though of a half-p t; the basic meat ration sold on an open mas rke per 21 ce pri new its at also retained free to find of l every five days wa pri ura nat ir the were now pound ; otherwise,naryces ed ect refl is n ent thus set in motio level. The inflatio in themovalvem cent. of the assignat fromin36Noper ue in the steady fall cent. in Octob vem t. er, 24 per cen ry, andberto, in July to 28 per cember, 17 per cent. in Februa 20 per cent. in De 5.1 71 per cent. in May 179 pared with the privileged area comwe a s wa Although Paris vinces re abandoned ls tro con , where pro large towns in theose r-famine condi citizens were to suffer nea altogether and wh n peo e to face con ple of the capitalultcam tions,' the commolonged har the new policy. dship as the res ofsed siderable and pro side by t, still with the clo markeatio There now developed, an opensidmae rke ned unr in not only subject to restriction, sugar, firewood, toil, but sble eta veg and goods--eggs, butter as well. With the repeal um xim Ma the of in meat and breadstantly increasing shortages of every article laws and the con r man's budget, not only did the Parisian entering into the poopurchase all commodities other than bread menu peuple have to prevailing; but the , famine prices nowund and meat at the higher �rtaking to pro ernment to honour its inability of the govntit controlled bread and meat at the vide sufficient quathemiestoofspe tion of pro an ever higher t.por price, compelled ad and mend us, for Th rke ma the open their income on brethe autumnatofin 179 ad re bre of e pric the the prst time sinceial problem. Its imp1,orta ged jud be y ma nce appeared as a soc price of bread in the open market from 25 from the rise in the 1795 to 65 sous on April, to 6 liures on on 28 March week later-twO May, and to 16 lilJreS aanw 2 1 April, to 9 liurts on hile the price ak of 1st Prairia1.4 Me days before the outbre in December to rket rose from 36 sousil pric of meat on the opeI nApmaril.s based on The index ofreta Apes, on 7 livres, 1 0 ril.6 in June 1790, rose from 500 in January to goo 1+4
SOIlS
\!
l
SOIlS
tJ
SOIlS
II
• Ibid., p. 99· l, p. • 66. the bread , Har is, Th AssillUlt at all (ibid., p. 107); ured r hono not often ..t ration wall I The me (.'imp,.), xxiii. 7(0), nittwr (}.IQ 5 7 ' March 9 in per head h�ad (Aulard, ralion, fixed al I-II lb. 6, 6, 4, or even II ounces peT n:h nd May Cell to between M .. 7�9· a op. cIl., i. 610, 654, 675, ,IS, • Aul.. rd, pp. 10]-8· op. cit.. vol. I, fHJSsim) . I HarT;', op. cit., 6119. • Ibid. 341,
GERMINAL- PRAIRIAL
145
We knowr1 about .wages for this period. At first the Thermidoria u e-eamers by repudiatin� the scales ��:1 �� ';� �;:;��:� �mmun� on the eve oflu downfall: a revised nuuimu d ali��;s was, In fact, pub lished on 9 August, which provi:ede;o� eases of about onehalf above those of the illJated maximum ' of 23 July. ' But these gains wererapidly swallowed b he �over�me�t's delib�r�te policy of fostering inflation an1of��t� ;:;�� re.c y competltlve market. From the limited evidence. v le It appears that the real wages of Parisian worke r � In £A�n1' 1795 were far lower than in 1793-4 and had ! oba I� ;1 cn back to the catastrophic level of the early onths f 789·z But long before this, and even before the repeal of the Maxtmum ' Iaws m ' December the co�mon people of Paris had begun to voice their hostil!ty to t e government's policy, though at first in terms '0f ��athy and sullen resentment. The prevailing mood is desc b y an agent of the Ministry of the Interior in late Novem��r� . Complaints and murm �e c;ntmually heard. The long delays �::::;t o�Hour, the high prices, in in obtaining rationed br;::; � , �e,. coal, vegetables and markets and squares, ofbre�d' potatoes, the price of which is increas'mg ;:I the most alarming manner :I:gtng . .the �ple into a state of wretchedness and despair 'tha; to ImaglOe. The first ope? clashes with the authorities involved the arms I Robe�pier"'s fal�, had remained relatively w ca���6:���� ;c�ovem er deIegatlOru from two w rk h ��:;�l;: ��:���o: to consider their claims for highe� w:g':� ::0 d:� later, by 350 w�rkers from the r Pantheon workshop'' compelled their managers to lead them on a march to the. Tuileries. Other workshops followed suit· and the Co�:�:� I a;: k �,�:�:J' n a :t: ��:�� �� ' ;:a�:n�'c::' :�t�� ,s' propose suitable measures. It was de� cided to close down thOe government arms workshops altogether ess.
Ii
•
I
y 10
at
y
J
;
: Rudt and Soboul, 0p. cir., pp. 2o-�3 . For the preceding two Jnr..graplu G R d
�
'
d op l u r a osl. '�., vol. 3, n VI, � no.. 3686' (my translation).
i:E!, n�7' W;ga F"
lo� fuen... in Paria during the French ;;vol�ti;"' Ap ' AIch. Nal., n� '954, pp. 261-4.
.
NARY THE REVOLUTIO
N CROWD IN ACTIO
wed in addition toounbed bread was now allo 4-lb. loaf-though of a half-p t; the basic meat ration sold on an open mas rke per 21 ce pri new its at also retained free to find of l every five days wa pri ura nat ir the were now pound ; otherwise,naryces ed ect refl is n ent thus set in motio level. The inflatio in themovalvem cent. of the assignat fromin36Noper ue in the steady fall cent. in Octob vem t. er, 24 per cen ry, andberto, in July to 28 per cember, 17 per cent. in Februa 20 per cent. in De 5.1 71 per cent. in May 179 pared with the privileged area comwe a s wa Although Paris vinces re abandoned ls tro con , where pro large towns in theose r-famine condi citizens were to suffer nea altogether and wh n peo e to face con ple of the capitalultcam tions,' the commolonged har the new policy. dship as the res ofsed siderable and pro side by t, still with the clo markeatio There now developed, an opensidmae rke ned unr in not only subject to restriction, sugar, firewood, toil, but sble eta veg and goods--eggs, butter as well. With the repeal um xim Ma the of in meat and breadstantly increasing shortages of every article laws and the con r man's budget, not only did the Parisian entering into the poopurchase all commodities other than bread menu peuple have to prevailing; but the , famine prices nowund and meat at the higher �rtaking to pro ernment to honour its inability of the govntit controlled bread and meat at the vide sufficient quathemiestoofspe tion of pro an ever higher t.por price, compelled ad and mend us, for Th rke ma the open their income on brethe autumnatofin 179 ad re bre of e pric the the prst time sinceial problem. Its imp1,orta ged jud be y ma nce appeared as a soc price of bread in the open market from 25 from the rise in the 1795 to 65 sous on April, to 6 liures on on 28 March week later-twO May, and to 16 lilJreS aanw 2 1 April, to 9 liurts on hile the price ak of 1st Prairia1.4 Me days before the outbre in December to rket rose from 36 sousil pric of meat on the opeI nApmaril.s based on The index ofreta Apes, on 7 livres, 1 0 ril.6 in June 1790, rose from 500 in January to goo 1+4
SOIlS
\!
l
SOIlS
tJ
SOIlS
II
• Ibid., p. 99· l, p. • 66. the bread , Har is, Th AssillUlt at all (ibid., p. 107); ured r hono not often ..t ration wall I The me (.'imp,.), xxiii. 7(0), nittwr (}.IQ 5 7 ' March 9 in per head h�ad (Aulard, ralion, fixed al I-II lb. 6, 6, 4, or even II ounces peT n:h nd May Cell to between M .. 7�9· a op. cIl., i. 610, 654, 675, ,IS, • Aul.. rd, pp. 10]-8· op. cit.. vol. I, fHJSsim) . I HarT;', op. cit., 6119. • Ibid. 341,
GERMINAL- PRAIRIAL
145
We knowr1 about .wages for this period. At first the Thermidoria u e-eamers by repudiatin� the scales ��:1 �� ';� �;:;��:� �mmun� on the eve oflu downfall: a revised nuuimu d ali��;s was, In fact, pub lished on 9 August, which provi:ede;o� eases of about onehalf above those of the illJated maximum ' of 23 July. ' But these gains wererapidly swallowed b he �over�me�t's delib�r�te policy of fostering inflation an1of��t� ;:;�� re.c y competltlve market. From the limited evidence. v le It appears that the real wages of Parisian worke r � In £A�n1' 1795 were far lower than in 1793-4 and had ! oba I� ;1 cn back to the catastrophic level of the early onths f 789·z But long before this, and even before the repeal of the Maxtmum ' Iaws m ' December the co�mon people of Paris had begun to voice their hostil!ty to t e government's policy, though at first in terms '0f ��athy and sullen resentment. The prevailing mood is desc b y an agent of the Ministry of the Interior in late Novem��r� . Complaints and murm �e c;ntmually heard. The long delays �::::;t o�Hour, the high prices, in in obtaining rationed br;::; � , �e,. coal, vegetables and markets and squares, ofbre�d' potatoes, the price of which is increas'mg ;:I the most alarming manner :I:gtng . .the �ple into a state of wretchedness and despair 'tha; to ImaglOe. The first ope? clashes with the authorities involved the arms I Robe�pier"'s fal�, had remained relatively w ca���6:���� ;c�ovem er deIegatlOru from two w rk h ��:;�l;: ��:���o: to consider their claims for highe� w:g':� ::0 d:� later, by 350 w�rkers from the r Pantheon workshop'' compelled their managers to lead them on a march to the. Tuileries. Other workshops followed suit· and the Co�:�:� I a;: k �,�:�:J' n a :t: ��:�� �� ' ;:a�:n�'c::' :�t�� ,s' propose suitable measures. It was de� cided to close down thOe government arms workshops altogether ess.
Ii
•
I
y 10
at
y
J
;
: Rudt and Soboul, 0p. cir., pp. 2o-�3 . For the preceding two Jnr..graplu G R d
�
'
d op l u r a osl. '�., vol. 3, n VI, � no.. 3686' (my translation).
i:E!, n�7' W;ga F"
lo� fuen... in Paria during the French ;;vol�ti;"' Ap ' AIch. Nal., n� '954, pp. 261-4.
.
146
'
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
on 20 January. The workers, faced with the prospect of un employment in mid-winter, reacted vigo�usly and, aft�r a series of demonstrations, in the course of which a score of nng leaders were arrested, persuaded the authorities to grant them a few weeks' respite. The workshops were closed down on 8 February 1795.' But after December we hear no more of wages movements. Once the full effects ofinBation were felt, the wageearners joined with the rest of the sans-culottes in common pro test against the fantastic rise in prices of aU consumers' goods; once more the food riot rather than the strike became the order of the day. In fact the repeal of the Maximum laws in late December touched off a popular movement which, with short lulls, con tinued till the early summer. A police report of 27 December warned of growing social unrest: 'La classe incligente donne de I'inquietude aux citoyens paisibles sur les suites de cette cherte excessive.' By early January prices of many goods had already doubled since the repeal of the Maximum; and workers, assembled at the Tuileries, threatened merchants and shop keepers with violence: 'Qu'a l'egard des marchands� c'etaient des cochons qu'il faudrait tuer.' Some voiced royalist propa ganda: 'Au diable la Republique! nous manquons de tout, il n'y a que Ie riche qui ne manque de rien: It was rumoured that the Faubourg Saint-Antoine was once more preparing to march on the Convention, this time to demand a reduction in food prices; it was even suggested that the Assembly should be dispersed by force.� But it was not only the rising cost of living that kept this movement in being: political issues entered into it as well. On the one hand, there were the measures taken by the Govern ment-the persecuti.on of the 'patriots' of 1793-4, the closure of the Jacobin Club, the abolition of the 40 sous, the destruction of the busts of Marat, the encouragement given to speculators and war-profiteers and to the middle-class youth (or muscadins), whose arrogance excited the particular fury and hostility of the sans-culottes; on the other hand, there was the Jacobin propa ganda kept up by Lebois's journal, L'Ami du proP/t, and the
, For the .� -= m.l.inly Pr«u·_6awr tie La w-nli01l national" xlvii. 1311 i :dix. :I+4-63 ; 1. ag...go, II�; Ii. '55-7; !iv. :166. a Aulard, op. dt. i. 3+3, 3�7-8. 367, 369-70, 377. 380.
GERMINAL-PRAIRIAL
'47
clubs and societies that had managed to survive in the Fau bourgs Saint-Antoine and Saint-Marcel and the Section des Gravilliers-prominent among which were the Society of Re publican Virtues in the Observatoire Section and the Club de la Rue du Vert-Bois, the latter said to be composed largely 'd'ouvriers et d'hommes peu instruits, tres faciles a egarer'. Occasionally this propaganda is reflected in the police reports; as, for example, in late November, when members of the Bonne Nouvelle Section, marching to the Convention to congratulate the legislators on their decision to close down theJacobin Club, were greeted with cat-calls and derisive shouts of 'Voila les petits muscadins de Bonne-Nouvelle qui Vont a la Convention'; or, again, when an arms worker, arrested for creating a distur bance at the Tuileries on 9 February, accompaD:ied his criticism of the Convention for closing the workshops with attacks on the deputies for feathering their own nests while the people starved, and for destroying monuments to Marat; while petitioners from the Sections that had come to applaud thest.: measures were apostrophized as 'des intriguans, des marchands, des factieux, un tas de gueux et des hommes a la houppelande'. This atmo sphere of class-hostility-reminiscent of that prevailing in the capital on the eve of the Champ de Mars 'massacre' of July 1791-Was further intensified by the counter-measures taken by the Convention. The remaining clubs were closed down and some of the local leaders-Babeuf among them-were arrested. Even more significant perhaps was the suggestion made to the Committee of General Security that better use might be made ofthe anti�Jacobin youth, thejeutuSSt dOTie led by Freron, to act as a counter-weight to the activities of 'la faction' : Ce contrepoids est d'autant plus necessaire qu'il [Ie Cornite] n'a nuls moyens de repression, nulle force armee sur laquelle il puisse entier-ernent compter.'
The suggestion did not fall on deaf ears, as subsequent events were to reveal. It was against this background that the insurrectionary move ment developed that culminated in the explosion of 12th Germinal (I April 1795)' The new element that brought it to a head'was the growing shortage of rationed bread, which began I See Cobb and Rudl!, op. cit., pp. 1I�7-9.
146
'
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
on 20 January. The workers, faced with the prospect of un employment in mid-winter, reacted vigo�usly and, aft�r a series of demonstrations, in the course of which a score of nng leaders were arrested, persuaded the authorities to grant them a few weeks' respite. The workshops were closed down on 8 February 1795.' But after December we hear no more of wages movements. Once the full effects ofinBation were felt, the wageearners joined with the rest of the sans-culottes in common pro test against the fantastic rise in prices of aU consumers' goods; once more the food riot rather than the strike became the order of the day. In fact the repeal of the Maximum laws in late December touched off a popular movement which, with short lulls, con tinued till the early summer. A police report of 27 December warned of growing social unrest: 'La classe incligente donne de I'inquietude aux citoyens paisibles sur les suites de cette cherte excessive.' By early January prices of many goods had already doubled since the repeal of the Maximum; and workers, assembled at the Tuileries, threatened merchants and shop keepers with violence: 'Qu'a l'egard des marchands� c'etaient des cochons qu'il faudrait tuer.' Some voiced royalist propa ganda: 'Au diable la Republique! nous manquons de tout, il n'y a que Ie riche qui ne manque de rien: It was rumoured that the Faubourg Saint-Antoine was once more preparing to march on the Convention, this time to demand a reduction in food prices; it was even suggested that the Assembly should be dispersed by force.� But it was not only the rising cost of living that kept this movement in being: political issues entered into it as well. On the one hand, there were the measures taken by the Govern ment-the persecuti.on of the 'patriots' of 1793-4, the closure of the Jacobin Club, the abolition of the 40 sous, the destruction of the busts of Marat, the encouragement given to speculators and war-profiteers and to the middle-class youth (or muscadins), whose arrogance excited the particular fury and hostility of the sans-culottes; on the other hand, there was the Jacobin propa ganda kept up by Lebois's journal, L'Ami du proP/t, and the
, For the .� -= m.l.inly Pr«u·_6awr tie La w-nli01l national" xlvii. 1311 i :dix. :I+4-63 ; 1. ag...go, II�; Ii. '55-7; !iv. :166. a Aulard, op. dt. i. 3+3, 3�7-8. 367, 369-70, 377. 380.
GERMINAL-PRAIRIAL
'47
clubs and societies that had managed to survive in the Fau bourgs Saint-Antoine and Saint-Marcel and the Section des Gravilliers-prominent among which were the Society of Re publican Virtues in the Observatoire Section and the Club de la Rue du Vert-Bois, the latter said to be composed largely 'd'ouvriers et d'hommes peu instruits, tres faciles a egarer'. Occasionally this propaganda is reflected in the police reports; as, for example, in late November, when members of the Bonne Nouvelle Section, marching to the Convention to congratulate the legislators on their decision to close down theJacobin Club, were greeted with cat-calls and derisive shouts of 'Voila les petits muscadins de Bonne-Nouvelle qui Vont a la Convention'; or, again, when an arms worker, arrested for creating a distur bance at the Tuileries on 9 February, accompaD:ied his criticism of the Convention for closing the workshops with attacks on the deputies for feathering their own nests while the people starved, and for destroying monuments to Marat; while petitioners from the Sections that had come to applaud thest.: measures were apostrophized as 'des intriguans, des marchands, des factieux, un tas de gueux et des hommes a la houppelande'. This atmo sphere of class-hostility-reminiscent of that prevailing in the capital on the eve of the Champ de Mars 'massacre' of July 1791-Was further intensified by the counter-measures taken by the Convention. The remaining clubs were closed down and some of the local leaders-Babeuf among them-were arrested. Even more significant perhaps was the suggestion made to the Committee of General Security that better use might be made ofthe anti�Jacobin youth, thejeutuSSt dOTie led by Freron, to act as a counter-weight to the activities of 'la faction' : Ce contrepoids est d'autant plus necessaire qu'il [Ie Cornite] n'a nuls moyens de repression, nulle force armee sur laquelle il puisse entier-ernent compter.'
The suggestion did not fall on deaf ears, as subsequent events were to reveal. It was against this background that the insurrectionary move ment developed that culminated in the explosion of 12th Germinal (I April 1795)' The new element that brought it to a head'was the growing shortage of rationed bread, which began I See Cobb and Rudl!, op. cit., pp. 1I�7-9.
14B
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
GERMINAL-PRAIRIAL
to be felt in January and reached near-famine proportions by the end of March. Police reports for the fortnight leading up to the outbreak present a graphic picture of a growing movement of anger and frustration, which may be summarized as follows :
petition Conventi�n : Qui�ze Vingts deputation reminds deputies . that, on occasIOn, msurrectlon a sacred duty and calls for jwtice for imprisoned 'patriots', for steps to alleviate hunger and for the implementation of the Constitution of 1 793. 1
16 March. Meetings of women in the Gravillien Section. 17 March. Deputations from Saint-Jacques and Saint-Marcel petition the Convention: 'We lack bread and are beginning to regret all the sacrifices we have made for the Revolution.' 18 March. A waiter arrested in the Montagne (Palais Royal) Section complains that 'it was dreadful to see Frenchmen reduced to a ration of one lb. of bread a day and to eating potatoes, which were only fit for pigs'. 21 March. A deputation from the Faubourg Saint-Antoine received by the Convention; workers and muscat/ins come to blows at the Porte St. Denis. 22 Marth. Bread-ration breaks down completely in Gravillien and Homme Arme (Marais) Sections; two gentlemen insulted by arms workers in the Palais Egalite (Palais Royal) ; a paper-worker arrested on Pont Neuf for shouting that 'the rich were all rogues'. 23 March. Women of the Arsenal workshop threaten to throw 'jeunes gens', who had ventured into the Faubourg Saint-Antoine to fraternize with the ouuriers, into the river. 24 Mllrch. Four persons arrested in Montreuil Section for trying 'to raise the Faubourg' ; no bread distributed in Oroits de I'Homme, Indivisibilite, Marches and Lombards Sections. 25 Mllrch. A jeweller of the rue Saint-Martin arrested fOI; threaten ing the Convention and complaining 'that it was not easy to live on a half-pound of bread'. 26 March. Women of rue Saint-Martin accuse men of being 'cowards' for taking no action; women flour-workers try to organize a march to the Convention. 27 March. Extensive bread-riots in Gravilliers and Temple Sec tions; women and male workers march to Convention and com plain of bread-ration of only a half-pound; several arrests; illegal Sectional assemblies in Amis de la Patrie and Gravilliers.
:llJ MfJrCh. Agitation in Gravilliers and Temple continues ; march on Convention dispersed by National Guard, who arrest eight persons near Opera. 29 March. A mother kills twoofherthreechildrenforfearoffamine. 30 MtJrch. Bread-riots in Droits de I'Homme and Faubourg du Nord. 31 March. Illegal assembly in Droits de l'Homme addresses petition to Convention; workers strike for more bread; four Sections
."
Th�e demands were voiced on a far larger scale on the followmg day (nuh Germinal). Meetings and processions formed at .an ea:ly hour. The bread ration failed completely in some SectIOns; 10 others, a ration of 4 or ounces was distri buted. In the Droits de I'Homme women came to blows at bakers' shoI?s. In the rue Montmartre building workers met to protest agamst a decree of 3 1 March, which debarred those liv.ing in furnished rooms from buying bread at the controlled pncej1 workers in neighbouring shops were invited to join a protest demo tration to t e Convention. The Faubourgs Saint � . Marcel and Samt-JacquesJome d forces to march to the Tuileries and the Gravilliers Section was reported to have concerted wit thirteen other Secdons for the same purpose. While the Assem bly's President, Boissy d'Anglas, was in the middle of a speech, the men and women of the insurgent Sections burst in on the Convention, shouting, 'du pain! du pain !'; some wore on their caps the insurgent slogan, 'du pain et la Constitution de 1793'. But t e dem�nstrators lacked leaders and had no settled plan ofactJon : while the spokesman for the Cite called for the Con stitution of 1 793, those of two other Sections won the applause of th� Assembly's �ajority for their moderate speeches_ When . Merlin de Tl llonVllle, one of the Thermidorian leaders, ap peared, escorted by loyal detachments of the National Guard from the western Sections, and by groups ofjtunes gens (who had . preViously �embled �t the Louvre to meet this situation), the mtruders dispe�ed wlthout offering any resistance. And, far from the dep bes f the Mountain playing any active part in � � these p �eedings, It was two of their number that first proposed that the Insurgents should discharge their business quickly and leave the assembly-hall in good. order.l inor disturbances followed, both that day and the next, in vanous parts of the capitaL Some Sections-Popincourt, Cite,
8
�
h
�
�
I Ibid., pp. �5g-6�. • Thelpoli<:<: considered this decree the main cause of disconten t among the W�rkers O? 121h �rminal (Aulard, op. cit. i. 627, 630). Mat h .ez, op. CIt., p. �06.
14B
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
GERMINAL-PRAIRIAL
to be felt in January and reached near-famine proportions by the end of March. Police reports for the fortnight leading up to the outbreak present a graphic picture of a growing movement of anger and frustration, which may be summarized as follows :
petition Conventi�n : Qui�ze Vingts deputation reminds deputies . that, on occasIOn, msurrectlon a sacred duty and calls for jwtice for imprisoned 'patriots', for steps to alleviate hunger and for the implementation of the Constitution of 1 793. 1
16 March. Meetings of women in the Gravillien Section. 17 March. Deputations from Saint-Jacques and Saint-Marcel petition the Convention: 'We lack bread and are beginning to regret all the sacrifices we have made for the Revolution.' 18 March. A waiter arrested in the Montagne (Palais Royal) Section complains that 'it was dreadful to see Frenchmen reduced to a ration of one lb. of bread a day and to eating potatoes, which were only fit for pigs'. 21 March. A deputation from the Faubourg Saint-Antoine received by the Convention; workers and muscat/ins come to blows at the Porte St. Denis. 22 Marth. Bread-ration breaks down completely in Gravillien and Homme Arme (Marais) Sections; two gentlemen insulted by arms workers in the Palais Egalite (Palais Royal) ; a paper-worker arrested on Pont Neuf for shouting that 'the rich were all rogues'. 23 March. Women of the Arsenal workshop threaten to throw 'jeunes gens', who had ventured into the Faubourg Saint-Antoine to fraternize with the ouuriers, into the river. 24 Mllrch. Four persons arrested in Montreuil Section for trying 'to raise the Faubourg' ; no bread distributed in Oroits de I'Homme, Indivisibilite, Marches and Lombards Sections. 25 Mllrch. A jeweller of the rue Saint-Martin arrested fOI; threaten ing the Convention and complaining 'that it was not easy to live on a half-pound of bread'. 26 March. Women of rue Saint-Martin accuse men of being 'cowards' for taking no action; women flour-workers try to organize a march to the Convention. 27 March. Extensive bread-riots in Gravilliers and Temple Sec tions; women and male workers march to Convention and com plain of bread-ration of only a half-pound; several arrests; illegal Sectional assemblies in Amis de la Patrie and Gravilliers.
:llJ MfJrCh. Agitation in Gravilliers and Temple continues ; march on Convention dispersed by National Guard, who arrest eight persons near Opera. 29 March. A mother kills twoofherthreechildrenforfearoffamine. 30 MtJrch. Bread-riots in Droits de I'Homme and Faubourg du Nord. 31 March. Illegal assembly in Droits de l'Homme addresses petition to Convention; workers strike for more bread; four Sections
."
Th�e demands were voiced on a far larger scale on the followmg day (nuh Germinal). Meetings and processions formed at .an ea:ly hour. The bread ration failed completely in some SectIOns; 10 others, a ration of 4 or ounces was distri buted. In the Droits de I'Homme women came to blows at bakers' shoI?s. In the rue Montmartre building workers met to protest agamst a decree of 3 1 March, which debarred those liv.ing in furnished rooms from buying bread at the controlled pncej1 workers in neighbouring shops were invited to join a protest demo tration to t e Convention. The Faubourgs Saint � . Marcel and Samt-JacquesJome d forces to march to the Tuileries and the Gravilliers Section was reported to have concerted wit thirteen other Secdons for the same purpose. While the Assem bly's President, Boissy d'Anglas, was in the middle of a speech, the men and women of the insurgent Sections burst in on the Convention, shouting, 'du pain! du pain !'; some wore on their caps the insurgent slogan, 'du pain et la Constitution de 1793'. But t e dem�nstrators lacked leaders and had no settled plan ofactJon : while the spokesman for the Cite called for the Con stitution of 1 793, those of two other Sections won the applause of th� Assembly's �ajority for their moderate speeches_ When . Merlin de Tl llonVllle, one of the Thermidorian leaders, ap peared, escorted by loyal detachments of the National Guard from the western Sections, and by groups ofjtunes gens (who had . preViously �embled �t the Louvre to meet this situation), the mtruders dispe�ed wlthout offering any resistance. And, far from the dep bes f the Mountain playing any active part in � � these p �eedings, It was two of their number that first proposed that the Insurgents should discharge their business quickly and leave the assembly-hall in good. order.l inor disturbances followed, both that day and the next, in vanous parts of the capitaL Some Sections-Popincourt, Cite,
8
�
h
�
�
I Ibid., pp. �5g-6�. • Thelpoli<:<: considered this decree the main cause of disconten t among the W�rkers O? 121h �rminal (Aulard, op. cit. i. 627, 630). Mat h .ez, op. CIt., p. �06.
" .
�
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD I N ACTION
and Pantheon-went into pennanent session; and the gunners of the Gravilliers Section ('composes en grande partie d'on. vriers') talked of marching to the Champs Elyttes to release the 'patriots' from prison. But the Convention took stern measures to re-establish order and to prevent a renewed outbreak. Paris was declared to be in a state of siege and its armed forces were placed under the supreme command of a regula� Army officer, General Pichegru ; local leaders were arrested In the Contrat Social, Gravilliers, Arcis, and Montmartre Sections; a dozen deputies (including Leonard Bourdon, Amar, and Cambon all opponents of Robespierre in Thermidor) were also arrested; and three of the leaders of the Thermidorian eoup d'ltal, but now denounced as terrorists-Barere, Billaud·Varennes, and Collot d'Herbois-were sentenced to deportation.I The authorities showed less energy in dealing with the food crisis. The Convention decreed, on 2 April, that the bread ration, where insufficient, should be supplemented with riee and biscuits, and that priority should be given in their distribu· tion to 'les ouvriers, artisans et indigents'. But this did nothing, ofcourse, to solve the largerproblem ofsupplies, and the shortage of rationed bread continued unchecked: we still read during April and May of distributions of 2, 4, or 6 ounces per head. supplemented by small portions of rice. There were reports, besides, of increasing numbers of beggars, of people dying of hunger in the streets, and of suicides.2 There was a further revival of royalist propaganda: 'Prenons patience [some were heard to say], nous aurons un roi avant quinze jours; alaI'S nous ne manquerons pas de pain.' But the prevailing m� was one of resignation and despair, tempered by outbursts of militancy. Yet, despite the attempts to overawe the menu peup!e by a display of force, the popular movement started up agam aftee a brief lull. On April the familiar complaints were voiced again in the markets; on the 9th a porcelain-painter was arrested at the Porte Saint-Denis for bitterly attacking the Convention before a large crowd and complaining of the insufficiency and poor quality of bread. The next day some 500 women gathered in the Bonnet de la Liberte (Croix Rouge)
4
, Ma,hiez, op. cit.• pp. 201-8.
• Au\ard, op. cit. i. 660, 714-1:), 7'9. 721, 724, 728.
GERMJNAL-PRAIRJAL
" ,
Section to shouts of 'A bas les annes! nous ne voulons plus de soldats, puisqu'il n'y a plus de pain!' On 1 7 April women in Gravilliers and Lombards refused to accept their bread ration; on the 20th a domestic servant was arrested in the Pont Neuf Section, charged with saying, 'II y a huh mois que nous avions du pain; aujourd'hui nous o'en avons plus, nous sommes dans l'esclavage'; while one of two craftsmen arrested for seditious talk, the next day, in Arsenal excused his conduct by saying, 'qu'it croyait que c'etait pour cause de pain'. Similar incidents are reported almost daily during the next month in the public opinion bulletins issued by the police;' and, occasionally, we find signs, besides, of a more organized mo,:ement once more beginning to take shape. Thus, on 29 Apnl, the Montreuil Section declared itself to be in permanent session for the purpose of discussing food supplies and called on other Sections to follow its example; a similar attempt in the Jardin des Plantes was nipped in the bud by the arrest of a number ofringleaders. On 12 May building workers threatened to go on strike if the bread ration were not increased; and a police agent sadly noted that it would be impossible to arrest all those who cursed the government, 'as it would mean arrest ing over half the population of Paris'. The next day demonstra tors in a number of central Sections-Museum, Lombards, and Marches-went from one baker to another to persuade the women to refuse to accept their bread ration. On the 16th, when the ration fell to two ounces per head, police agents spoke of a pending popular insurrection, allegedly inspired by terrorists; and, on the 18th, it was rumoured that, if the ration were not increased, the Faubourg Saint-Antoine would rise again on 1st Prairial (20 May) and invite the rest of Paris to follow its example. The next day, there was general talk of a march on the Convention : in the Invalides Section (reported the police) the ouuners were ready to join with those of the Faubourg Saint-Antoine. Illegal assemblies were held in Droits de I'Homme and Quinze Vingts, where it was urged 'q:.J'il fallait marcher en masse et en armes pour demander a la Con �ention du pain ou la mort'. The same evening and the follow �ng morning an anonymous manifesto was widely distributed 10 thtfaubourgs and city centre, bearing the title : insurrution du , Cobb and Rud�, op. cit., pp. 267-7Q•
" .
�
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD I N ACTION
and Pantheon-went into pennanent session; and the gunners of the Gravilliers Section ('composes en grande partie d'on. vriers') talked of marching to the Champs Elyttes to release the 'patriots' from prison. But the Convention took stern measures to re-establish order and to prevent a renewed outbreak. Paris was declared to be in a state of siege and its armed forces were placed under the supreme command of a regula� Army officer, General Pichegru ; local leaders were arrested In the Contrat Social, Gravilliers, Arcis, and Montmartre Sections; a dozen deputies (including Leonard Bourdon, Amar, and Cambon all opponents of Robespierre in Thermidor) were also arrested; and three of the leaders of the Thermidorian eoup d'ltal, but now denounced as terrorists-Barere, Billaud·Varennes, and Collot d'Herbois-were sentenced to deportation.I The authorities showed less energy in dealing with the food crisis. The Convention decreed, on 2 April, that the bread ration, where insufficient, should be supplemented with riee and biscuits, and that priority should be given in their distribu· tion to 'les ouvriers, artisans et indigents'. But this did nothing, ofcourse, to solve the largerproblem ofsupplies, and the shortage of rationed bread continued unchecked: we still read during April and May of distributions of 2, 4, or 6 ounces per head. supplemented by small portions of rice. There were reports, besides, of increasing numbers of beggars, of people dying of hunger in the streets, and of suicides.2 There was a further revival of royalist propaganda: 'Prenons patience [some were heard to say], nous aurons un roi avant quinze jours; alaI'S nous ne manquerons pas de pain.' But the prevailing m� was one of resignation and despair, tempered by outbursts of militancy. Yet, despite the attempts to overawe the menu peup!e by a display of force, the popular movement started up agam aftee a brief lull. On April the familiar complaints were voiced again in the markets; on the 9th a porcelain-painter was arrested at the Porte Saint-Denis for bitterly attacking the Convention before a large crowd and complaining of the insufficiency and poor quality of bread. The next day some 500 women gathered in the Bonnet de la Liberte (Croix Rouge)
4
, Ma,hiez, op. cit.• pp. 201-8.
• Au\ard, op. cit. i. 660, 714-1:), 7'9. 721, 724, 728.
GERMJNAL-PRAIRJAL
" ,
Section to shouts of 'A bas les annes! nous ne voulons plus de soldats, puisqu'il n'y a plus de pain!' On 1 7 April women in Gravilliers and Lombards refused to accept their bread ration; on the 20th a domestic servant was arrested in the Pont Neuf Section, charged with saying, 'II y a huh mois que nous avions du pain; aujourd'hui nous o'en avons plus, nous sommes dans l'esclavage'; while one of two craftsmen arrested for seditious talk, the next day, in Arsenal excused his conduct by saying, 'qu'it croyait que c'etait pour cause de pain'. Similar incidents are reported almost daily during the next month in the public opinion bulletins issued by the police;' and, occasionally, we find signs, besides, of a more organized mo,:ement once more beginning to take shape. Thus, on 29 Apnl, the Montreuil Section declared itself to be in permanent session for the purpose of discussing food supplies and called on other Sections to follow its example; a similar attempt in the Jardin des Plantes was nipped in the bud by the arrest of a number ofringleaders. On 12 May building workers threatened to go on strike if the bread ration were not increased; and a police agent sadly noted that it would be impossible to arrest all those who cursed the government, 'as it would mean arrest ing over half the population of Paris'. The next day demonstra tors in a number of central Sections-Museum, Lombards, and Marches-went from one baker to another to persuade the women to refuse to accept their bread ration. On the 16th, when the ration fell to two ounces per head, police agents spoke of a pending popular insurrection, allegedly inspired by terrorists; and, on the 18th, it was rumoured that, if the ration were not increased, the Faubourg Saint-Antoine would rise again on 1st Prairial (20 May) and invite the rest of Paris to follow its example. The next day, there was general talk of a march on the Convention : in the Invalides Section (reported the police) the ouuners were ready to join with those of the Faubourg Saint-Antoine. Illegal assemblies were held in Droits de I'Homme and Quinze Vingts, where it was urged 'q:.J'il fallait marcher en masse et en armes pour demander a la Con �ention du pain ou la mort'. The same evening and the follow �ng morning an anonymous manifesto was widely distributed 10 thtfaubourgs and city centre, bearing the title : insurrution du , Cobb and Rud�, op. cit., pp. 267-7Q•
1511
CROWD IN ACTION THE REVOLUTIONARY et
sa
its.1 It was the call pain rtconquJrir dro jNuplt pour obtenir duwas st remarkable and mo to be one of the
to arms for what the Revolution. . stubborn popular revolts of . g sm was sounded m the Faubou: Early on 1St Prairial the toc 10 as din des Plantes. On�e .�o�e, Saint.Antoine and in the Jar and men that took the 10luatlve October 1 789, it was the wo rg bou Fau ion after them. In the brought their menfolk into act m fro out n me is) they called the du Nord (Faubourg Saint·Den d foo re w ere � T . � the morning , the workshops at 7 o'clock in rt, co opm � n I ps � n at bakers sho . riots and assemblies of wome lenes Sectlo� Tu the In . me om .. l'H de its Gravilliers, and Dro housewives queuemg 2t bakers bands of women compelled to the Convention. In th� Left shops to join them in a march des evola (Luxembourg), Jardm Bank Sections of Mutius Sca n bee only two ounc� ofbrea� had Plantes, and Finistere (where the of s tmg en broke mto mee distributed that morning), wom that their members lead them ed and Civil Committees and dem (Hotel de Ville) Section women to the Tuileries. In the Fidelite arms, 'afin qu'elles marchas;;ent seized a drum to beat a call to zed l Section near-by, a scand�b sur la Convention'. In the Arsena les e falr de mes fem aux ait pas merchant observed, 'que ce n'et to ps sho ed forc en wom ine nto lois'. In the Faubourg Saint·A er af Tuileries at 1.30 in the � close and began to march on the men, 'many of the� weanng ed noon, followed by groups of arm . Accordl�g to an in tbeir caps the inscription, e� �n shops wom �� co�pelle� eyewitness, as they marched, t Jom th�m. to s, age ng 10 carn and private houses, and others ndi TUl. lenes, the of t fron rousel, in They reached the Place du Car , bonnets, and blou�es .were at 2 o'clock ; pinned to tbeir hats n, Du the twin slogans of the rebellio burst mto the assembly-hall, but 1793. Thus equipped, they . armed groups of the With were quickly ejected. They returned National Guard an hour later. s had been sounded in the Meanwhile, a general call to arm 1 kly armed and prepared �o Faubourg Saint·Antoine; men quic A similar movement began 1n follow the women to the Tuileries. in the central Sections. In the Faubourg Saint-Marcel and ts forced the doors of the some cases, a minority of insurgen
'
du pam ou la morl'.
1
.
Pain tt la ConstitutIon de
IlogalU and political hlet, in which appear all the • For a rhumi of this pl.mp cit., pp. �43-4· op. io:z, Math see al, Ih4,th Prairi demands of the insurgenu or I
GERMINAL-PRAIRIAL
'53
ar�ouries, distributed arms to their comrades, and compelled their commanders to lead them to the Convention. In others the 'party o� order' retained the upper hand, but marched t the �nvenuon, nevertheless, in response to the general call to arms Issued by the Government later that morning. It was, therefore, a mixed force of insurgents and would-be defenders of the Convention that converged on the Place du Carrousel in the wake of the marching women at 3,30 that afternoon,' The second invasion of the Tuileries quickly followed. A d�puty, Feraud, who opposed their entry, was struck down and hiS head was severed and paraded on a pike. This time the women were amply supported by armed citizens of the rebel. IiOllS Sections, though few battalions broke into the building in full strength. Yet the demonstrators were in sufficient numbers an� their weapons sufficiently imposing to reduce the majority to sdenc� and to encourage the small remnant of deputies of the Mountam to voice their principal demands-the release of the Jacobin prisoners, steps to implement the Constitution of 1 793, and new cont�ols to ensure more adequate supplies of food. The�e were qUickly voted and a special committee was set up to gIve them e�ect. But the insurgents, like those of Germinal, lack�d lead�rshlp and any clear programme or plan of action. !iavl�g achieved their immediate objective, they spent hours In �OISy chatter and speech.making. This gave the Themu d�flan leaders time to call in the support of the loyal Sectioru with the Bu�te des M�ulins (Palais Royal), Museum (Louvre), and Lepeletler at their head-and the insurgents were driven out of the Tuileries.z The arme� rebellion continued the next day. From 2 o'clock . tn the mornmg, the cali to arms had sounded in the Quinze . tolled before 10 o'clock in Fid(:lite (H6tel de V�. ngts. The tocsm VIII�) and Omits de I'Homme. In these two Sections and in ArclS, Gravilliers, and Popincourt illegal assemblies were held. The three Sections of the Faubourg Saint-Antoine sprang to and marched on the Convention, led by a West Indian, uillaume Delorme, a wheelwright and captain of the gunners
�
��
' Math'.ez,I account. 50 valuable in e ry other way, doa not make this clear � of the Cravill 1144-5). At leUI two of the .nsurgent battaions--thO$e . ,lers andtMutiusSc "-- ' .... lid not appear at the Tuilcries ( · aevoIa (Luxem'-. ......urg) oxct.ons at aII (Areh. Nat., W 546-8) . • Mathia:, op. <:it., pp. 1145-�3.
. (0p. ell., pp. .
I
1511
CROWD IN ACTION THE REVOLUTIONARY et
sa
its.1 It was the call pain rtconquJrir dro jNuplt pour obtenir duwas st remarkable and mo to be one of the
to arms for what the Revolution. . stubborn popular revolts of . g sm was sounded m the Faubou: Early on 1St Prairial the toc 10 as din des Plantes. On�e .�o�e, Saint.Antoine and in the Jar and men that took the 10luatlve October 1 789, it was the wo rg bou Fau ion after them. In the brought their menfolk into act m fro out n me is) they called the du Nord (Faubourg Saint·Den d foo re w ere � T . � the morning , the workshops at 7 o'clock in rt, co opm � n I ps � n at bakers sho . riots and assemblies of wome lenes Sectlo� Tu the In . me om .. l'H de its Gravilliers, and Dro housewives queuemg 2t bakers bands of women compelled to the Convention. In th� Left shops to join them in a march des evola (Luxembourg), Jardm Bank Sections of Mutius Sca n bee only two ounc� ofbrea� had Plantes, and Finistere (where the of s tmg en broke mto mee distributed that morning), wom that their members lead them ed and Civil Committees and dem (Hotel de Ville) Section women to the Tuileries. In the Fidelite arms, 'afin qu'elles marchas;;ent seized a drum to beat a call to zed l Section near-by, a scand�b sur la Convention'. In the Arsena les e falr de mes fem aux ait pas merchant observed, 'que ce n'et to ps sho ed forc en wom ine nto lois'. In the Faubourg Saint·A er af Tuileries at 1.30 in the � close and began to march on the men, 'many of the� weanng ed noon, followed by groups of arm . Accordl�g to an in tbeir caps the inscription, e� �n shops wom �� co�pelle� eyewitness, as they marched, t Jom th�m. to s, age ng 10 carn and private houses, and others ndi TUl. lenes, the of t fron rousel, in They reached the Place du Car , bonnets, and blou�es .were at 2 o'clock ; pinned to tbeir hats n, Du the twin slogans of the rebellio burst mto the assembly-hall, but 1793. Thus equipped, they . armed groups of the With were quickly ejected. They returned National Guard an hour later. s had been sounded in the Meanwhile, a general call to arm 1 kly armed and prepared �o Faubourg Saint·Antoine; men quic A similar movement began 1n follow the women to the Tuileries. in the central Sections. In the Faubourg Saint-Marcel and ts forced the doors of the some cases, a minority of insurgen
'
du pam ou la morl'.
1
.
Pain tt la ConstitutIon de
IlogalU and political hlet, in which appear all the • For a rhumi of this pl.mp cit., pp. �43-4· op. io:z, Math see al, Ih4,th Prairi demands of the insurgenu or I
GERMINAL-PRAIRIAL
'53
ar�ouries, distributed arms to their comrades, and compelled their commanders to lead them to the Convention. In others the 'party o� order' retained the upper hand, but marched t the �nvenuon, nevertheless, in response to the general call to arms Issued by the Government later that morning. It was, therefore, a mixed force of insurgents and would-be defenders of the Convention that converged on the Place du Carrousel in the wake of the marching women at 3,30 that afternoon,' The second invasion of the Tuileries quickly followed. A d�puty, Feraud, who opposed their entry, was struck down and hiS head was severed and paraded on a pike. This time the women were amply supported by armed citizens of the rebel. IiOllS Sections, though few battalions broke into the building in full strength. Yet the demonstrators were in sufficient numbers an� their weapons sufficiently imposing to reduce the majority to sdenc� and to encourage the small remnant of deputies of the Mountam to voice their principal demands-the release of the Jacobin prisoners, steps to implement the Constitution of 1 793, and new cont�ols to ensure more adequate supplies of food. The�e were qUickly voted and a special committee was set up to gIve them e�ect. But the insurgents, like those of Germinal, lack�d lead�rshlp and any clear programme or plan of action. !iavl�g achieved their immediate objective, they spent hours In �OISy chatter and speech.making. This gave the Themu d�flan leaders time to call in the support of the loyal Sectioru with the Bu�te des M�ulins (Palais Royal), Museum (Louvre), and Lepeletler at their head-and the insurgents were driven out of the Tuileries.z The arme� rebellion continued the next day. From 2 o'clock . tn the mornmg, the cali to arms had sounded in the Quinze . tolled before 10 o'clock in Fid(:lite (H6tel de V�. ngts. The tocsm VIII�) and Omits de I'Homme. In these two Sections and in ArclS, Gravilliers, and Popincourt illegal assemblies were held. The three Sections of the Faubourg Saint-Antoine sprang to and marched on the Convention, led by a West Indian, uillaume Delorme, a wheelwright and captain of the gunners
�
��
' Math'.ez,I account. 50 valuable in e ry other way, doa not make this clear � of the Cravill 1144-5). At leUI two of the .nsurgent battaions--thO$e . ,lers andtMutiusSc "-- ' .... lid not appear at the Tuilcries ( · aevoIa (Luxem'-. ......urg) oxct.ons at aII (Areh. Nat., W 546-8) . • Mathia:, op. <:it., pp. 1145-�3.
. (0p. ell., pp. .
I
154
N RY CR OW D IN AC TIO TH E RE VO LU TIO NA
y e Sections of the centre,rnothe of Popincourt. SupporceteddubyCasom on, afte the in rrousel at 3.30 appeared on the Pla trained the neral m on the Convention. Ge loaded their guns and es, forc 's tion ven manding the Con y have numberhad Dubois, who was com ed him; the insurgents ma 40,000 men under larg up wn dra e forc y itar mil display of 20,000. It was the beeest olution n in Paris since the Rev see n had t tha for battle vention's gunners were fired: when thegCon began. But no shotserte insurgents to the opposin side, the and gendamwie destheirdadv otia age. Towards eveningAssneg failed to follow up ners wereant em the eived at the bar of st�tutionblyof, tions began; petitio ands forrecbre and the Con repeated their demthe presidentiaadl em ce. Lulled by vain 1793 and received to be fulfilled, thebra insurgents thereupon hopes of promises ious Sections.l retired to their vartion was determined to make an end of the But the Conven l regular army units rning of 3rd PrairiadoTi business. On the mo e and battalions of ition to the jeunt'sse ma were mustered, in add to enclose the s, and preparations werofe hosde the western Sectionnto forces. The ine within a ring urgtile Faubourg Saint-A ture and was forced sortie into thefaubo from jeutu'SSe made a prema the police ntoine workers rescued to retreat, and Saint-A . But, cut exe to s of Feraud on his wayme the resiion one of the assassinthe ce of stan ernment overca during the night, insuGov the , 4th the on , and nt Sections; most of the other uporge rers rde mu 's aud Fer r ove n to hand faubourg was called sal it would osal: in the event of refu disp its at s arm and all Sections would state of rebellion andofallarm be declared to be in pa to or to starve reduce it by force Gensera be called upon to hel l Menou hile an army under it into surrender. Mee anw inst the rebels. prepared to advanc aga was made in eless; yet some attemptnier hop was Their situation g the e ttienne sson Poi m relief. In other Sections to brin lutionnaire. rlvo ie ann the of old soldier Chefson, a cobbler and s of the ker wor g ldin bui e aniz trying to org was later arrested for help of de l'tchiquier to marchuttointhe rues d'Hauteville and stre the en were heard to sho avoir raisonets: thefaubourg ; in Arcis, wom du faubourg Antoine, rchands et adesX 'II faut soutenir nos freres representants et ne faire aucune grace aux ma 123-4· U 5; Lefebvre. op. cil., pp. , Mathiel. op. cil., pp. 2�-
'55
GERMINAL-PRAIRIAL
muscadins" a d ' F' . e re we��sh�uts, even after the battle was ios; ��?au�n::m�r t� p u aubourg Antoine' . Other Sectio�" too both in the 'FPauwbourg Saint-MarceI and . centre, pledged their s ' u�h J;pears. from the City at the following �epon on the si��ro�'i:;:; y e pollce 5.30 that evemng: . The guns (of the rebels] are trained on the City at the former .h Porte Saint-Antoine', the Grande ue du Faubourg is filled Wit PIatooru of citizeru anned . h 'k d ai w old-fas�ioned �a ;:�k �\:th: ronne, Nicolas, e rues mwkeu; there are no anned . Montreuil, Traversiere &c . yet w the CltLzens appear determined not omen bled m ;.:-�� to let themselves be d ..... ..cu. . . every street and are making a -.. _J IS' t,L. "t noise. Brtaa ,,, maUnai cause of tnn o' . ' It I ctum; but tJu Constitution of 1793 is its soul' thoIS they ad �t . s�ms that the Panthion, Sans-Culottes (Jardin :US Plantes), Frnuttre, C Ill, and G,auilliers Sections and a Iarge part of the Thmnu de ]u/im have declared in their favour.1 But no material support was forthc . . surrendered, few hours later, wjthou�����'t �����t:.u.b;�ge movement was totally crushed. Two days later a police agent noted: . . de Paris, pendant Les rapports de ce jour presentent �I posl�on journee d'hier, dans l'itat Ie plw e . . . es hommes regardent, la
R
.
are assem
-
. nsum
r
a
•
les femmes se taisent.
T1 , . e � epression was thorough and ruthless. It struck both �t��e 'l �:rs�r presumed leaders-of the insurrection itself and a: the pote�bal leaders of similar revolts in the future' w to behead h:sans-cu ottes on�e and for all as a political force i� as thought :cessal' to st ke a� the remnants ofJacobinism in the Convenbon an .n thenSecbonal assemblies and Nat'10naI Guard. Twelve deputiesI were arrested 'n IUd' g ;I.X .��t �d supported the demonstrators' demandsI �n II� na . n . . Com 23 May (4th Prairial) a Military nu m1$Slon set up for . of all persons was the summary. trial a�d executiOn captured with . g the insi�ia of rebellion. arms ' th ::'l:: ,O' lo; weannk � � : o ten wee s and tned J 32 The s .run teenmof these, including six deputies of the MO�::i� '; , :Th:!': Nat., P 4743, doss. 3 (my it.lia). •
BourboIte, D roy, and Soubrany.
� 'thtee�='Mathlcz, OIl. CII., pp. 256-7.
1 were Romme, Duque.noy Gou' �
For the dramalice suicide ofthe firlt
.
154
N RY CR OW D IN AC TIO TH E RE VO LU TIO NA
y e Sections of the centre,rnothe of Popincourt. SupporceteddubyCasom on, afte the in rrousel at 3.30 appeared on the Pla trained the neral m on the Convention. Ge loaded their guns and es, forc 's tion ven manding the Con y have numberhad Dubois, who was com ed him; the insurgents ma 40,000 men under larg up wn dra e forc y itar mil display of 20,000. It was the beeest olution n in Paris since the Rev see n had t tha for battle vention's gunners were fired: when thegCon began. But no shotserte insurgents to the opposin side, the and gendamwie destheirdadv otia age. Towards eveningAssneg failed to follow up ners wereant em the eived at the bar of st�tutionblyof, tions began; petitio ands forrecbre and the Con repeated their demthe presidentiaadl em ce. Lulled by vain 1793 and received to be fulfilled, thebra insurgents thereupon hopes of promises ious Sections.l retired to their vartion was determined to make an end of the But the Conven l regular army units rning of 3rd PrairiadoTi business. On the mo e and battalions of ition to the jeunt'sse ma were mustered, in add to enclose the s, and preparations werofe hosde the western Sectionnto forces. The ine within a ring urgtile Faubourg Saint-A ture and was forced sortie into thefaubo from jeutu'SSe made a prema the police ntoine workers rescued to retreat, and Saint-A . But, cut exe to s of Feraud on his wayme the resiion one of the assassinthe ce of stan ernment overca during the night, insuGov the , 4th the on , and nt Sections; most of the other uporge rers rde mu 's aud Fer r ove n to hand faubourg was called sal it would osal: in the event of refu disp its at s arm and all Sections would state of rebellion andofallarm be declared to be in pa to or to starve reduce it by force Gensera be called upon to hel l Menou hile an army under it into surrender. Mee anw inst the rebels. prepared to advanc aga was made in eless; yet some attemptnier hop was Their situation g the e ttienne sson Poi m relief. In other Sections to brin lutionnaire. rlvo ie ann the of old soldier Chefson, a cobbler and s of the ker wor g ldin bui e aniz trying to org was later arrested for help of de l'tchiquier to marchuttointhe rues d'Hauteville and stre the en were heard to sho avoir raisonets: thefaubourg ; in Arcis, wom du faubourg Antoine, rchands et adesX 'II faut soutenir nos freres representants et ne faire aucune grace aux ma 123-4· U 5; Lefebvre. op. cil., pp. , Mathiel. op. cil., pp. 2�-
'55
GERMINAL-PRAIRIAL
muscadins" a d ' F' . e re we��sh�uts, even after the battle was ios; ��?au�n::m�r t� p u aubourg Antoine' . Other Sectio�" too both in the 'FPauwbourg Saint-MarceI and . centre, pledged their s ' u�h J;pears. from the City at the following �epon on the si��ro�'i:;:; y e pollce 5.30 that evemng: . The guns (of the rebels] are trained on the City at the former .h Porte Saint-Antoine', the Grande ue du Faubourg is filled Wit PIatooru of citizeru anned . h 'k d ai w old-fas�ioned �a ;:�k �\:th: ronne, Nicolas, e rues mwkeu; there are no anned . Montreuil, Traversiere &c . yet w the CltLzens appear determined not omen bled m ;.:-�� to let themselves be d ..... ..cu. . . every street and are making a -.. _J IS' t,L. "t noise. Brtaa ,,, maUnai cause of tnn o' . ' It I ctum; but tJu Constitution of 1793 is its soul' thoIS they ad �t . s�ms that the Panthion, Sans-Culottes (Jardin :US Plantes), Frnuttre, C Ill, and G,auilliers Sections and a Iarge part of the Thmnu de ]u/im have declared in their favour.1 But no material support was forthc . . surrendered, few hours later, wjthou�����'t �����t:.u.b;�ge movement was totally crushed. Two days later a police agent noted: . . de Paris, pendant Les rapports de ce jour presentent �I posl�on journee d'hier, dans l'itat Ie plw e . . . es hommes regardent, la
R
.
are assem
-
. nsum
r
a
•
les femmes se taisent.
T1 , . e � epression was thorough and ruthless. It struck both �t��e 'l �:rs�r presumed leaders-of the insurrection itself and a: the pote�bal leaders of similar revolts in the future' w to behead h:sans-cu ottes on�e and for all as a political force i� as thought :cessal' to st ke a� the remnants ofJacobinism in the Convenbon an .n thenSecbonal assemblies and Nat'10naI Guard. Twelve deputiesI were arrested 'n IUd' g ;I.X .��t �d supported the demonstrators' demandsI �n II� na . n . . Com 23 May (4th Prairial) a Military nu m1$Slon set up for . of all persons was the summary. trial a�d executiOn captured with . g the insi�ia of rebellion. arms ' th ::'l:: ,O' lo; weannk � � : o ten wee s and tned J 32 The s .run teenmof these, including six deputies of the MO�::i� '; , :Th:!': Nat., P 4743, doss. 3 (my it.lia). •
BourboIte, D roy, and Soubrany.
� 'thtee�='Mathlcz, OIl. CII., pp. 256-7.
1 were Romme, Duque.noy Gou' �
For the dramalice suicide ofthe firlt
.
RY THE REVOLUTIONA
I�6
N CROWD I N AC TIO
e invited to hold th�The Sections wer were conde�ned to dea nce and disarm allwasus special meetings on �4 McobY. to denou a s lt resu e Th s izer ath peeted 'terrorists' an�ptIo J� ,lIn � S!�i�h the se�tling ofold scores scn pro of toll e ssiv ma . of political orthodoxy. By e. tes�:: played as large a part asiTtlIIf�aue put their number at the 28th the Gaz;etuntufal total of ady d disarmed must 10,000; and the ,everably la ger, :r��edse��ral Sections, all : y Co have been conside RevoIuuo ' soldiers of aU s ittee mm former IDemhers. of ' were arrnar cttve 0f spe irre d rme disa or the annie rivolutlonnazTthave playeedsted " the eveD" of Genninal or any. �art they may nt thus establis was to be followed on Pralna1. The preeed n dur' th hed Directory and Consulate.' � mo.;� th;;:� :c:� no o:::r s�ution to offer fO� th���� ti e: th"eior�:;:��ir:ir�:1 as the that had arisen; it was nat�ural, ,m 0 ons rrec , s and insu to represent the spir' acy l h tchef dGeby obm Jac t iden diss con outcome of � popular sode· �rs of the disbandedputs f�rmer terro"'''Aanpodl�:�ep the official l Prairia 1 t of ort S ties and clubs' view clearly and succinctly enough : We are inclined believe th�eb 5h::a:���0�0 =I� l"'tlXt�n1y too plausIble, alas ement that has of t�e Y ular mov but tha���caus�en the credulous,long on by the r caried n tatio �: e pen arisen over a r leaders demand to up le t the peop the Con5utu , ��h0�v�P� faction of fonne the :evt tion mmune , not only bread but in unta Mo the deputi� of se r,om pnson o�ryaUCor of 1793' and theofrelea , tee5 rurut and L_ the old Revolutiona cd in agitation naturallyat p!aY Political motives andnJacob , the 10 th saw We 'bed cn d ust , e5 <' their part in"the movemeth"GJermm al, the ew surviving po'ntpular d p tO l2 u I g ea s h m t mo� , , litical direction to a moveme that e es :��� o�::;}S� �� �p;�!: s�����:,, ��i:u:�e���; anger over rutng pnces an •
.
10
to,
as
mu, "" : me
,
�
l'
,
d ltmS� eadra during
I Foe the systematie rqlro::saton of Jacob.'n an ' period tee R. C. J u
Co,?b',, 'Nou.pte'-�: I7·'r 1:0· n;.rr ..r;' :� . )
Aulard, op. cit. i. 733 (my ItaliCS .
1795 l ISoI ', AM. lSI. •
thiI personnel saru-cu1otte de MlU'ch 1954, pp. 2)-49'
U'f! Ie
GERMINAL-PRAIRIAL
'57
from the political slogans voiced by the insurgents in Genninal: and La Constitution de I793. In Prairial, too, we saw that a number of Sections in theflWbourgs and the centre resorted to the purely political action of forming illegal assem· blies and declaring themselves to be in permanent session; and, even more significantly, that the insurgents paraded the twin slogans of'bread' and 'the Constitution of 1793'. The police had some justice in considering the latter slogan as 'the soul of the movement': without it the movement would have lacked coherence and even the beginnings of a conscious political direction. It would be wrong, however, to ascribe anything but a minor role to the small group of Jacobin deputies in the Convention in either of these events: in Germinal, as we saw, they were only too anxious to persuade the demonstrators to leave the assembly�hall as quickly � possible; and, in Prairial, they followed the lead already given by the insurgent Sections and echoed the demands put to them by the women and armed sans·ClJlottes. When all is said and done, however, it was not the political agitation but economic hardship that was the primary cause of the movement. A3 we have seen, the constantly recurring theme running through all the stages of the movement from its first beginnings in December 794 was shortage and rising food prices-particularly the shortage of rationed bread and its precipitous increase on the open market: this resulted, in the main, from the deliberate policy of the government, which was one of rapidly freeing the whole economy from controls in a period of war and shortage; but it was further aggravated by natural factors such as the unprecedented severity of the winter of 1795. A sure indication that the bread·and·butter question lay uppermost in the minds ofthe insurgents was theoutstanding part played by the women in both Germinal and Prairial, which was second only to the part they had played in October 1789. The bulk ofthe rioters were, as so often before, the men and Women of the great popularfaubourgs and the Sections adjoin ing the markets and city centre, Of the few hundred persons aTTested for direct participation in the events of 1St and 2nd Prairiall the occupations of 168 appear in the records Liberti des patriotes
t
, Thc's.: should not be eonfw.ed with the rar larger num� � diJumcd in the Sections after 5th Pn.iriIJ (see p. 1�6).
or pcnons arrested '
RY THE REVOLUTIONA
I�6
N CROWD I N AC TIO
e invited to hold th�The Sections wer were conde�ned to dea nce and disarm allwasus special meetings on �4 McobY. to denou a s lt resu e Th s izer ath peeted 'terrorists' an�ptIo J� ,lIn � S!�i�h the se�tling ofold scores scn pro of toll e ssiv ma . of political orthodoxy. By e. tes�:: played as large a part asiTtlIIf�aue put their number at the 28th the Gaz;etuntufal total of ady d disarmed must 10,000; and the ,everably la ger, :r��edse��ral Sections, all : y Co have been conside RevoIuuo ' soldiers of aU s ittee mm former IDemhers. of ' were arrnar cttve 0f spe irre d rme disa or the annie rivolutlonnazTthave playeedsted " the eveD" of Genninal or any. �art they may nt thus establis was to be followed on Pralna1. The preeed n dur' th hed Directory and Consulate.' � mo.;� th;;:� :c:� no o:::r s�ution to offer fO� th���� ti e: th"eior�:;:��ir:ir�:1 as the that had arisen; it was nat�ural, ,m 0 ons rrec , s and insu to represent the spir' acy l h tchef dGeby obm Jac t iden diss con outcome of � popular sode· �rs of the disbandedputs f�rmer terro"'''Aanpodl�:�ep the official l Prairia 1 t of ort S ties and clubs' view clearly and succinctly enough : We are inclined believe th�eb 5h::a:���0�0 =I� l"'tlXt�n1y too plausIble, alas ement that has of t�e Y ular mov but tha���caus�en the credulous,long on by the r caried n tatio �: e pen arisen over a r leaders demand to up le t the peop the Con5utu , ��h0�v�P� faction of fonne the :evt tion mmune , not only bread but in unta Mo the deputi� of se r,om pnson o�ryaUCor of 1793' and theofrelea , tee5 rurut and L_ the old Revolutiona cd in agitation naturallyat p!aY Political motives andnJacob , the 10 th saw We 'bed cn d ust , e5 <' their part in"the movemeth"GJermm al, the ew surviving po'ntpular d p tO l2 u I g ea s h m t mo� , , litical direction to a moveme that e es :��� o�::;}S� �� �p;�!: s�����:,, ��i:u:�e���; anger over rutng pnces an •
.
10
to,
as
mu, "" : me
,
�
l'
,
d ltmS� eadra during
I Foe the systematie rqlro::saton of Jacob.'n an ' period tee R. C. J u
Co,?b',, 'Nou.pte'-�: I7·'r 1:0· n;.rr ..r;' :� . )
Aulard, op. cit. i. 733 (my ItaliCS .
1795 l ISoI ', AM. lSI. •
thiI personnel saru-cu1otte de MlU'ch 1954, pp. 2)-49'
U'f! Ie
GERMINAL-PRAIRIAL
'57
from the political slogans voiced by the insurgents in Genninal: and La Constitution de I793. In Prairial, too, we saw that a number of Sections in theflWbourgs and the centre resorted to the purely political action of forming illegal assem· blies and declaring themselves to be in permanent session; and, even more significantly, that the insurgents paraded the twin slogans of'bread' and 'the Constitution of 1793'. The police had some justice in considering the latter slogan as 'the soul of the movement': without it the movement would have lacked coherence and even the beginnings of a conscious political direction. It would be wrong, however, to ascribe anything but a minor role to the small group of Jacobin deputies in the Convention in either of these events: in Germinal, as we saw, they were only too anxious to persuade the demonstrators to leave the assembly�hall as quickly � possible; and, in Prairial, they followed the lead already given by the insurgent Sections and echoed the demands put to them by the women and armed sans·ClJlottes. When all is said and done, however, it was not the political agitation but economic hardship that was the primary cause of the movement. A3 we have seen, the constantly recurring theme running through all the stages of the movement from its first beginnings in December 794 was shortage and rising food prices-particularly the shortage of rationed bread and its precipitous increase on the open market: this resulted, in the main, from the deliberate policy of the government, which was one of rapidly freeing the whole economy from controls in a period of war and shortage; but it was further aggravated by natural factors such as the unprecedented severity of the winter of 1795. A sure indication that the bread·and·butter question lay uppermost in the minds ofthe insurgents was theoutstanding part played by the women in both Germinal and Prairial, which was second only to the part they had played in October 1789. The bulk ofthe rioters were, as so often before, the men and Women of the great popularfaubourgs and the Sections adjoin ing the markets and city centre, Of the few hundred persons aTTested for direct participation in the events of 1St and 2nd Prairiall the occupations of 168 appear in the records Liberti des patriotes
t
, Thc's.: should not be eonfw.ed with the rar larger num� � diJumcd in the Sections after 5th Pn.iriIJ (see p. 1�6).
or pcnons arrested '
158
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
consulted; ofthese some45 to 50 seemto have been wage-earnen.
while the rest were small shopkeepers, workshop masten. craftsmen, and clerk!. They are drawn from no Jess than 40 Sections-most prominent among them being Popincourt ( 1 3 arrests), Anenal (12), Quinze Vingts (10), and Arcis (10).1
But the records ofthe comparatively few persons arrested give
but a limited picture of Sectional participation in the events of Germinal and Prairial. A fuller picture emerges from the events
already related. From these it appears that the Sections mainly engaged in the movement culminating on 12th Germinal were Quinze Vingts and Popincourt
(FaJJhouTg Sainl-Antoiru) ; Obser (Fauhourg Saint-Marcel) ; Cite, Droits de I'Homme. Amis de Ja Patrie, and Gravilliers (centre) j and Temple and Faubourg Montmartre (north). In Prairial, more vatoire and Pantheon
Sections were engaged-some fully, others only in part. Leading the movement again were the three Sections of the Faubourg
Saint-Antoine and four of the five Sections of the Faubourg
Saint-Marcel (Observatoire only excepted). They were closely supported by the central Sections-Arcis, Droits de l'Homme, Fidelite (Hotel de Ville) , Cite, Lombards, Marches,
Gravilliers, and Halle au Ble; and (less wholeheartedly) by the northern Sections of Poissonniere and Faubourg du-Nord, and by Mutius Scaevola (Luxembourg) and Invalides in the south. There were even supporting contingents ofwomen from Museum and Tuileries in the west; but the western Sections, generally,
formed a solid block of defenders of the Convention and its Committees. As. we shall see in the next chapter, in Vende
miaire (October 1 795) these roles were to some extent reversed. Why then, with such solid support, were the Parisian sa1/.S culotus defeated in May 1795? Partiy, as we have seen, it was for lack of a clear political programme and plan of action;
partiy through the weakness of the deputies of the Mountain; partly through political inexperience and the failure to follow
up an advantage once gained; partiy, too, through the corre spondingly greater skill and experience of the Convention and its C'..ommittees and the support that these were able to muster even without the active intervention of the regular army-from the Jeurusse dorte and the merchants, civil servants, and monied
, In G",,,ilIi�n th�re wen: 7 ;anats, in &ndy (7), Lomb;ards (6), H;all�;au Bie (6), and-mQre Iwprisingly-in TuileriCi (6) and Mw6un (6).
GERMINAL-PRAIRIAL
."
classes of the western Sections. But, above all, the S61/.S-ntloltes failed to secure and maintain in Prairial, as they had in the great Journiu of 1 7�3, the solid alliance of at least the radical wing of the
hourgeouie.
When this faltered and failed,
their movement, as in 1 775. for all its breadth and militancy, was reduced to a futile explosion without hope of political gains. I
I FQr luggcstiQnI U til th� longeT-tenn UUICS Q[ the final defeat QC the tulmf#s after Pr;o.iri;o.l sec Cobb and Rud�, QP. cil., pp. ::80-1 .
smu
\
158
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
consulted; ofthese some45 to 50 seemto have been wage-earnen.
while the rest were small shopkeepers, workshop masten. craftsmen, and clerk!. They are drawn from no Jess than 40 Sections-most prominent among them being Popincourt ( 1 3 arrests), Anenal (12), Quinze Vingts (10), and Arcis (10).1
But the records ofthe comparatively few persons arrested give
but a limited picture of Sectional participation in the events of Germinal and Prairial. A fuller picture emerges from the events
already related. From these it appears that the Sections mainly engaged in the movement culminating on 12th Germinal were Quinze Vingts and Popincourt
(FaJJhouTg Sainl-Antoiru) ; Obser (Fauhourg Saint-Marcel) ; Cite, Droits de I'Homme. Amis de Ja Patrie, and Gravilliers (centre) j and Temple and Faubourg Montmartre (north). In Prairial, more vatoire and Pantheon
Sections were engaged-some fully, others only in part. Leading the movement again were the three Sections of the Faubourg
Saint-Antoine and four of the five Sections of the Faubourg
Saint-Marcel (Observatoire only excepted). They were closely supported by the central Sections-Arcis, Droits de l'Homme, Fidelite (Hotel de Ville) , Cite, Lombards, Marches,
Gravilliers, and Halle au Ble; and (less wholeheartedly) by the northern Sections of Poissonniere and Faubourg du-Nord, and by Mutius Scaevola (Luxembourg) and Invalides in the south. There were even supporting contingents ofwomen from Museum and Tuileries in the west; but the western Sections, generally,
formed a solid block of defenders of the Convention and its Committees. As. we shall see in the next chapter, in Vende
miaire (October 1 795) these roles were to some extent reversed. Why then, with such solid support, were the Parisian sa1/.S culotus defeated in May 1795? Partiy, as we have seen, it was for lack of a clear political programme and plan of action;
partiy through the weakness of the deputies of the Mountain; partly through political inexperience and the failure to follow
up an advantage once gained; partiy, too, through the corre spondingly greater skill and experience of the Convention and its C'..ommittees and the support that these were able to muster even without the active intervention of the regular army-from the Jeurusse dorte and the merchants, civil servants, and monied
, In G",,,ilIi�n th�re wen: 7 ;anats, in &ndy (7), Lomb;ards (6), H;all�;au Bie (6), and-mQre Iwprisingly-in TuileriCi (6) and Mw6un (6).
GERMINAL-PRAIRIAL
."
classes of the western Sections. But, above all, the S61/.S-ntloltes failed to secure and maintain in Prairial, as they had in the great Journiu of 1 7�3, the solid alliance of at least the radical wing of the
hourgeouie.
When this faltered and failed,
their movement, as in 1 775. for all its breadth and militancy, was reduced to a futile explosion without hope of political gains. I
I FQr luggcstiQnI U til th� longeT-tenn UUICS Q[ the final defeat QC the tulmf#s after Pr;o.iri;o.l sec Cobb and Rud�, QP. cil., pp. ::80-1 .
smu
\
VEND�MIAIRE
XI VENDEMIAIRE H I L £ the story of popular insurrection during the Re volution in Paris closes with the events just described, they do not mark the last occasion on which revolu· tionary crowds challenged the authority of the government in armed rebellion or street demonstrations. This final episode was constituted by thejoumies of l 2 r 4th Vendemiaire (4-6 October
W
-
1795). This episode cannot therefore be left out of account from our present study, even if the nature and aims orthe rioters and the pattern of events leading up to the insurrection mark a sharp departure from those described in preceding chapters,! On this occasion, far from seeking to drive the Revolution in a more radical direction or to. establish or strengthen the Re public, the ultimate aims orthe insurrection were to destroy the
Republic and to open the way for the restoration of the monarchy. Its promoters, far from being democrats, Jacobins, or sans-culottes, were the hard core of the conservative and monied interests established in the western Sections of the capital, who had most eagerly rallied to the side of the Ther
midorians against Robespierre and served as the main defenders of the Convention in the revolts of Germinal and Prairial. Of considerable interest, too, in this affair are the role and attitude of the sans-cuLottes who, though crushed in Prairial, were still a factor to be reckoned. with. Though facing economic hardships as severe as those described in the previous chapter, they gave no support to the royalist (or near-royalist) rebels ; incapable of cngaging in an independent movement of their own, they tcnded rather to rally (somewhat passively, it is true) in sup port of the constituted authorities against those who attempted
to overthrow the Republic by force of arms. The events of Vendemiaire have a further importance in that they opened up new perspectives in the relations between the government and the citizens of Paris. They revealed, for , Thermidor already marks a certain departure rrom this pallern, it is truej i the case: of Vendemi.aire. but the differmcc:$ are not 10 clear.cut as n
,6,
the first time since 1 789, that the revolutionary Assembly might maintain itself in office and impose its will on the country as a whole even without the active support of any substantial social group or body of opinion in the caphal. In Thermidor the Convention had been able to depend on the support, or at least the benevolent neutrality, of the bulk of the Parisian Sections including those in which the sans-culottes were still firmly en trenched-to overthrow Robespierre. In Prairial, in order to
overcome the sans-cuLottes and the active Jacobin remnants, it had been able to call upon the armed citizens ofthe 'respectable' western Sections. In Vendcmiaire, when faced with a rebellion from this very quarter, having destroyed the Jacobin cadres and silenced the sans-culottes, arrested their leaders, and driven them out of the Sectional assemblies and committees, the Con vention had no other resort but to call in the army. The prccedent, once established, was not easily abandoned; and
from October 1795 the military coup d'/tat already looms on the horizon as the ultimate arbiter of political disputes. The immediate issue out of which the insurrection ofVendc
miaire arose was the decree of 22 August 1795 (the decree of the dtux tiers), which invited the primary assemblies convened for the new elections to agree to the uncontested return of two thirds of the members of the outgoing Assembly. This blatant altempt to perpetuate the political existence of a body which, for a variety of reasons, had forfeited most of the respect or devotion that it had once enjoyed, gave the handful of con vinced royalists in the capital the pretext and opportunity to rally the majority of the Parisian Sections in opposition to the Con vention and to win substantial support for the armed rebellion that followed. In essence this was the political background to the days of Vendcmiaire.' Yet the picture is grossly over simplified when presented in such exclusively political terms. Here it is proposed, therefore, before picking up the narrative , For themost compkte account of the n i surrection and its political background I.e Tui�. wMimiaiu, a" IV (Paris, t898). Though the author makc:$ full use of the correspondence or the Commiue<:s ofPublic Safety and General Security, the minuta of the Sectional assemblies, the police reports edited by Sehmidt ( Tabl,allJt tit/" Riw/gli"n j.a"fa;u), and the recordl of the Military Courts sct up on '5th Vendemiaire tojudge the arraled ringleaders, his tludy appeared too early to mike usc or the fuller police reports ediled by Aulard (PaT;� /'fndanl/tl riu.:tlon
I«: H. Zivy,
I�TmidoTi.NU, vol.
II).
VEND�MIAIRE
XI VENDEMIAIRE H I L £ the story of popular insurrection during the Re volution in Paris closes with the events just described, they do not mark the last occasion on which revolu· tionary crowds challenged the authority of the government in armed rebellion or street demonstrations. This final episode was constituted by thejoumies of l 2 r 4th Vendemiaire (4-6 October
W
-
1795). This episode cannot therefore be left out of account from our present study, even if the nature and aims orthe rioters and the pattern of events leading up to the insurrection mark a sharp departure from those described in preceding chapters,! On this occasion, far from seeking to drive the Revolution in a more radical direction or to. establish or strengthen the Re public, the ultimate aims orthe insurrection were to destroy the
Republic and to open the way for the restoration of the monarchy. Its promoters, far from being democrats, Jacobins, or sans-culottes, were the hard core of the conservative and monied interests established in the western Sections of the capital, who had most eagerly rallied to the side of the Ther
midorians against Robespierre and served as the main defenders of the Convention in the revolts of Germinal and Prairial. Of considerable interest, too, in this affair are the role and attitude of the sans-cuLottes who, though crushed in Prairial, were still a factor to be reckoned. with. Though facing economic hardships as severe as those described in the previous chapter, they gave no support to the royalist (or near-royalist) rebels ; incapable of cngaging in an independent movement of their own, they tcnded rather to rally (somewhat passively, it is true) in sup port of the constituted authorities against those who attempted
to overthrow the Republic by force of arms. The events of Vendemiaire have a further importance in that they opened up new perspectives in the relations between the government and the citizens of Paris. They revealed, for , Thermidor already marks a certain departure rrom this pallern, it is truej i the case: of Vendemi.aire. but the differmcc:$ are not 10 clear.cut as n
,6,
the first time since 1 789, that the revolutionary Assembly might maintain itself in office and impose its will on the country as a whole even without the active support of any substantial social group or body of opinion in the caphal. In Thermidor the Convention had been able to depend on the support, or at least the benevolent neutrality, of the bulk of the Parisian Sections including those in which the sans-culottes were still firmly en trenched-to overthrow Robespierre. In Prairial, in order to
overcome the sans-cuLottes and the active Jacobin remnants, it had been able to call upon the armed citizens ofthe 'respectable' western Sections. In Vendcmiaire, when faced with a rebellion from this very quarter, having destroyed the Jacobin cadres and silenced the sans-culottes, arrested their leaders, and driven them out of the Sectional assemblies and committees, the Con vention had no other resort but to call in the army. The prccedent, once established, was not easily abandoned; and
from October 1795 the military coup d'/tat already looms on the horizon as the ultimate arbiter of political disputes. The immediate issue out of which the insurrection ofVendc
miaire arose was the decree of 22 August 1795 (the decree of the dtux tiers), which invited the primary assemblies convened for the new elections to agree to the uncontested return of two thirds of the members of the outgoing Assembly. This blatant altempt to perpetuate the political existence of a body which, for a variety of reasons, had forfeited most of the respect or devotion that it had once enjoyed, gave the handful of con vinced royalists in the capital the pretext and opportunity to rally the majority of the Parisian Sections in opposition to the Con vention and to win substantial support for the armed rebellion that followed. In essence this was the political background to the days of Vendcmiaire.' Yet the picture is grossly over simplified when presented in such exclusively political terms. Here it is proposed, therefore, before picking up the narrative , For themost compkte account of the n i surrection and its political background I.e Tui�. wMimiaiu, a" IV (Paris, t898). Though the author makc:$ full use of the correspondence or the Commiue<:s ofPublic Safety and General Security, the minuta of the Sectional assemblies, the police reports edited by Sehmidt ( Tabl,allJt tit/" Riw/gli"n j.a"fa;u), and the recordl of the Military Courts sct up on '5th Vendemiaire tojudge the arraled ringleaders, his tludy appeared too early to mike usc or the fuller police reports ediled by Aulard (PaT;� /'fndanl/tl riu.:tlon
I«: H. Zivy,
I�TmidoTi.NU, vol.
II).
162
ACTIO N THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN
to of political events in mid·September, when the opposition, to shape ke t to ng � begin was hirds' 'two--t � the decree of the consider the government's economic policy and Its effects on the various parties concerned,l , In spite of the plight of th: small coru:umers, which had be· come only too evident dunng the spnng and summer, �e Convention and its Committees did nothing to amend theu economic policy. whose effects continu� to be aggravated by le the extension of the war and the perslStence of unfavoura� ts of cent. per � to r furthe ed slump � t natural factors, The assigntJ exIS of out fading lly virtua before er nominal value in Octob tence 1 The ration of bread (nominally I-I t lb. a head) at the cont�lled price of 3 sow per lb, continued to be blatantly of dishonoured : up to the end of July. at least, we readand head; per distributions of only 2, 4, 6, 7. or 8 ounces, there were frequent complaints of bakers se1lin� bread abovt�, the controlled price.l During �ugust therewas an Improvemen s a half-pound ration became the rule. rising to three·quarter later in the month ; but during September there were frequent complaints about the poor quality of flour and, before October, the ration had again dropped to half a pound �r beloW.4 Mean while, on the 'open' market, bread was s?U sold a� 15-20 [iures a pound,s Meat tended to be unobtamabl� at I.ts con trolled price of2t SOIlS; and, on the 'open' market, Its pnce rose from 8 liures in June and July to 15 [iures in late September.' Other essential commodities followed a simi.lar �ourse: butte: rising from t6-t8 liures a pound inJ�ly t? 30 llures 10 S�ptembe� sugar from I l liuminJanuary t062 lwmmSeptember, eggs fro glillTes perdozen inJuly to t 2 liures in September; potatoes from 34 iillTes a bushel in May to s6 livm in October; tallo�-ca.ndles fro� 5 iiures in January to 3? �illTes in June an� 50 .[lUm 10 Au�ust, coal from 75 iillTes a UOIt 10 June to 17� l'ur� m October, an� firewood from 160 iillTtS in May to 500 IlVT'tS 10 late September. '
t AuJard, op. cit. i. 7,SS-7S; .o\l!'CC used ror this purpose bu beet
• The ma.on a Ibid. ii. 326. ii. 1-319 (29 May-14 October 179's)' '38, 14S, • Ibid. i. 'SS, 760, 767; ii. 8, 34,,.s, loB, 120, i. 102, '51, ,81, 186-g, 199, 208, 210, 213, 277· 4 Ibid. i J Ibid. i. 'S6; ii. 36, 139; Zivy, op: dt., p. 1�4• Aulard, op. cit. ii. 24, 34, '13; ZlVY, loe. CIt. • coITC'" 7 AuJard, i. 368, 376, 750; ii. 3, 8, 36, 6" 113, 191, 271, 291, 327. A """
_pond. to S6 CII. ft.
VENDtMIAIR.E
.s,
The effects of such a continuous rise in the cost of living on wage-earnen and other earners of small or fixed incomes may be readily imagined. Worken, striking in August for more bread and assembled at the porte Saint-Martin, uk the perti nent question: 'Est·ce ave<: 12 francs que nous gagnons par jour que nous pouvons acheter du pain a 15 livres la livre?'1 The plight of all small property-owners in such conditions is well summarized in an agent's report of 16 July: The worker's wage is far too low to meet his daily needs; the unfortunate UTltie, in ord to keep alive, has to sell his last stick of furniture, which adds to the haul of the greedy speculator; the proprietor, lacking other means of subsistence, eats up his capital well his incomei the civil servant, who is entirely dependent on his salary, also suffen the torments of privation.l More than one observer, in fact, believed that the distress thus caused among the Tentiers and small proprietors was relatively greater than that suffered by the craftsmen and wage·eamers,l The point is significant, as it may help to explain the interue hostility shown to the Convention in such western Sections as Lepeletier, Buue des Moulim (Palais Royal), and Place Ven· dome-where these social elements abounded-long before the political crisis arose over the decree of the 'two--thirds'.4 Yet there could, of course, be no effective action from such quarters to end the economic conditions complained of, as the SectioDll in question were equally the main haunts of the speculators and ' slock·jobbers, who thrived on inflation and rising prices and whose activities were favoured by the Government's policies.s For their part the sans-rulotte.s reacted in characteristic fashion, Some, as in the months before Prairial, gave way to despair and were concerned only with the immediate problems of food and survival. er
aJ
as
, Ibid. ii. '42.
J Ibid. i. 'S1; ii. 48-49.
Ibid., p.86; lee abo ibid., p.,.,.
• For example. olrood thortage and eomplainb in May-July, and even talk of 'une Uuurrcction pfO(:baine oU la reprbc:ntantl et la marchands puiuent lTOuver �cllr tornbeau', in Lepclcticr, Place Vendllrne, and BUlle da MouJi.... lee AuJard, 1
7,sS, 767; ii. ,.s, 50, 6,5, I cr. a report or.5 Oetober (13th Vendmu.aire); 'C'at du Kin de ca deux ar�ondi&sementl (Lepclctier and Bulle da Mou.fuu ; G.R.) que IOrtent 1011& lei '''OtCUD, qui, au Palaia tplit�, fOI" Ie tr&fic Ie put inflmc au �t de la fortlUle pubUq� et da rortWlCl privies' (ibid. ii. 300). I.
loS.
162
ACTIO N THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN
to of political events in mid·September, when the opposition, to shape ke t to ng � begin was hirds' 'two--t � the decree of the consider the government's economic policy and Its effects on the various parties concerned,l , In spite of the plight of th: small coru:umers, which had be· come only too evident dunng the spnng and summer, �e Convention and its Committees did nothing to amend theu economic policy. whose effects continu� to be aggravated by le the extension of the war and the perslStence of unfavoura� ts of cent. per � to r furthe ed slump � t natural factors, The assigntJ exIS of out fading lly virtua before er nominal value in Octob tence 1 The ration of bread (nominally I-I t lb. a head) at the cont�lled price of 3 sow per lb, continued to be blatantly of dishonoured : up to the end of July. at least, we readand head; per distributions of only 2, 4, 6, 7. or 8 ounces, there were frequent complaints of bakers se1lin� bread abovt�, the controlled price.l During �ugust therewas an Improvemen s a half-pound ration became the rule. rising to three·quarter later in the month ; but during September there were frequent complaints about the poor quality of flour and, before October, the ration had again dropped to half a pound �r beloW.4 Mean while, on the 'open' market, bread was s?U sold a� 15-20 [iures a pound,s Meat tended to be unobtamabl� at I.ts con trolled price of2t SOIlS; and, on the 'open' market, Its pnce rose from 8 liures in June and July to 15 [iures in late September.' Other essential commodities followed a simi.lar �ourse: butte: rising from t6-t8 liures a pound inJ�ly t? 30 llures 10 S�ptembe� sugar from I l liuminJanuary t062 lwmmSeptember, eggs fro glillTes perdozen inJuly to t 2 liures in September; potatoes from 34 iillTes a bushel in May to s6 livm in October; tallo�-ca.ndles fro� 5 iiures in January to 3? �illTes in June an� 50 .[lUm 10 Au�ust, coal from 75 iillTes a UOIt 10 June to 17� l'ur� m October, an� firewood from 160 iillTtS in May to 500 IlVT'tS 10 late September. '
t AuJard, op. cit. i. 7,SS-7S; .o\l!'CC used ror this purpose bu beet
• The ma.on a Ibid. ii. 326. ii. 1-319 (29 May-14 October 179's)' '38, 14S, • Ibid. i. 'SS, 760, 767; ii. 8, 34,,.s, loB, 120, i. 102, '51, ,81, 186-g, 199, 208, 210, 213, 277· 4 Ibid. i J Ibid. i. 'S6; ii. 36, 139; Zivy, op: dt., p. 1�4• Aulard, op. cit. ii. 24, 34, '13; ZlVY, loe. CIt. • coITC'" 7 AuJard, i. 368, 376, 750; ii. 3, 8, 36, 6" 113, 191, 271, 291, 327. A """
_pond. to S6 CII. ft.
VENDtMIAIR.E
.s,
The effects of such a continuous rise in the cost of living on wage-earnen and other earners of small or fixed incomes may be readily imagined. Worken, striking in August for more bread and assembled at the porte Saint-Martin, uk the perti nent question: 'Est·ce ave<: 12 francs que nous gagnons par jour que nous pouvons acheter du pain a 15 livres la livre?'1 The plight of all small property-owners in such conditions is well summarized in an agent's report of 16 July: The worker's wage is far too low to meet his daily needs; the unfortunate UTltie, in ord to keep alive, has to sell his last stick of furniture, which adds to the haul of the greedy speculator; the proprietor, lacking other means of subsistence, eats up his capital well his incomei the civil servant, who is entirely dependent on his salary, also suffen the torments of privation.l More than one observer, in fact, believed that the distress thus caused among the Tentiers and small proprietors was relatively greater than that suffered by the craftsmen and wage·eamers,l The point is significant, as it may help to explain the interue hostility shown to the Convention in such western Sections as Lepeletier, Buue des Moulim (Palais Royal), and Place Ven· dome-where these social elements abounded-long before the political crisis arose over the decree of the 'two--thirds'.4 Yet there could, of course, be no effective action from such quarters to end the economic conditions complained of, as the SectioDll in question were equally the main haunts of the speculators and ' slock·jobbers, who thrived on inflation and rising prices and whose activities were favoured by the Government's policies.s For their part the sans-rulotte.s reacted in characteristic fashion, Some, as in the months before Prairial, gave way to despair and were concerned only with the immediate problems of food and survival. er
aJ
as
, Ibid. ii. '42.
J Ibid. i. 'S1; ii. 48-49.
Ibid., p.86; lee abo ibid., p.,.,.
• For example. olrood thortage and eomplainb in May-July, and even talk of 'une Uuurrcction pfO(:baine oU la reprbc:ntantl et la marchands puiuent lTOuver �cllr tornbeau', in Lepclcticr, Place Vendllrne, and BUlle da MouJi.... lee AuJard, 1
7,sS, 767; ii. ,.s, 50, 6,5, I cr. a report or.5 Oetober (13th Vendmu.aire); 'C'at du Kin de ca deux ar�ondi&sementl (Lepclctier and Bulle da Mou.fuu ; G.R.) que IOrtent 1011& lei '''OtCUD, qui, au Palaia tplit�, fOI" Ie tr&fic Ie put inflmc au �t de la fortlUle pubUq� et da rortWlCl privies' (ibid. ii. 300). I.
loS.
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
VENDtMIAIRE
Le public [wrote an observer in July] parait DC s'occuper que de ses besoins et . . . la politique est releguee dans les cafb. Peu importc: Ie gouvememc:nt [said onc citizen], pourvu que j'aie de quai subsister.
qu'eHe de,sirait qu'elle flit permanente'. By the end of the month, WIth the release of former terrorists in some Sections and the growth of royaHst agitation in others, Jacobin princi . ple� v.:ere once more bemg openly proclaimed both in the Tudenes Garden,-s and in the popular districts adjoining the . , Portes Samt-Dems and Samt-Martin.' Meanwhile, despite their defeat in Prairial, there had been talk of a new sans-culotta uprising.
.6,
And, in August, another observer reported: 'Le public . . . �e s'occupe oi de lois, oi de Constitution; que ce n'est que du pam qu'i1 demande." Others reacted morc: vigorously : both in JURe and July we hear of crowds in the Palais Royal cheering work ing men who raided the stocks of dealers selling bread on the open market; and it was thought advisable to suspend the practice of offering bread at Holy Communion at Saint �rvais as long as the shortage lasted.' Some began to regret the old regime, bitterly denounced the Republic, and placed their hopes in the restoration of the monarchy. InJuly citizens ofthe . not Faubourg Saint-Antoine were heard to say that they dtd care if the enemy came to Paris, 'parce que, ne pouvant plus tenir a la cherte, il leur etait bien egal d'etre Anglais ou Fran -;ais' ; and an observer wrote that the 'lowest orders', while not openly pronouncing in favour of a king, did not appear to be opposed to the monarchy, provided it gave them bread. In August the general refrain in certain public places was said to be: 'Un roi ou du pain'; and an agent wrote that 'comparisons with the old regime . . . do not redound to the credit of the Republic'.) Yet, among the sans-culottes, at least, this mood appears to have been short-lived and to have disappeared before Vendemiaire. More persistent were the effects resulting from a revival of Jacobin agitation. In August there were demands for a retum to controls on the price and supply of essentials: 'Le public semble desirer [wrote an observer] que les grains et autre5 objets de necessite soient taxes a un prix raisonnable'.4 Later in the month it was reported that many regretted the time of Robespierre: 'On etait plus heureux sous Ie regne de Robes pierre ; on ne sentait pas alors Ie besoin.' On 8 September a soldier in the Palais Royal said things would continue to go wrong 'as long as Terror was not made the order of the day' ; and, a fortnight later, a woman was heard to say at the Porte Saint-Martin 'qu'elle regrettait Ie temps de la guillotine, et Aul..-d, ii. 53, 65, 177· • Ibid. pp. 70, 77-78, 161.
•
,
pp. 22, 43-++, 67· Ibid., p. 208 (sec aLIO p. '43)'
•
•
Ibid
.•
.6,
On debite dam Its queues et rassemblements (wrote an observer at ,the end of June) que I'on croit les ouvrien tranquilles parce qu on Its a desarma, maUl qu'ils sauront bien employer les memes moyeos que d�ns Ies commencements de la Revolution pour se procurer du pam. A �eek late� Inspector Bouillon compares the popular dis cU�I�n that lS gomg on with that preceding the outbreak in P; a ma1. On 20 August it was noted 'que Its rassemblements . d ouvrler s la porte Martin deviennent de jour en jour plus , nombreux , and, the next day, the general excitement was such 'qu'on pourrait croire qu'il se prepare une insurrection tres procha.mc'.z But, by this �ime, the political conflict between the �overnment and t�e SectIOns was beginning to emerge : we shall see what effect thIS was to have on the agitation among the sans-culottes. The primary assemblies (corresponding, in Paris, to the gener..1 asse�bl�. es of the Sections) had been convened in June. They we�e mvued to approve or reject the newly drafted Cons�l.tutJon and �o appoint electors, who were, in turn, to appomt �he deputies to the new revolutionary Assembly, due me�t I? the au�umn. R:0yaJis agitation was increasing and � . as wmmng re�rutts bot� 10 Paris, in the provincial towns, and 10 the count S lJ' lde ;3 and It was, no doubt, as much with a view o sa�eguard.l �g the �epublic from being overwhelmed by a °rab st reaction as With that of perpetuating its own political eXistence that the majority of the outgoing Conve ntion on and 30, August, �ued its famous decrees of the 'two-thi �ds'. , esc. invited the primary assemblies to agree that 500 of the deputles to the new Assembly should be selected from the
�
�
!
��
, �"'
I
pp. 182, ?3], 254, 2]6. • Ibid., pp. 47, 6,5, ,82, 184. ebvre, op. Cit., p. '73; Aulatd, .. II, 14, 77-78, 161, 182-3.
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
VENDtMIAIRE
Le public [wrote an observer in July] parait DC s'occuper que de ses besoins et . . . la politique est releguee dans les cafb. Peu importc: Ie gouvememc:nt [said onc citizen], pourvu que j'aie de quai subsister.
qu'eHe de,sirait qu'elle flit permanente'. By the end of the month, WIth the release of former terrorists in some Sections and the growth of royaHst agitation in others, Jacobin princi . ple� v.:ere once more bemg openly proclaimed both in the Tudenes Garden,-s and in the popular districts adjoining the . , Portes Samt-Dems and Samt-Martin.' Meanwhile, despite their defeat in Prairial, there had been talk of a new sans-culotta uprising.
.6,
And, in August, another observer reported: 'Le public . . . �e s'occupe oi de lois, oi de Constitution; que ce n'est que du pam qu'i1 demande." Others reacted morc: vigorously : both in JURe and July we hear of crowds in the Palais Royal cheering work ing men who raided the stocks of dealers selling bread on the open market; and it was thought advisable to suspend the practice of offering bread at Holy Communion at Saint �rvais as long as the shortage lasted.' Some began to regret the old regime, bitterly denounced the Republic, and placed their hopes in the restoration of the monarchy. InJuly citizens ofthe . not Faubourg Saint-Antoine were heard to say that they dtd care if the enemy came to Paris, 'parce que, ne pouvant plus tenir a la cherte, il leur etait bien egal d'etre Anglais ou Fran -;ais' ; and an observer wrote that the 'lowest orders', while not openly pronouncing in favour of a king, did not appear to be opposed to the monarchy, provided it gave them bread. In August the general refrain in certain public places was said to be: 'Un roi ou du pain'; and an agent wrote that 'comparisons with the old regime . . . do not redound to the credit of the Republic'.) Yet, among the sans-culottes, at least, this mood appears to have been short-lived and to have disappeared before Vendemiaire. More persistent were the effects resulting from a revival of Jacobin agitation. In August there were demands for a retum to controls on the price and supply of essentials: 'Le public semble desirer [wrote an observer] que les grains et autre5 objets de necessite soient taxes a un prix raisonnable'.4 Later in the month it was reported that many regretted the time of Robespierre: 'On etait plus heureux sous Ie regne de Robes pierre ; on ne sentait pas alors Ie besoin.' On 8 September a soldier in the Palais Royal said things would continue to go wrong 'as long as Terror was not made the order of the day' ; and, a fortnight later, a woman was heard to say at the Porte Saint-Martin 'qu'elle regrettait Ie temps de la guillotine, et Aul..-d, ii. 53, 65, 177· • Ibid. pp. 70, 77-78, 161.
•
,
pp. 22, 43-++, 67· Ibid., p. 208 (sec aLIO p. '43)'
•
•
Ibid
.•
.6,
On debite dam Its queues et rassemblements (wrote an observer at ,the end of June) que I'on croit les ouvrien tranquilles parce qu on Its a desarma, maUl qu'ils sauront bien employer les memes moyeos que d�ns Ies commencements de la Revolution pour se procurer du pam. A �eek late� Inspector Bouillon compares the popular dis cU�I�n that lS gomg on with that preceding the outbreak in P; a ma1. On 20 August it was noted 'que Its rassemblements . d ouvrler s la porte Martin deviennent de jour en jour plus , nombreux , and, the next day, the general excitement was such 'qu'on pourrait croire qu'il se prepare une insurrection tres procha.mc'.z But, by this �ime, the political conflict between the �overnment and t�e SectIOns was beginning to emerge : we shall see what effect thIS was to have on the agitation among the sans-culottes. The primary assemblies (corresponding, in Paris, to the gener..1 asse�bl�. es of the Sections) had been convened in June. They we�e mvued to approve or reject the newly drafted Cons�l.tutJon and �o appoint electors, who were, in turn, to appomt �he deputies to the new revolutionary Assembly, due me�t I? the au�umn. R:0yaJis agitation was increasing and � . as wmmng re�rutts bot� 10 Paris, in the provincial towns, and 10 the count S lJ' lde ;3 and It was, no doubt, as much with a view o sa�eguard.l �g the �epublic from being overwhelmed by a °rab st reaction as With that of perpetuating its own political eXistence that the majority of the outgoing Conve ntion on and 30, August, �ued its famous decrees of the 'two-thi �ds'. , esc. invited the primary assemblies to agree that 500 of the deputles to the new Assembly should be selected from the
�
�
!
��
, �"'
I
pp. 182, ?3], 254, 2]6. • Ibid., pp. 47, 6,5, ,82, 184. ebvre, op. Cit., p. '73; Aulatd, .. II, 14, 77-78, 161, 182-3.
ACTION THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN
e the re��ni�g 250 existing members of the Convention, whiltors. AntlClpabng an alone should be freely chosen by the elec to draft regular n unfavourable response, the Convention bega to hc::lp redress and, ; troops into the capital on the same �ay were perm itted, by a nsts the balance of opinion, former terro primary assemblies.' the d decree of 2 September, to atten were put had The Parisian Sections to whom these proposals of purges all ion ccess s a By idor. m � changed greatly since Ther and o�t of the Jacobins had been driven off the comnutteesern Sections, .but weekly general assemblies of not only the west n Whe the �ec�ons those oftheJaubourgs and city centre as well.on Co�tltutlo.n, were convened as primary assemblies to vote lsthe ArClS, Drolts as a dozen of them-including such recent rebe bards, a�d Lom tes, Plan de I'Homme, Gravitliers, Jardin des Jacobllu er form all ded Thennes de Julien-specifically exclu d in Jard the , June in � Pla�tes from their deliberations;l and, y-eight thirt than less no of t arres Section had announced the of un e purg The '.J mbre septe 3 et 2 alleged 'massacreurs des . since rted: ehea whol lly equa been had ents desirable social elem excused service, Prairial workers and artisans had either been�atio Gua�; ,un or specifically excluded from serving, i? �e y a nal petit qu n Ii and, in September, an observer noted qu I? asse The ... ' bMes nombre d'ouvriers qui assistent aux assem to resemble, In more and blies were, in fact, coming more become miniature, that 'Republique des propribaires' �hatr,had whose and mldo Ther since s circle fashionable in governing . of ue ran;a J te Ga.t.et the by ssed expre well social philosophy was 24 September: ietaires seuis com Dans toutes Ies associations policees, lesdespropr proletaires qui, ran� 166
posent la societe. Les autres ne sont que dent Ie moment qUi dans la dasse des citoyens surnumeraires, atten ietc.J propr une uerir d'acq puisse leur permettre
e accept Such citizens were not likely to hesitate long befor signifimost e whos III, Year ing the draft Constitution of the
, Aula.d, iL ,87, l1l8. _, . (Bonnet Rouge) , LeY"'� , Othe� we.e PII.ce VendOme, Bon Conseil, Ouest lI2]). ii. , Aulard lI8; p. , cit op. . Brutul, and Butte des MoulilU (Zivy, 1 Aulard, ii. 9.
, op. cit., p. 38; Aul.rd, ii. 227· Ibid., pp. 267-a.
• Zivy I
•
VENDtMIAIRE
167
cant departures from that of 1793 were that it reintroduced the syste� of indirect election and restricted the suffrage, even at the pn�ary stage, to tax-payers and, at the electoral stage, to substantla1 p�pertr-ownel"3. All Sections had, in fact, accepted . �e Consbtutlon With large majorities by 6 September.' Quite different was the reception given to the decrees of the 'two thirds'. When, after heated debates and violent recriminations against the Convention and its Committees, the vote was finally announced in the Assembly, it was found that no less than forty-seven of the Parisian Sections had rejected the decrees -the one exception being the Quinze Vingts, in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine, which accepted them by 433 to 139 vote3.1 �t was not only the decrees of 22 and 30 August themselves which aroused the political opposition of the Sections' further hostility was. �roused by the drafting of troops into th; capital and the deemon to allow former terrorists, so assiduously dis armed and disfranchised by the Sectional authorities only a few. mon�� before, to attend the assemblies and vote alongside their polibcal opponents. It was the combination of these factors, bitterly resented by the main body of conservative o�inion in �e capi�, which gave the small group of deter nune� royalists thar opportunity to build up a centre of . based on the Parisian primary assemblies and in op�lbon, volvmg many who would have rejected their ultimate aims, had they been openly proclaimed. The main nucleus of this royalist agitation lay in the Section Lepeletier, 'Ie quartier de I'argent' and centre of finance and stock-jobbing, t?e mon�rchist and moderate leanings of whose leaders and mi.litary umts have been noted in earlier episodes of the Revolution-the Section whose grenadiers had opposed the Marsei.llats. and defended the monarchy in August 1792, . had most eagerly rallied to the Convention against which Robespierre in Thermidor, had been the first to destroy the busts of Marat in February 1795,3 and had led the armed opposition to the insurgents of Genninal and Prairial. At the Outset they found allies in the Butte des Moulins (Palais Royal) I Zivy, op. cil., pp. 24-25.
204�5 (pasJinl).
d, ii. � .Ibjd. Aular ¢7. For the lurvival ofcounler-revolutionary intrigue in the Lepeletie. •
'f,.
Ibid.;
lion during the whole period 1789-94 and ill wei" basis i.
UIOur de l'allental d'AdmlraJ', AJI/I. !tist. R/1/./r/J1lf.,
1957,
I« A. de Lestapis. pp. 6-18, 106-20.
ACTION THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN
e the re��ni�g 250 existing members of the Convention, whiltors. AntlClpabng an alone should be freely chosen by the elec to draft regular n unfavourable response, the Convention bega to hc::lp redress and, ; troops into the capital on the same �ay were perm itted, by a nsts the balance of opinion, former terro primary assemblies.' the d decree of 2 September, to atten were put had The Parisian Sections to whom these proposals of purges all ion ccess s a By idor. m � changed greatly since Ther and o�t of the Jacobins had been driven off the comnutteesern Sections, .but weekly general assemblies of not only the west n Whe the �ec�ons those oftheJaubourgs and city centre as well.on Co�tltutlo.n, were convened as primary assemblies to vote lsthe ArClS, Drolts as a dozen of them-including such recent rebe bards, a�d Lom tes, Plan de I'Homme, Gravitliers, Jardin des Jacobllu er form all ded Thennes de Julien-specifically exclu d in Jard the , June in � Pla�tes from their deliberations;l and, y-eight thirt than less no of t arres Section had announced the of un e purg The '.J mbre septe 3 et 2 alleged 'massacreurs des . since rted: ehea whol lly equa been had ents desirable social elem excused service, Prairial workers and artisans had either been�atio Gua�; ,un or specifically excluded from serving, i? �e y a nal petit qu n Ii and, in September, an observer noted qu I? asse The ... ' bMes nombre d'ouvriers qui assistent aux assem to resemble, In more and blies were, in fact, coming more become miniature, that 'Republique des propribaires' �hatr,had whose and mldo Ther since s circle fashionable in governing . of ue ran;a J te Ga.t.et the by ssed expre well social philosophy was 24 September: ietaires seuis com Dans toutes Ies associations policees, lesdespropr proletaires qui, ran� 166
posent la societe. Les autres ne sont que dent Ie moment qUi dans la dasse des citoyens surnumeraires, atten ietc.J propr une uerir d'acq puisse leur permettre
e accept Such citizens were not likely to hesitate long befor signifimost e whos III, Year ing the draft Constitution of the
, Aula.d, iL ,87, l1l8. _, . (Bonnet Rouge) , LeY"'� , Othe� we.e PII.ce VendOme, Bon Conseil, Ouest lI2]). ii. , Aulard lI8; p. , cit op. . Brutul, and Butte des MoulilU (Zivy, 1 Aulard, ii. 9.
, op. cit., p. 38; Aul.rd, ii. 227· Ibid., pp. 267-a.
• Zivy I
•
VENDtMIAIRE
167
cant departures from that of 1793 were that it reintroduced the syste� of indirect election and restricted the suffrage, even at the pn�ary stage, to tax-payers and, at the electoral stage, to substantla1 p�pertr-ownel"3. All Sections had, in fact, accepted . �e Consbtutlon With large majorities by 6 September.' Quite different was the reception given to the decrees of the 'two thirds'. When, after heated debates and violent recriminations against the Convention and its Committees, the vote was finally announced in the Assembly, it was found that no less than forty-seven of the Parisian Sections had rejected the decrees -the one exception being the Quinze Vingts, in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine, which accepted them by 433 to 139 vote3.1 �t was not only the decrees of 22 and 30 August themselves which aroused the political opposition of the Sections' further hostility was. �roused by the drafting of troops into th; capital and the deemon to allow former terrorists, so assiduously dis armed and disfranchised by the Sectional authorities only a few. mon�� before, to attend the assemblies and vote alongside their polibcal opponents. It was the combination of these factors, bitterly resented by the main body of conservative o�inion in �e capi�, which gave the small group of deter nune� royalists thar opportunity to build up a centre of . based on the Parisian primary assemblies and in op�lbon, volvmg many who would have rejected their ultimate aims, had they been openly proclaimed. The main nucleus of this royalist agitation lay in the Section Lepeletier, 'Ie quartier de I'argent' and centre of finance and stock-jobbing, t?e mon�rchist and moderate leanings of whose leaders and mi.litary umts have been noted in earlier episodes of the Revolution-the Section whose grenadiers had opposed the Marsei.llats. and defended the monarchy in August 1792, . had most eagerly rallied to the Convention against which Robespierre in Thermidor, had been the first to destroy the busts of Marat in February 1795,3 and had led the armed opposition to the insurgents of Genninal and Prairial. At the Outset they found allies in the Butte des Moulins (Palais Royal) I Zivy, op. cil., pp. 24-25.
204�5 (pasJinl).
d, ii. � .Ibjd. Aular ¢7. For the lurvival ofcounler-revolutionary intrigue in the Lepeletie. •
'f,.
Ibid.;
lion during the whole period 1789-94 and ill wei" basis i.
UIOur de l'allental d'AdmlraJ', AJI/I. !tist. R/1/./r/J1lf.,
1957,
I« A. de Lestapis. pp. 6-18, 106-20.
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
168
SeCtlOD,1 and were sOOD to find more elsewhere. L�peletier began to take I e lead .In the Sectional opposiLion In early •
�
September; but Its first atttm t to create an agitational centre , based on a committee draw from the forty-eight Sections railcd.� There followed a wee of v. gorous a itaticn among the k . . ' . ... ' s in the course 0r Wh,.. h it as reported in the diSSident ScetlOn. . •• had arrived in the capitaI assembly 0ru nl. te. that 5 000 ttITons..., . . . "-d in the Faubourg Samt " s had been dIstrlbu tand a ml·11'Ion tIVrt r Antomel-a so mu
�
!
•
>
.
II
•
���:
I"
I
��
�
���
the Constitution had been ac e t d by a large majority all over n the country; the decrees Of2 30 August as well, but with s 6 The primary assemblies a substantial number of op o en t P � , , � ' d up thelr bUSIn.... ... ;>,> by 2 Octobcr; the were ordered to Win -d on th... .. 12th, and the electoral assembl'les should be conven... new legislative Assembly be summoned to mcet on 6 November . opencd a new phase in the conflict, , These announcemcnts , Several of the Parman assembl'les declared that the returns had
' his ofinlcrol to note, 'm reln'lS?«t, Ihc.::lilical Pgacily ofa JaItJ-cu(oI/e of the , , Bon Corucil &clion who, In urgong arm uppon for the Faubourg Saml. ' , I, had 0merved '' .NOIU ,o� r '" ons 10: bal a co s, , , ariStOCrala Anloine on 4th Pra,rla el museadim do seClions de �a But;e d M lins l.e PdClier el autro sacro!t , 2 Af:r th: ri";ary assemblio' discussio.... on c:oquins' (Arch, Nat" f1 466�, , the new Constitution rnonorlty vo'': ior � onarchy were relurned in the follow. (6), Cill! () (Aulard, ii, 285; Arch, , ou1I ing Sectio.... : Unill! (6), Bulle des \, PrH, Pol., Aa 266, fob, 321-8), , Aulard, iii. 236" ' Zivy, op, eil" p, 29, , ' . ,vy, op. �t" 3 1_ 2. These were: Amil de la Pat�e, • Bib , Nal" Lb" 45gB; Z Arsenal BonConseil,Bondy,Bonne �v e, B�HUS Champs EI)'Sl!es, Cit�, Drolli d' t'Ho�me, Fontaine dc Grenel(c, al;e a" BJI! Homme Arml!, lndivisibililt. ' L embourg Mareh 00, . hfoOi Blanc, Q�rvatoire. ·< Jardin dQ Planlo, l.epeIellcr, QU"'I (Bonnet Rouge)" Plac� ux �endi)":,c ' Poissonnihe POOl Neuf, Rl!un,on. i Temple, Th�alre Fran�all, Twlerlo, Un" . ' . Aulard, Ii. �46. . • The votmg was.· 9, .,8'3 for and 4 ',� . Cil., p. 35) .
OSI
:
� ;
P�i
•
been faked and '6g prepared to ignore the instruction to disba MeanWhile, the nd,l dorie, which had rallie d to the roy cause in a number alist ofSections,1 began to molest private citiz and came to blows ens with the army in the Palais Royal: occasion, it was accomp on one anied by shouts of, 'A bas les deu tiers ! Vive Ie roi! x A bas la Convention ! A bas Its baionne Jacobins, or Conv ttes " J ention.supporters, in their turn, we re out_ spoken in their condem nation of the 'mene urs royalistes' in Sections, During the the night of 25-26 Septe mber, three such critics were insulted and manhandled in the Mail and tier Sections, and Lepele. brought before the police commissioner of the Butte des Moulins for having suggest ed that the primary assemblies were com posed of 'brigand s' and for having pressed their suppo ex rt for the Convent ion in downright ter ms : Que quand on baltra it demain la generale et qu'on leur donnerait des billets de garde ils s 'en torcheraient Ie der riere si on leur en voyait ces billets ilJegal emenl, et qU'en ce cas leu r devoir ser Conven VENO£;MIA IRE
jeuTUsst
tion,4
ait a la
The Sectional ag itation continued, Attempts were ma bring the Quinze Vi de to ngts into line with the other asscmblies, several deputation and s called to persuad e them to revoke support for the decre their e ofthe 'two.thirds ' ; yet, after considera hesitation, they ref ble used. Popincourt, tho ugh opposed to the decree, refused, on 28 September, to acc ept Lepcletier's inv tion to appoint com ita_ missioners (shadow s of to August and May 179 3!) 'pour 3r rediger une dtkla ration',s The next however, Lepeletier da y, presented a declar ation to the Assem which, though fail bly ing to win the direct support of'the ma of the Paris Sections' jOrity , in whose name it purported to spea bore the signatur k, ye t es of twenty-three, including Butte des lins. Fidelite (H Mou• otel de Ville), Fratc mite, and Mail, wh ich had ' Th� ineluded Am iJ de
la Palrie, Arsenal, Cill!, d� CteneIJe, MO Droiu de I'Homme, FOn nl Blanc, Ponl Neuf, Rl!u taine nion, Th�atre Fran�"il, de Ville), and Fid�litt (H6tel Mail-()f which the IWO lall er had nOI signed the s.,p�ember (ibid. Add resa of 1 6 , p. 36), • They alle nded the assembli..,. of BrutlU, Lepeletjer, and p. 33J. Luxembourg (ibid., J Ibid., p p, 36-31; Arch, Prl!f. Pol " Aa 98 (Bu tte da Moulinl), 480-t, i�9
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
168
SeCtlOD,1 and were sOOD to find more elsewhere. L�peletier began to take I e lead .In the Sectional opposiLion In early •
�
September; but Its first atttm t to create an agitational centre , based on a committee draw from the forty-eight Sections railcd.� There followed a wee of v. gorous a itaticn among the k . . ' . ... ' s in the course 0r Wh,.. h it as reported in the diSSident ScetlOn. . •• had arrived in the capitaI assembly 0ru nl. te. that 5 000 ttITons..., . . . "-d in the Faubourg Samt " s had been dIstrlbu tand a ml·11'Ion tIVrt r Antomel-a so mu
�
!
•
>
.
II
•
���:
I"
I
��
�
���
the Constitution had been ac e t d by a large majority all over n the country; the decrees Of2 30 August as well, but with s 6 The primary assemblies a substantial number of op o en t P � , , � ' d up thelr bUSIn.... ... ;>,> by 2 Octobcr; the were ordered to Win -d on th... .. 12th, and the electoral assembl'les should be conven... new legislative Assembly be summoned to mcet on 6 November . opencd a new phase in the conflict, , These announcemcnts , Several of the Parman assembl'les declared that the returns had
' his ofinlcrol to note, 'm reln'lS?«t, Ihc.::lilical Pgacily ofa JaItJ-cu(oI/e of the , , Bon Corucil &clion who, In urgong arm uppon for the Faubourg Saml. ' , I, had 0merved '' .NOIU ,o� r '" ons 10: bal a co s, , , ariStOCrala Anloine on 4th Pra,rla el museadim do seClions de �a But;e d M lins l.e PdClier el autro sacro!t , 2 Af:r th: ri";ary assemblio' discussio.... on c:oquins' (Arch, Nat" f1 466�, , the new Constitution rnonorlty vo'': ior � onarchy were relurned in the follow. (6), Cill! () (Aulard, ii, 285; Arch, , ou1I ing Sectio.... : Unill! (6), Bulle des \, PrH, Pol., Aa 266, fob, 321-8), , Aulard, iii. 236" ' Zivy, op, eil" p, 29, , ' . ,vy, op. �t" 3 1_ 2. These were: Amil de la Pat�e, • Bib , Nal" Lb" 45gB; Z Arsenal BonConseil,Bondy,Bonne �v e, B�HUS Champs EI)'Sl!es, Cit�, Drolli d' t'Ho�me, Fontaine dc Grenel(c, al;e a" BJI! Homme Arml!, lndivisibililt. ' L embourg Mareh 00, . hfoOi Blanc, Q�rvatoire. ·< Jardin dQ Planlo, l.epeIellcr, QU"'I (Bonnet Rouge)" Plac� ux �endi)":,c ' Poissonnihe POOl Neuf, Rl!un,on. i Temple, Th�alre Fran�all, Twlerlo, Un" . ' . Aulard, Ii. �46. . • The votmg was.· 9, .,8'3 for and 4 ',� . Cil., p. 35) .
OSI
:
� ;
P�i
•
been faked and '6g prepared to ignore the instruction to disba MeanWhile, the nd,l dorie, which had rallie d to the roy cause in a number alist ofSections,1 began to molest private citiz and came to blows ens with the army in the Palais Royal: occasion, it was accomp on one anied by shouts of, 'A bas les deu tiers ! Vive Ie roi! x A bas la Convention ! A bas Its baionne Jacobins, or Conv ttes " J ention.supporters, in their turn, we re out_ spoken in their condem nation of the 'mene urs royalistes' in Sections, During the the night of 25-26 Septe mber, three such critics were insulted and manhandled in the Mail and tier Sections, and Lepele. brought before the police commissioner of the Butte des Moulins for having suggest ed that the primary assemblies were com posed of 'brigand s' and for having pressed their suppo ex rt for the Convent ion in downright ter ms : Que quand on baltra it demain la generale et qu'on leur donnerait des billets de garde ils s 'en torcheraient Ie der riere si on leur en voyait ces billets ilJegal emenl, et qU'en ce cas leu r devoir ser Conven VENO£;MIA IRE
jeuTUsst
tion,4
ait a la
The Sectional ag itation continued, Attempts were ma bring the Quinze Vi de to ngts into line with the other asscmblies, several deputation and s called to persuad e them to revoke support for the decre their e ofthe 'two.thirds ' ; yet, after considera hesitation, they ref ble used. Popincourt, tho ugh opposed to the decree, refused, on 28 September, to acc ept Lepcletier's inv tion to appoint com ita_ missioners (shadow s of to August and May 179 3!) 'pour 3r rediger une dtkla ration',s The next however, Lepeletier da y, presented a declar ation to the Assem which, though fail bly ing to win the direct support of'the ma of the Paris Sections' jOrity , in whose name it purported to spea bore the signatur k, ye t es of twenty-three, including Butte des lins. Fidelite (H Mou• otel de Ville), Fratc mite, and Mail, wh ich had ' Th� ineluded Am iJ de
la Palrie, Arsenal, Cill!, d� CteneIJe, MO Droiu de I'Homme, FOn nl Blanc, Ponl Neuf, Rl!u taine nion, Th�atre Fran�"il, de Ville), and Fid�litt (H6tel Mail-()f which the IWO lall er had nOI signed the s.,p�ember (ibid. Add resa of 1 6 , p. 36), • They alle nded the assembli..,. of BrutlU, Lepeletjer, and p. 33J. Luxembourg (ibid., J Ibid., p p, 36-31; Arch, Prl!f. Pol " Aa 98 (Bu tte da Moulinl), 480-t, i�9
,.. '70
ACTION NARY CROWD IN TH E REVOLUTIO
;' it Wall a direct ss of 16 Septemberon s not signed the Addre nti which, twO day hority of the Conve rs challenge to the autden tte ma e on assemblies to deliberat earlier. had forbid tinthe ernment's gov e Th .' ons cti ele g to the other than those rela nt action joi t the Paris Sectionsedfroammotakreing measures to prevencom s threat : iou ser vok pro l nes mu ing our ghb nei with Fram;:ais invited the etier and Theatre the on 2 October Lepel ital to assemble mary assemblies of cap electors ofthe otherpri re Franc;ais Th meeting-hall of theitaryeat on the morrow in the enty for mil ean). escorted by a only fifteence.attTw (near the present Od ed. invitation, though s, Theatre Fraend Sections accepted the olia tte des Moulin elves to be 'inis,a That night, Lepeleoftierthe, Bu tre declared thems e insurrection and four Sections againscen t the Convention.4 Th state of rebellion' followed soon after.a small majority of the 'honne-tes gens', or Yet to all but did not appear as Sections such stepsibe property-owners, of the del rate attempts to ression-far less asbut conscious acts of agg measures of self the Republic- sashad weaken and overthrow ringed the ree embly whose dec and whinf defence against an Ass ich was now ular sovereignty by the sacred principle of pop wholesale by military force and trying to impose them m the sts or buveurs de sang. Tothrthe release of the dreadedrs'terrwaoris bei d, eat ng undermined and ntion ene eto 'Republic of proprious lf. itse nve Sections, but by theto Co n('t by the rebdli by and lf itse t tec pro ernment Every measure takenness ofthethegov elop a s-culotUs served to dev san the growing restivemany ways rem ive ens def the of t iniscen state of mind in of the parisian bour of r me sum the in isie geo offensive attitude threat from the Sections, the government 1789. Faced with the d and armed r army units but enrolle not only summoned furthevol ny who had unteers, including ma a special force of 1,500 with prices rising Prairia1.5 Meanwhile, inst been disarmed afteerthr hands and s once more aga marc further, there wer rkeeat e widewer re the and a&capareurs in the ma ts and Jmlbourgs, -
1 Aulard, ii. :179 at Nonancourt. , Zivy, op. cil., p. 43. were arn:atcd; and, I Two ddeptell 10 Paris the regular army (Zivy. of O ps trO and militia l loca fighting broke out between
from Dreux
Social-the lalter DOC ni e. Temple, and Contra! 4 Tho:)' were BrutuS, poUIonb' , op. cil., p. 51· Zivy ' of 16 September. a signatory of the
op. cit., p. 44)·
declaration
171
VENDtMIAIRE
���d fiea� of � �eneral pillag7, .o� attack on food-shops, as in ary 79.3- ut, far from JOlmng forces with the rebels. in In order to settle accounts with the Conve:t°,?' the Secuons the sans-culotw and ouvriers moved closer to the Assem y m common defence of the Re ubli a�: cas�.�.te� the sectWn1 naires as both royalists and m�rchands e ed o :�� ""rac" from police 'repor����e�,::�� a�� :I; �� " . �ptember. 'Les oumers reunis en �upes, dans dlff erents quarhers, se prononcent pour la ConventlOn, et attribuent aux Royalistes et aux meneurs des SectiOJlS tow Its arret6 contre 1es deerets de 5 et 13 fructidor (22 and 30 A gust) I October. fLes motions SORt tres a �mces .contre Its Sections, Its marchands. Its accapa���.' ' et D�nis, composes en 0"06". 'Les groupes des rtes M tm : r partie d'artisans, soot tous r,�:l:s a Convent o�, et leur opinion serail plus prono�u or , Ii ra dmrlt.s, du Ix}!s, thJ dUJroon venail lts attrister.' . 4 Odober. 'Dans plusieurs quartiers" des o vnen nusembl6, � . quorque St plaignant de la chut! disaient qu co Codeplt des royalistes qui . i souti�dral'en, la menent Its Section.! ts nvenUon." . . the .local fire In the Champs tlysees, the workers m�nmng pumps went even further : they locked t e sectumnazrtS out of their meeting-place and threatened the electors that if they . a la raison' ) joined the rebels, 'lls Ies mettralent . . ), most Sections armed in The same day (Blth VendeRUalfe: defence of property which �P�::::' f�o.m one quarter or another, to be thre�tened I �u;e; at�en�d the �rima.ry assemblies under �rms and o� y e ed t � . nven uon; In others, they stood read without .any ffenslve mtent, or were too deeply divided to tJe a.,ny acuon;4�m others again, they were com elled to arm b ectors.against their will or .persuaded t� do so by tales �r;'�a�� bn�ands or es�aped p�soners. In Marches there ,"'as talk at; . �rronsts prepanng to dISarm Paris and cut the thr�ats of l� Inhabitants. In Mail armed citizens paraded to s outs 0f a bas les terroristes!' 10
.
_
•
ru
2
l
�
'
IV
•
•
.
• Ib'd I , pp. 23�, 283, 290, 297 (my ita.\ia).
p. :195. : Ibid., Fot example, in T
Aulard, ii. :183" :190
.
Comnuttce . refu.ed the uaembly'. anns l� IOUnded, however, againJt the Pr6: Pol. Aa 166. (oL (76). IZIOOWI(
Lombards the Civil . reqUell to" ordu the amen! call t?
Comnumc'.
wiIbes, the
oc:n
was
,.. '70
ACTION NARY CROWD IN TH E REVOLUTIO
;' it Wall a direct ss of 16 Septemberon s not signed the Addre nti which, twO day hority of the Conve rs challenge to the autden tte ma e on assemblies to deliberat earlier. had forbid tinthe ernment's gov e Th .' ons cti ele g to the other than those rela nt action joi t the Paris Sectionsedfroammotakreing measures to prevencom s threat : iou ser vok pro l nes mu ing our ghb nei with Fram;:ais invited the etier and Theatre the on 2 October Lepel ital to assemble mary assemblies of cap electors ofthe otherpri re Franc;ais Th meeting-hall of theitaryeat on the morrow in the enty for mil ean). escorted by a only fifteence.attTw (near the present Od ed. invitation, though s, Theatre Fraend Sections accepted the olia tte des Moulin elves to be 'inis,a That night, Lepeleoftierthe, Bu tre declared thems e insurrection and four Sections againscen t the Convention.4 Th state of rebellion' followed soon after.a small majority of the 'honne-tes gens', or Yet to all but did not appear as Sections such stepsibe property-owners, of the del rate attempts to ression-far less asbut conscious acts of agg measures of self the Republic- sashad weaken and overthrow ringed the ree embly whose dec and whinf defence against an Ass ich was now ular sovereignty by the sacred principle of pop wholesale by military force and trying to impose them m the sts or buveurs de sang. Tothrthe release of the dreadedrs'terrwaoris bei d, eat ng undermined and ntion ene eto 'Republic of proprious lf. itse nve Sections, but by theto Co n('t by the rebdli by and lf itse t tec pro ernment Every measure takenness ofthethegov elop a s-culotUs served to dev san the growing restivemany ways rem ive ens def the of t iniscen state of mind in of the parisian bour of r me sum the in isie geo offensive attitude threat from the Sections, the government 1789. Faced with the d and armed r army units but enrolle not only summoned furthevol ny who had unteers, including ma a special force of 1,500 with prices rising Prairia1.5 Meanwhile, inst been disarmed afteerthr hands and s once more aga marc further, there wer rkeeat e widewer re the and a&capareurs in the ma ts and Jmlbourgs, -
1 Aulard, ii. :179 at Nonancourt. , Zivy, op. cil., p. 43. were arn:atcd; and, I Two ddeptell 10 Paris the regular army (Zivy. of O ps trO and militia l loca fighting broke out between
from Dreux
Social-the lalter DOC ni e. Temple, and Contra! 4 Tho:)' were BrutuS, poUIonb' , op. cil., p. 51· Zivy ' of 16 September. a signatory of the
op. cit., p. 44)·
declaration
171
VENDtMIAIRE
���d fiea� of � �eneral pillag7, .o� attack on food-shops, as in ary 79.3- ut, far from JOlmng forces with the rebels. in In order to settle accounts with the Conve:t°,?' the Secuons the sans-culotw and ouvriers moved closer to the Assem y m common defence of the Re ubli a�: cas�.�.te� the sectWn1 naires as both royalists and m�rchands e ed o :�� ""rac" from police 'repor����e�,::�� a�� :I; �� " . �ptember. 'Les oumers reunis en �upes, dans dlff erents quarhers, se prononcent pour la ConventlOn, et attribuent aux Royalistes et aux meneurs des SectiOJlS tow Its arret6 contre 1es deerets de 5 et 13 fructidor (22 and 30 A gust) I October. fLes motions SORt tres a �mces .contre Its Sections, Its marchands. Its accapa���.' ' et D�nis, composes en 0"06". 'Les groupes des rtes M tm : r partie d'artisans, soot tous r,�:l:s a Convent o�, et leur opinion serail plus prono�u or , Ii ra dmrlt.s, du Ix}!s, thJ dUJroon venail lts attrister.' . 4 Odober. 'Dans plusieurs quartiers" des o vnen nusembl6, � . quorque St plaignant de la chut! disaient qu co Codeplt des royalistes qui . i souti�dral'en, la menent Its Section.! ts nvenUon." . . the .local fire In the Champs tlysees, the workers m�nmng pumps went even further : they locked t e sectumnazrtS out of their meeting-place and threatened the electors that if they . a la raison' ) joined the rebels, 'lls Ies mettralent . . ), most Sections armed in The same day (Blth VendeRUalfe: defence of property which �P�::::' f�o.m one quarter or another, to be thre�tened I �u;e; at�en�d the �rima.ry assemblies under �rms and o� y e ed t � . nven uon; In others, they stood read without .any ffenslve mtent, or were too deeply divided to tJe a.,ny acuon;4�m others again, they were com elled to arm b ectors.against their will or .persuaded t� do so by tales �r;'�a�� bn�ands or es�aped p�soners. In Marches there ,"'as talk at; . �rronsts prepanng to dISarm Paris and cut the thr�ats of l� Inhabitants. In Mail armed citizens paraded to s outs 0f a bas les terroristes!' 10
.
_
•
ru
2
l
�
'
IV
•
•
.
• Ib'd I , pp. 23�, 283, 290, 297 (my ita.\ia).
p. :195. : Ibid., Fot example, in T
Aulard, ii. :183" :190
.
Comnuttce . refu.ed the uaembly'. anns l� IOUnded, however, againJt the Pr6: Pol. Aa 166. (oL (76). IZIOOWI(
Lombards the Civil . reqUell to" ordu the amen! call t?
Comnumc'.
wiIbes, the
oc:n
was
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
17:1
n of Crowds gathen;d in the Carrcfo�r de Bud, at the junctio spre rumour the when , Sectlons Unite �d the Luxembourg and . Frans: Theatre l� e. Bici:t from � escaped � that prisoners had . Vmte, In and, lrlS; sectlonna armed by guarded were prisons Abb�ye citizens were ordered to parade in arms in the Cour de ! J comites de gouvernement ont arme ce �urd h� 'parce que malvel11�nts . tous Its buveurs de sang, Its terroristes et p�lalm�d : openly In Lepe1etier alone royalist aims were FlUes Samt des rue the in arters outside the Section's headqu to ta e up invite were rs-by passe , Thomas (the present Bourse) . sant l es, d terronst Its et on, Convenu Ia re arms 'pour combatt ,l ' heureux rendre nOllS puisse qui roi qu'un qu'i1 n'y a That night the governme�� ordered tT?DPS �nder General e Menou, commanding the mlhtary forces 10 .Pans, to advan� Its t arr and on the headquarters of the Lepeletier Section ith the leaders. General Menou, a royalist at heart, parleyed W same The homes. their to rebels and allowed them to return of uts sh t met ies !uilc and Mail, , ? ? night Butte des Moulins � m sup llied ra and ! que Repubh la vive ! tes 'A bas les terroris . la port of Lepeletier; they were followed by Brutus, Amls de emerged now staff general A s. Fran.yai TheAtre and PatrieJ under avowedly monarchist direction, with Rich�r-Scrisy, a
I:
Its
!
Its
�
�
_
�
�
royalist journalist, as its chairman and Ge�eral .DaOl<:an, ofth Theatre Fran'Yllis Section, as commander-I�-chief of Its forces. An important link between the two malO centres .of re e1lion on the two Banks was established when Arcls, which
�
controlled the vital Pont au Change, declared for the insur gents at 9 o'c1oek the next morning.4 By. n�w some 25,000 . sectionnaires were under arms; but the maJonty remruned on
the defensive, waiting for the non-existent buveurs de sang to strike; and only 7,000-8,000 of them-mostly �rom the Sections adjoining Lepe1etier and Butte des Mouhns-took part in the armed attaek on the Tuileries that followed
soon afier.5 In ' ' delences Meanwhile the government had orgaruzed Its : the place of Menou, who had been arrested, Barras was glVen •
ii. 1193-9. For ,.milar
'brigands', 'terroml",,', and IIIIb and 131b vendb
i Arci.I:· Gravillier.' Ouest, and Temple on 'malveillanu' n
, Aulard,
tnlalre, • •
fir "' ,. N.,. , •• L
W 556-8.
, Zivy, op. eil., pp. 66-g. teo:
I ZiVY. op. cit., pp. 84-�·
IIC&lU
regarding
• Arch. Nat., W ��7-8, doss. II.
• Aulard, ii. 1197·
VENo tMIAIRE
17'
command of the Parisian forces, numbering 5,000 troops of the line and a few hundred volunteers, including 250 from the Quinze Vingts.1 General Bonaparte, who was as yet unknown to the public, was put in charge of the artillery; he sent Murat with 300 men to Les Sablons to fetch forty cannon, converted the Tuileries into a fortress, and manned all its approaches.1 When the rebels advanced from the north, where they were solidly entrenched in their home territory of Lepeletier and Butte des Moulins, they were met by withering gun�fire-Bonaparte's famous 'whiffofgrape-shot'. A stiffbatt1e took place, with heavy casualties on both sides, in the rue de la Convention (the present rue Dauphin), which connected the rue Saint-Honore with the Tuileries,l At o'clock the rebels were driven back, They still held the church ofSaint-Roeh, the Theatre de la Republique (Comedie Franc;aise), and the Palais Royal; but the two latter
6
fell shortly after nightfall, In the Droits de l'Homme Section there were prison riots at the H6tel de la Force, whose inmates feared-not without justice-a repetition of the September 'massacres'.' The last and best·known incident in this affair, the battle for Saint-Roeh,s was fought out on the morning of October (14th Vendemiaire). During the night a general call to arms had once more been sounded in Lepeletier, Theatre Franc;ais, and Butte des Moulins; barricades were built ; but the response was halfhearted. Saint-Roeh quickly fell to General Vachot;
6
and Barras, soon after, occupied the headquarters of the Lepeletier Section. The next day the Committees ordered the disarmament of all grenadiers and ,hass�rs of the Parisian , The other hilberto ·loyal' 5«tionl-Montreuil, Popincourt, Gravillierl, Gard"" Fran�i""", and Panthwn-n:fwcd to !'espond. Gravi l Jieri actually voted to join I.epeJetier (ibid., p. 6g). • Contrary to legend Bonaparte was, .Iot forst, only onc of halfa dozen generall appointed to serve under B n i th;. a.ffair. It W&I only after the fighting _ over that, at Barras', request, Bonaparte W&I officially rttogni:ted all h;' ICCOnd-in. command (ibid., pp. 73-78). , There were 1100-300 killed and wounded on cach 'ide (ibid., p. 95), For cJairm for damage to property in the Tuileri"" Section &I Ihe rault of the battle I« Arch: PrU. Pol., Aa 11511, fob. 378, 417-18. One claimant, of the rue de la Co':lvenuon, dcc�ared I(lmewhat heatedly, 'que la majeure parue des vitro des Crol� de Ia matsOn a tit casst,t que Ie dommage qui lui a tit fait <::$1 un lIuenlal i Sa propritt� dont la garantic lui elIl aIIurtt par la loi' (ibid.). • Ard/. Pr(!f. Pol., Aa 136, fols. ��4-5. • See, e.g., Baiza.c's Cisar BiTIJlllau (III edition, 1837).
arras
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
17:1
n of Crowds gathen;d in the Carrcfo�r de Bud, at the junctio spre rumour the when , Sectlons Unite �d the Luxembourg and . Frans: Theatre l� e. Bici:t from � escaped � that prisoners had . Vmte, In and, lrlS; sectlonna armed by guarded were prisons Abb�ye citizens were ordered to parade in arms in the Cour de ! J comites de gouvernement ont arme ce �urd h� 'parce que malvel11�nts . tous Its buveurs de sang, Its terroristes et p�lalm�d : openly In Lepe1etier alone royalist aims were FlUes Samt des rue the in arters outside the Section's headqu to ta e up invite were rs-by passe , Thomas (the present Bourse) . sant l es, d terronst Its et on, Convenu Ia re arms 'pour combatt ,l ' heureux rendre nOllS puisse qui roi qu'un qu'i1 n'y a That night the governme�� ordered tT?DPS �nder General e Menou, commanding the mlhtary forces 10 .Pans, to advan� Its t arr and on the headquarters of the Lepeletier Section ith the leaders. General Menou, a royalist at heart, parleyed W same The homes. their to rebels and allowed them to return of uts sh t met ies !uilc and Mail, , ? ? night Butte des Moulins � m sup llied ra and ! que Repubh la vive ! tes 'A bas les terroris . la port of Lepeletier; they were followed by Brutus, Amls de emerged now staff general A s. Fran.yai TheAtre and PatrieJ under avowedly monarchist direction, with Rich�r-Scrisy, a
I:
Its
!
Its
�
�
_
�
�
royalist journalist, as its chairman and Ge�eral .DaOl<:an, ofth Theatre Fran'Yllis Section, as commander-I�-chief of Its forces. An important link between the two malO centres .of re e1lion on the two Banks was established when Arcls, which
�
controlled the vital Pont au Change, declared for the insur gents at 9 o'c1oek the next morning.4 By. n�w some 25,000 . sectionnaires were under arms; but the maJonty remruned on
the defensive, waiting for the non-existent buveurs de sang to strike; and only 7,000-8,000 of them-mostly �rom the Sections adjoining Lepe1etier and Butte des Mouhns-took part in the armed attaek on the Tuileries that followed
soon afier.5 In ' ' delences Meanwhile the government had orgaruzed Its : the place of Menou, who had been arrested, Barras was glVen •
ii. 1193-9. For ,.milar
'brigands', 'terroml",,', and IIIIb and 131b vendb
i Arci.I:· Gravillier.' Ouest, and Temple on 'malveillanu' n
, Aulard,
tnlalre, • •
fir "' ,. N.,. , •• L
W 556-8.
, Zivy, op. eil., pp. 66-g. teo:
I ZiVY. op. cit., pp. 84-�·
IIC&lU
regarding
• Arch. Nat., W ��7-8, doss. II.
• Aulard, ii. 1197·
VENo tMIAIRE
17'
command of the Parisian forces, numbering 5,000 troops of the line and a few hundred volunteers, including 250 from the Quinze Vingts.1 General Bonaparte, who was as yet unknown to the public, was put in charge of the artillery; he sent Murat with 300 men to Les Sablons to fetch forty cannon, converted the Tuileries into a fortress, and manned all its approaches.1 When the rebels advanced from the north, where they were solidly entrenched in their home territory of Lepeletier and Butte des Moulins, they were met by withering gun�fire-Bonaparte's famous 'whiffofgrape-shot'. A stiffbatt1e took place, with heavy casualties on both sides, in the rue de la Convention (the present rue Dauphin), which connected the rue Saint-Honore with the Tuileries,l At o'clock the rebels were driven back, They still held the church ofSaint-Roeh, the Theatre de la Republique (Comedie Franc;aise), and the Palais Royal; but the two latter
6
fell shortly after nightfall, In the Droits de l'Homme Section there were prison riots at the H6tel de la Force, whose inmates feared-not without justice-a repetition of the September 'massacres'.' The last and best·known incident in this affair, the battle for Saint-Roeh,s was fought out on the morning of October (14th Vendemiaire). During the night a general call to arms had once more been sounded in Lepeletier, Theatre Franc;ais, and Butte des Moulins; barricades were built ; but the response was halfhearted. Saint-Roeh quickly fell to General Vachot;
6
and Barras, soon after, occupied the headquarters of the Lepeletier Section. The next day the Committees ordered the disarmament of all grenadiers and ,hass�rs of the Parisian , The other hilberto ·loyal' 5«tionl-Montreuil, Popincourt, Gravillierl, Gard"" Fran�i""", and Panthwn-n:fwcd to !'espond. Gravi l Jieri actually voted to join I.epeJetier (ibid., p. 6g). • Contrary to legend Bonaparte was, .Iot forst, only onc of halfa dozen generall appointed to serve under B n i th;. a.ffair. It W&I only after the fighting _ over that, at Barras', request, Bonaparte W&I officially rttogni:ted all h;' ICCOnd-in. command (ibid., pp. 73-78). , There were 1100-300 killed and wounded on cach 'ide (ibid., p. 95), For cJairm for damage to property in the Tuileri"" Section &I Ihe rault of the battle I« Arch: PrU. Pol., Aa 11511, fob. 378, 417-18. One claimant, of the rue de la Co':lvenuon, dcc�ared I(lmewhat heatedly, 'que la majeure parue des vitro des Crol� de Ia matsOn a tit casst,t que Ie dommage qui lui a tit fait <::$1 un lIuenlal i Sa propritt� dont la garantic lui elIl aIIurtt par la loi' (ibid.). • Ard/. Pr(!f. Pol., Aa 136, fols. ��4-5. • See, e.g., Baiza.c's Cisar BiTIJlllau (III edition, 1837).
arras
.,.
ACTION THE REVOLUTIONARY CRO WD IN
ens, without distinction, of the National Guard and of all citiz ned as st universally conde� rebellious Lepeletier, now almo .l All hte' rc l'ana de et e otag I'agi 'Ie foyer du royalisme, de n; dow more, ordered to close primary assemblies were, once of those try ts were set up to and three separate Military Cour h who ' llion �d gators of the rebe 'the principal authors and insti 10 t mee t? were escape-they not already made good their 9 On . ouli des Butte � Theatre Franliais, Lepeletier, and . a ar anuh f 10 rted repo ?d police October(1 7th Vendemiaire), the aIte parf plus la de tacle spec reassuring tones: 'Paris offre Ie ed to add: 'Les plaintes et tranquillite" , though they felt oblig . es." ee5 . . . sont Ies mem denr des Ies murmures contre la cherte ous �ot a was nt rnme gove the lt Having crushed the revo itself and the Secuons which to drive too deep a wedge between decided to treat the massof the had nourished it. It was therefore been led astray, and to con rebels as ignorant sheep who had agai?st a small �umber of centrate its repressive measures royabsts, and preSIdents and 'instigators'-journalists, known . Even most of these were secretaries of Sectional assemblies res were left open : in �e allowed to get away, as the harrie penons whom the pohce n Theatre Section alone of fiftee g the following fortnight, durin ate wished to arrest or int rrog Of maybe 200 persom e.} escap their e no less than twelve mad or wished to arrest4 only thirty whom the Committees arrested absence) before the three were tried (in penon or in their centres of revolt. Of these, Military Courts set up in the main were capitally convicted in two were executed (five others itted, and the rest were sen their absence), eight were acqu A year later the sentences on tenced to fines or imprisonment. quashed as part of a gene�al were those tried in their absence en e�iaire were treate WIth amnesty.s In short the rebels ofV . Pramal-a fact WhICh dId not far greater leniency than those of escape public notice and comment.6
�
�
�
�
I l
Aulard, ii. �06.
�
313. . 2�-&. fob. 243, . Areh. Prtf. Pol., Aa but the pollee n-ccmh are very In I have found 66 such Casel in 16 Sections, . • Ibid., p.
4 s for Lcpeletier for this period (Arch complete: there If,re, for example, no record 242, 243. 158, 168, 175, 177, 2�2, 211, 2.14, 219,99-10 Prtf. Po!., Aa 71, 74, 75, 77, 1�4, 1. . 1 Arch. Nat., W 5�6-8 . ZIVY, op. CLt., � 252) . al �tai�t mOL� coup�b1d prairi b de r�olt les que vent obser nl , 'Q)..Ldques.u pain d eL"l ne demandlJ.ent que du que celolX du 13 vend�miaire, puitque la premi
�
VEND 2MIAIRE
�
."
ut, q te apart from the differences in thelr aims, the par . UClpants In these two events: were, of course, of a very different kind. Among those killed and wounded in Vendemiaire' the
authorities purported to find a predominance of imigrls and hardened royalists. 'Parmi les blesses [wrote Barras in his
Memoirs] on releve surtout des emigres, des collets verts ou noin, peu de boutiquien . . .' ;1 and a press report of 1 2 October
�peaks of corpses dressed in rough outer garments, but swathed In fine underclothes bedecked withjleurs de lis!l Yet the govern �ent and its agents had too obvious an interest in presenting the l�surgents as a small minority of royalists for such reports to be given much credence. Such elements may well have existed
among the jeu1llSse dorle taking part in the rebellion; but they
are no more typical of the insurgents as a whole than those 'ouvrien pris de vin' whom a police observer's report describes as enrolling among the armed citizens of Lepeletier on 12th Vendemiaire.J More typical of the active elements, at least, were the few hundred penons whom the Committees arrested, or sought to arrest, after the rebellion had been crushed. Those
whose homes and papers were searched by the police in the
Sections were (as far as their identity can be traced) mainly
journalists, printe�, civil servants, deputies, and stock-jobbers; h e was also a wme-merchant among them, Those tried by the t
7�
Mthtary Courts, apart from their official positions in the pri mary Sections, were professional soldiers, civil servants, and members of the professions; in addition, they included a former o cer of the Royal Household, a wholesale grocer, and a shop
�
assistant (the only sans-culotte among them).4 Doubtless, there . were other SOCIal elements among the rank-and-file of the armed citizens of the Lepeletier, Butte des Moulins, Brutus, Theatre Fran�ais, Arcis, Luxembourg, and other actively rebellious Secti�ns of 13th Vendemiaire ; but, apart from those specially
recruited for the purpose,s they must have been made up in the ers of main, of the tax-payers, shopkeepers, and property-o
�
que ceux-ci voulaient attaquer et anbntir la repri:sentation nationale, et eepen_ . .al ont �rouvi une bien plUl grande Kv�rit� el prompti dant . . . ceux e pra m ude daru leur Jugement q':l� ccux du I� vend�miaire' (police observer'l report or 3 DctOber 1795 [Aulard,lI. �19)). , Zivy, op. cit., p. 85. . Aulard/ ii. 318. • Ibid., p. 297. 4 See nn. 4, 5. p. 174. • . A few luch cues are reported ;n the recordlL of the Military Couru'' but it is Iinpouible 10 estimate their importance (Arcl!. Nat., W 556-8).
:
�
.,.
ACTION THE REVOLUTIONARY CRO WD IN
ens, without distinction, of the National Guard and of all citiz ned as st universally conde� rebellious Lepeletier, now almo .l All hte' rc l'ana de et e otag I'agi 'Ie foyer du royalisme, de n; dow more, ordered to close primary assemblies were, once of those try ts were set up to and three separate Military Cour h who ' llion �d gators of the rebe 'the principal authors and insti 10 t mee t? were escape-they not already made good their 9 On . ouli des Butte � Theatre Franliais, Lepeletier, and . a ar anuh f 10 rted repo ?d police October(1 7th Vendemiaire), the aIte parf plus la de tacle spec reassuring tones: 'Paris offre Ie ed to add: 'Les plaintes et tranquillite" , though they felt oblig . es." ee5 . . . sont Ies mem denr des Ies murmures contre la cherte ous �ot a was nt rnme gove the lt Having crushed the revo itself and the Secuons which to drive too deep a wedge between decided to treat the massof the had nourished it. It was therefore been led astray, and to con rebels as ignorant sheep who had agai?st a small �umber of centrate its repressive measures royabsts, and preSIdents and 'instigators'-journalists, known . Even most of these were secretaries of Sectional assemblies res were left open : in �e allowed to get away, as the harrie penons whom the pohce n Theatre Section alone of fiftee g the following fortnight, durin ate wished to arrest or int rrog Of maybe 200 persom e.} escap their e no less than twelve mad or wished to arrest4 only thirty whom the Committees arrested absence) before the three were tried (in penon or in their centres of revolt. Of these, Military Courts set up in the main were capitally convicted in two were executed (five others itted, and the rest were sen their absence), eight were acqu A year later the sentences on tenced to fines or imprisonment. quashed as part of a gene�al were those tried in their absence en e�iaire were treate WIth amnesty.s In short the rebels ofV . Pramal-a fact WhICh dId not far greater leniency than those of escape public notice and comment.6
�
�
�
�
I l
Aulard, ii. �06.
�
313. . 2�-&. fob. 243, . Areh. Prtf. Pol., Aa but the pollee n-ccmh are very In I have found 66 such Casel in 16 Sections, . • Ibid., p.
4 s for Lcpeletier for this period (Arch complete: there If,re, for example, no record 242, 243. 158, 168, 175, 177, 2�2, 211, 2.14, 219,99-10 Prtf. Po!., Aa 71, 74, 75, 77, 1�4, 1. . 1 Arch. Nat., W 5�6-8 . ZIVY, op. CLt., � 252) . al �tai�t mOL� coup�b1d prairi b de r�olt les que vent obser nl , 'Q)..Ldques.u pain d eL"l ne demandlJ.ent que du que celolX du 13 vend�miaire, puitque la premi
�
VEND 2MIAIRE
�
."
ut, q te apart from the differences in thelr aims, the par . UClpants In these two events: were, of course, of a very different kind. Among those killed and wounded in Vendemiaire' the
authorities purported to find a predominance of imigrls and hardened royalists. 'Parmi les blesses [wrote Barras in his
Memoirs] on releve surtout des emigres, des collets verts ou noin, peu de boutiquien . . .' ;1 and a press report of 1 2 October
�peaks of corpses dressed in rough outer garments, but swathed In fine underclothes bedecked withjleurs de lis!l Yet the govern �ent and its agents had too obvious an interest in presenting the l�surgents as a small minority of royalists for such reports to be given much credence. Such elements may well have existed
among the jeu1llSse dorle taking part in the rebellion; but they
are no more typical of the insurgents as a whole than those 'ouvrien pris de vin' whom a police observer's report describes as enrolling among the armed citizens of Lepeletier on 12th Vendemiaire.J More typical of the active elements, at least, were the few hundred penons whom the Committees arrested, or sought to arrest, after the rebellion had been crushed. Those
whose homes and papers were searched by the police in the
Sections were (as far as their identity can be traced) mainly
journalists, printe�, civil servants, deputies, and stock-jobbers; h e was also a wme-merchant among them, Those tried by the t
7�
Mthtary Courts, apart from their official positions in the pri mary Sections, were professional soldiers, civil servants, and members of the professions; in addition, they included a former o cer of the Royal Household, a wholesale grocer, and a shop
�
assistant (the only sans-culotte among them).4 Doubtless, there . were other SOCIal elements among the rank-and-file of the armed citizens of the Lepeletier, Butte des Moulins, Brutus, Theatre Fran�ais, Arcis, Luxembourg, and other actively rebellious Secti�ns of 13th Vendemiaire ; but, apart from those specially
recruited for the purpose,s they must have been made up in the ers of main, of the tax-payers, shopkeepers, and property-o
�
que ceux-ci voulaient attaquer et anbntir la repri:sentation nationale, et eepen_ . .al ont �rouvi une bien plUl grande Kv�rit� el prompti dant . . . ceux e pra m ude daru leur Jugement q':l� ccux du I� vend�miaire' (police observer'l report or 3 DctOber 1795 [Aulard,lI. �19)). , Zivy, op. cit., p. 85. . Aulard/ ii. 318. • Ibid., p. 297. 4 See nn. 4, 5. p. 174. • . A few luch cues are reported ;n the recordlL of the Military Couru'' but it is Iinpouible 10 estimate their importance (Arcl!. Nat., W 556-8).
:
�
"
,
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
the capital, who alone had escaped the social purges carried out since Thermidor. Such citizens had applauded the siege of the Bastille and supported, or condoned, the overthrow of the monarchy; but it was the first-and last-time that they them selves fonned the predominant element in a revolutionary crowd or bore the main brunt of street-fighting during the years of the Revolution in Paris.
Yet, though playing little part in these events, the sans culottes were, as always since Thermidor, the principal victims. The Convention, it is true, played to the gallery by decredng on October that all who could afford to do so should forego
6
their bread ration and buy on the open market;! but the measure was of little practical value. High prices and scarcity continued and, as winter approached, became more severe, In November the price of bread on the open market rose to 24
liures a pound and a voie of coal to 300 iiuTeS.1 On the 20th, in the Bon Conseil Section, a dealer was forced by a crowd to sell his bread at I O livres a pound.l But the prevailing mood was one of hopelessness and despair in the face of mounting hardships to which there no longer appeared to be any hopes of a solution, Poverty (wrote an observer at this time] is at ilS lowest depths; the streets of Paris present the grievous spectacle of women and children on the point of collapse from lack of nourishment ; the hospitals and almshouses will soon be insufficient to house the army of sick and wretched. Poverty and hunger have almost completely silenced their voices ; but when, on occasion, their voices are raised, it is in muttered imprecations against the Government.4
The picture is reminiscent of that painted by the police just a year before. As then, it was followed by worse hardships in the months to come: in December, the price of a pound of bread had risen to 45 and 50 livrtS, and to 80 iivrtS in May 17�; and the price of meat to 75 livrts in January and to 97 /ivTeS in March,S But, this time, the Jacobin remnants were silent, the
sans.cuiottes
militants were dispirited, scattered, imprisoned, or
disarmed, and there was no revival of the combative spirit of
, Aulard, Ii. 308. • Ibid., pp. 375, 434, Arch. Pltf. Pol., � 74, fol. 608. 4 Aulard, ii. 434 (n:port of,,6 November) [my transb.tion]. I E. LcvUle\lr, Him,,, drs dasJrl oUllriu ir In Franu dt 17119 .! 1870 (2 Yob., Palilt 1902), i. 236-44. I
VEND2 MIAIRE
' . the spring of I 795· p ' lans were also suitabl ans y cowed and restrained by the new element that had entere . . '. , d the po'Ile a scenesmce Vendem I'air� ; the army, brough t in to the . capital by the Co n a d � P r h irect ry d � �i��: aved y li t o apar e. e ays of 'revolutionary crowds' h th d ansculottes or of dissident hour geois, er o e o y I Fo� early euntpl of the .. . .. menace to Parw . an ovilu.n. conUltlu ed by ocC\lpymg army (pilfering of thc goods da to properly, danger 10 life ICC Arch, Prif. Pol. and limb) , � 25� .)6-68 , 3
�
�::�: f;: �: a
O:;
77
���; � �� � � � : : ;� �c;:a:: ;:/
(Tuilcrla)m:ot.
, 373 -,5, 378, 417- 1 9.
"
,
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
the capital, who alone had escaped the social purges carried out since Thermidor. Such citizens had applauded the siege of the Bastille and supported, or condoned, the overthrow of the monarchy; but it was the first-and last-time that they them selves fonned the predominant element in a revolutionary crowd or bore the main brunt of street-fighting during the years of the Revolution in Paris.
Yet, though playing little part in these events, the sans culottes were, as always since Thermidor, the principal victims. The Convention, it is true, played to the gallery by decredng on October that all who could afford to do so should forego
6
their bread ration and buy on the open market;! but the measure was of little practical value. High prices and scarcity continued and, as winter approached, became more severe, In November the price of bread on the open market rose to 24
liures a pound and a voie of coal to 300 iiuTeS.1 On the 20th, in the Bon Conseil Section, a dealer was forced by a crowd to sell his bread at I O livres a pound.l But the prevailing mood was one of hopelessness and despair in the face of mounting hardships to which there no longer appeared to be any hopes of a solution, Poverty (wrote an observer at this time] is at ilS lowest depths; the streets of Paris present the grievous spectacle of women and children on the point of collapse from lack of nourishment ; the hospitals and almshouses will soon be insufficient to house the army of sick and wretched. Poverty and hunger have almost completely silenced their voices ; but when, on occasion, their voices are raised, it is in muttered imprecations against the Government.4
The picture is reminiscent of that painted by the police just a year before. As then, it was followed by worse hardships in the months to come: in December, the price of a pound of bread had risen to 45 and 50 livrtS, and to 80 iivrtS in May 17�; and the price of meat to 75 livrts in January and to 97 /ivTeS in March,S But, this time, the Jacobin remnants were silent, the
sans.cuiottes
militants were dispirited, scattered, imprisoned, or
disarmed, and there was no revival of the combative spirit of
, Aulard, Ii. 308. • Ibid., pp. 375, 434, Arch. Pltf. Pol., � 74, fol. 608. 4 Aulard, ii. 434 (n:port of,,6 November) [my transb.tion]. I E. LcvUle\lr, Him,,, drs dasJrl oUllriu ir In Franu dt 17119 .! 1870 (2 Yob., Palilt 1902), i. 236-44. I
VEND2 MIAIRE
' . the spring of I 795· p ' lans were also suitabl ans y cowed and restrained by the new element that had entere . . '. , d the po'Ile a scenesmce Vendem I'air� ; the army, brough t in to the . capital by the Co n a d � P r h irect ry d � �i��: aved y li t o apar e. e ays of 'revolutionary crowds' h th d ansculottes or of dissident hour geois, er o e o y I Fo� early euntpl of the .. . .. menace to Parw . an ovilu.n. conUltlu ed by ocC\lpymg army (pilfering of thc goods da to properly, danger 10 life ICC Arch, Prif. Pol. and limb) , � 25� .)6-68 , 3
�
�::�: f;: �: a
O:;
77
���; � �� � � � : : ;� �c;:a:: ;:/
(Tuilcrla)m:ot.
, 373 -,5, 378, 417- 1 9.
THE COMPOSITION OF REVOLUTIONARY CROWDS
t79
�ar this discrepancy in origins between leaders and participants
reflected in a discrepancy in their social and political aims. Yet, though overwhelmingly composed of sans-culottes, the revolutionary crowds taking part in these events were by no means drawn from identical social groups. It would, in fact, be a gross over-simplification to present them as a sort of homo geneous, nameless 'mob' of the lower orders of Parisian society ever ready to spring into action at the behest of political leaders or in spontaneous response to the promptings of hunger or of momentary grievance. Yet such has only too often been the picture of them that has emerged from the pen of the memorialist or historian. To correct this picture we shall have to consider the motives underlying the revolutionary journits; but, before doing so, we must also look once more at the elements taking part in them. !he riots of the autumn of I 7B7 and 1 788 broke out, as we saw, In response to the agitation of the Paris Parlement in the course of its struggle with the king and his ministers in the period of the rluolte nohiliaire. The original impulse to them was given by the I�wyers' clerks and ushers of the Palais de Justice ; yet, ru the �IOts continued, the clerks were joined by the apprentices and Journeymen of the Cite and, in 1 788, by the mnw peuple of the markets and the Faubourgs Saint-Marcel and Saint-Ger m�n 3.5 well. In fact those arrested were composed, in the maIO, of small shopkeepers, craftsmen, and journeymen, of whom one-halfwere wage-earners in a variety of trades. ! Work shop journeymen and labourers played an even more con spicuous part in the Reveillon riots of April 17B9, when the houses ?f two manufacturers were pulled down by angry crow�s In the Faubourg Saint-Antoine. We saw that, on this occasion, special efforts were made by the itinerant bands, who formed the most active elements among the rioters, to enrol wage-earners both at their places of work-at docks, in workshops and manufactories-and in their lodgings; and wage earners of every sort accounted for over fifty of some seventy persons killed, wounded, or arrested as a result of the distur bances. While this is an unusually high proportion, it is perhaps Ot surprising in view of the particular hostility aroused among . cJourn� men and labourers ofthefauhourg and its approaches 15
PART THREE
The Anatomy of the Revolutionary Crowd XII THE COMPOSITION OF R E V O L U T I O N A RY C R O W D S
OR
design, all their diversity of scope, organization, and u revol us does a common thread run through the vario � prece he l in . tionary commotions and joumies described cert a IS there �� ing pages? In the first place, it is. evident th.a� n of the paruCl 10 the social compositIO rn patte of ty ormi unif exc�ption. of the pants in these movement s: with the single n 10 their over draw were armed rebels of Vendemiaire, they ottes-from the l cu sa1ISian Paris whelming majority from the e�pers•. �nd shopk ers, -earn wage men, workshop masters, crafts ongms, SOCial of ct respe in , Thus al. capit petty traders of the o� demonstrat?n a sharp division is revealed between the m� or making and insurgents and the political leaders directmg, Electors of Paris political capital out of, these operations-the rs ofthe leade the May-July 1789, the revolutionary journalists! bly, of Assem nal Nabo Paris Commune, or the members of the y few rkabl rema with e, Thes s. the Cordeliers and Jacobin Club the oisie, hourge ercial comm the exceptions, were drawn from how . later see shall We ' cracy aristo l l professions, or the ibera
F
eh laser lights .. -as were ofMarquis noblet tleandwere, Waye u and Mirabe:a g i�ts R�bcsp e. uru Saint·H de the tlix Saint-F de et n i Musqu weN: former ,,_.IU; Damoulins. Brisso., and Htbc:rt were)O Urnah. Danton and Jacques Roux were priests,· l menSieyb tllmo:
•
ill.
lH/urlfOis.
sense
was
....
and and
J.�������������t?��f � he t
§�!
�
,
See Appendix III.
THE COMPOSITION OF REVOLUTIONARY CROWDS
t79
�ar this discrepancy in origins between leaders and participants
reflected in a discrepancy in their social and political aims. Yet, though overwhelmingly composed of sans-culottes, the revolutionary crowds taking part in these events were by no means drawn from identical social groups. It would, in fact, be a gross over-simplification to present them as a sort of homo geneous, nameless 'mob' of the lower orders of Parisian society ever ready to spring into action at the behest of political leaders or in spontaneous response to the promptings of hunger or of momentary grievance. Yet such has only too often been the picture of them that has emerged from the pen of the memorialist or historian. To correct this picture we shall have to consider the motives underlying the revolutionary journits; but, before doing so, we must also look once more at the elements taking part in them. !he riots of the autumn of I 7B7 and 1 788 broke out, as we saw, In response to the agitation of the Paris Parlement in the course of its struggle with the king and his ministers in the period of the rluolte nohiliaire. The original impulse to them was given by the I�wyers' clerks and ushers of the Palais de Justice ; yet, ru the �IOts continued, the clerks were joined by the apprentices and Journeymen of the Cite and, in 1 788, by the mnw peuple of the markets and the Faubourgs Saint-Marcel and Saint-Ger m�n 3.5 well. In fact those arrested were composed, in the maIO, of small shopkeepers, craftsmen, and journeymen, of whom one-halfwere wage-earners in a variety of trades. ! Work shop journeymen and labourers played an even more con spicuous part in the Reveillon riots of April 17B9, when the houses ?f two manufacturers were pulled down by angry crow�s In the Faubourg Saint-Antoine. We saw that, on this occasion, special efforts were made by the itinerant bands, who formed the most active elements among the rioters, to enrol wage-earners both at their places of work-at docks, in workshops and manufactories-and in their lodgings; and wage earners of every sort accounted for over fifty of some seventy persons killed, wounded, or arrested as a result of the distur bances. While this is an unusually high proportion, it is perhaps Ot surprising in view of the particular hostility aroused among . cJourn� men and labourers ofthefauhourg and its approaches 15
PART THREE
The Anatomy of the Revolutionary Crowd XII THE COMPOSITION OF R E V O L U T I O N A RY C R O W D S
OR
design, all their diversity of scope, organization, and u revol us does a common thread run through the vario � prece he l in . tionary commotions and joumies described cert a IS there �� ing pages? In the first place, it is. evident th.a� n of the paruCl 10 the social compositIO rn patte of ty ormi unif exc�ption. of the pants in these movement s: with the single n 10 their over draw were armed rebels of Vendemiaire, they ottes-from the l cu sa1ISian Paris whelming majority from the e�pers•. �nd shopk ers, -earn wage men, workshop masters, crafts ongms, SOCial of ct respe in , Thus al. capit petty traders of the o� demonstrat?n a sharp division is revealed between the m� or making and insurgents and the political leaders directmg, Electors of Paris political capital out of, these operations-the rs ofthe leade the May-July 1789, the revolutionary journalists! bly, of Assem nal Nabo Paris Commune, or the members of the y few rkabl rema with e, Thes s. the Cordeliers and Jacobin Club the oisie, hourge ercial comm the exceptions, were drawn from how . later see shall We ' cracy aristo l l professions, or the ibera
F
eh laser lights .. -as were ofMarquis noblet tleandwere, Waye u and Mirabe:a g i�ts R�bcsp e. uru Saint·H de the tlix Saint-F de et n i Musqu weN: former ,,_.IU; Damoulins. Brisso., and Htbc:rt were)O Urnah. Danton and Jacques Roux were priests,· l menSieyb tllmo:
•
ill.
lH/urlfOis.
sense
was
....
and and
J.�������������t?��f � he t
§�!
�
,
See Appendix III.
180
THE ANATOMY OF THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD
by the threats that Reveillon had, either by implication or design, uttered against the workers' living standards at a time of acute shortage and high price of bread.I In a very real sense it may be claimed that the Paris revolu tion ofJuly 1789 was the work of a great part of the population as a whole: those under arms, may, as we have seen, have numbered as many as a quarter of a million. Yet the most active elements in the main episodes of that great upsurge were far fewer and are reasonably well known to us. The immediate a��ailants of the Bastille, most of whom were members of the newly formed National Guard, were only a few hundred in number. While a handful of these were prosperous merchanu or other bourgtois, the great majority were craftsmen, shop keepers, and journeymen, drawn from a wide variety of trades and occupations, though predominantly from the building, furnishing, and luxurycrafts of the Faubourg Saint-Antoine and its adjoining districts.z At the Bastille, the unemployed country workers, whose influx into the capital had been one of the more striking manifestations of the economic crisis which heralded the Revolution, played little or no part j and wage-earners in general, even workshop journeymen, appear to have been in a distinct minority. Quite different was the composition of the crowds that burned down the customs posts between I I and 14 July and raided and sacked the monastery of the Saint Lazare brotherhood. on the 13th. At the bambu, as at the Bastille, there was a small number of bourgtois--even of nobles among the most prominent of the insurgents. The aristocratic adventurer, Musquinet de Saint-Felix, was seen at two of the hamtrts on the approaches to the Faubourg Saint-Marcel Among the incendiaries of two of the northern bamJres 'i1 y ell avait deux assez bien Vttus'. The leader ofthe rioters at champ 'avait l'air d'un seigneur'; at Passy, 'il etait vetu redingote blanche'. Among eighty persons for whose writs were subsequently issued by the Procureur-General, described as wearing 'un habit bleu et canne a pomme and another as being 'monte sur un cheval blanc'. Yet were exceptional and the description most often given of rioters by eyewitnesses was of roughly dressed men and of the people-local tradesmen, craftsmen and w"."·,,,""" , Sec pp. 3S If. above.
I
See Appendixes Ill-IV and pp. 58-!)9 above.
THE COMPOSITION OF REVOLUTIONAR Y CR OW DS
181 among whom wi . rchants and alJegedly professio glen were muchne-inmeeVI nal e but also wo king hOusewsmug_ . water-carriers buildi g 'denc lves d b from the neighbourin� a��iers ��;!a:�::� emPIOYed ; �edSu� . amt_ monastery, too the ' g and destruction seeLmsazare the main, to h�ve bewoe rk of I. �tIn , in out b small tradesmen, em played and unemploye� �:��rers! by craftsmen and joume en. h san� local poor rather than i �as, of course, unlike the two other episodes a ur�� lOC: T1 aff part in it were al'm!t allY;:1�e �nlr and the persons taking junction of the rue � an a.rea adjoining the � mtdu FaU Faubourg Saint-Lazare on theU��� m Do erus. and the rue du In the case of the �h to�ersal��les UlSkiru of the city,: on 5 October, which brought Louis XVI mar b o cap ita l, participants to enIight:� u� and the !here are no lists of arrested and killed are f: t ' Iie . police reports on those c u ns�:r:�::� : � �e�:����:!,� �a���� j7ur�e::� : � tes tIm on y vanous other re porters and es that t e Women ofofthe rkets both initiated the witness wh vem t f�r bread in Sepmatem October and plaole ber and � :; a t art in yed the o first P � great c ntingent that set out ;o;�e����es, but we ha ve als . o that no " the WOmen mar c h ' ers Iuded in addit. ion t0 the petted pn.vl·1eged stall-holders fishmc ty, -w " work ng d women ar , of .�n the kets, it� i h m well-dressed ourgto ( es flmmes a ch apeau', as Hardy called them) other women a;various social And Hardy in re ' and sses J e sight presentedcla by women cro�ding korti':fe�eencs�ang es of the Assembly at Veth� sailles, observed: r[Que) cet etrange spectacl d e l'e e:talt encore plus par ie piusieun; d'elles qui costume de avec v de femmes assez 'daisaient pendre sur leurs /::pponste�ents es Couteaux de chasseeieougam ernj sabres.. des, We know great deal less about th e 20,000 gardes naJioTU1llx that paraded inathe P la-, ... e G ' rev e tha d t �pparently reluctant Lafayette to mo�'ng and com�elled the d t e� to Versailles later In the evening in the wake 0f thIeeama rchmg women-but it , Arch. �at. Z'. ... r
��: ;
.
. • See pp . 73-7.5 above. '
•
• An:h : . Nat.,
Z' 4691.
Hillfdy, JmtmD/., viii. ,506.
180
THE ANATOMY OF THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD
by the threats that Reveillon had, either by implication or design, uttered against the workers' living standards at a time of acute shortage and high price of bread.I In a very real sense it may be claimed that the Paris revolu tion ofJuly 1789 was the work of a great part of the population as a whole: those under arms, may, as we have seen, have numbered as many as a quarter of a million. Yet the most active elements in the main episodes of that great upsurge were far fewer and are reasonably well known to us. The immediate a��ailants of the Bastille, most of whom were members of the newly formed National Guard, were only a few hundred in number. While a handful of these were prosperous merchanu or other bourgtois, the great majority were craftsmen, shop keepers, and journeymen, drawn from a wide variety of trades and occupations, though predominantly from the building, furnishing, and luxurycrafts of the Faubourg Saint-Antoine and its adjoining districts.z At the Bastille, the unemployed country workers, whose influx into the capital had been one of the more striking manifestations of the economic crisis which heralded the Revolution, played little or no part j and wage-earners in general, even workshop journeymen, appear to have been in a distinct minority. Quite different was the composition of the crowds that burned down the customs posts between I I and 14 July and raided and sacked the monastery of the Saint Lazare brotherhood. on the 13th. At the bambu, as at the Bastille, there was a small number of bourgtois--even of nobles among the most prominent of the insurgents. The aristocratic adventurer, Musquinet de Saint-Felix, was seen at two of the hamtrts on the approaches to the Faubourg Saint-Marcel Among the incendiaries of two of the northern bamJres 'i1 y ell avait deux assez bien Vttus'. The leader ofthe rioters at champ 'avait l'air d'un seigneur'; at Passy, 'il etait vetu redingote blanche'. Among eighty persons for whose writs were subsequently issued by the Procureur-General, described as wearing 'un habit bleu et canne a pomme and another as being 'monte sur un cheval blanc'. Yet were exceptional and the description most often given of rioters by eyewitnesses was of roughly dressed men and of the people-local tradesmen, craftsmen and w"."·,,,""" , Sec pp. 3S If. above.
I
See Appendixes Ill-IV and pp. 58-!)9 above.
THE COMPOSITION OF REVOLUTIONAR Y CR OW DS
181 among whom wi . rchants and alJegedly professio glen were muchne-inmeeVI nal e but also wo king hOusewsmug_ . water-carriers buildi g 'denc lves d b from the neighbourin� a��iers ��;!a:�::� emPIOYed ; �edSu� . amt_ monastery, too the ' g and destruction seeLmsazare the main, to h�ve bewoe rk of I. �tIn , in out b small tradesmen, em played and unemploye� �:��rers! by craftsmen and joume en. h san� local poor rather than i �as, of course, unlike the two other episodes a ur�� lOC: T1 aff part in it were al'm!t allY;:1�e �nlr and the persons taking junction of the rue � an a.rea adjoining the � mtdu FaU Faubourg Saint-Lazare on theU��� m Do erus. and the rue du In the case of the �h to�ersal��les UlSkiru of the city,: on 5 October, which brought Louis XVI mar b o cap ita l, participants to enIight:� u� and the !here are no lists of arrested and killed are f: t ' Iie . police reports on those c u ns�:r:�::� : � �e�:����:!,� �a���� j7ur�e::� : � tes tIm on y vanous other re porters and es that t e Women ofofthe rkets both initiated the witness wh vem t f�r bread in Sepmatem October and plaole ber and � :; a t art in yed the o first P � great c ntingent that set out ;o;�e����es, but we ha ve als . o that no " the WOmen mar c h ' ers Iuded in addit. ion t0 the petted pn.vl·1eged stall-holders fishmc ty, -w " work ng d women ar , of .�n the kets, it� i h m well-dressed ourgto ( es flmmes a ch apeau', as Hardy called them) other women a;various social And Hardy in re ' and sses J e sight presentedcla by women cro�ding korti':fe�eencs�ang es of the Assembly at Veth� sailles, observed: r[Que) cet etrange spectacl d e l'e e:talt encore plus par ie piusieun; d'elles qui costume de avec v de femmes assez 'daisaient pendre sur leurs /::pponste�ents es Couteaux de chasseeieougam ernj sabres.. des, We know great deal less about th e 20,000 gardes naJioTU1llx that paraded inathe P la-, ... e G ' rev e tha d t �pparently reluctant Lafayette to mo�'ng and com�elled the d t e� to Versailles later In the evening in the wake 0f thIeeama rchmg women-but it , Arch. �at. Z'. ... r
��: ;
.
. • See pp . 73-7.5 above. '
•
• An:h : . Nat.,
Z' 4691.
Hillfdy, JmtmD/., viii. ,506.
VO LU TI ON Y OF THE RE TH E AN AT OM
AR Y CROWD .
Pa s .1 . witnesses before the n evidence g Ve bY that VCr5ailles appears from tl:te ests made at o l u handf the from rs, cra . Ch:itelet and e workshop maste rc composcd o and Its they were once mo ine Saint.Anto en of t� Fa bourg n, un· occasio men, and j�ur�eym o Place on this t 1 Yet tral cen n adjoining dlstnc s. the of ves wi stal -h �de� and shin nt doubtedly goes to the eve r ila sim er any oth ent, more t an n the ld he markets . In this ev and t par g din men played t e lea the Revolution, wo . ou g ou thr centre of the stage that the popular Iu 0 1790 we saw After the prolonged . , democrats and the agItation f the movement, "ed by the . the spring of 1791. This slarted �p agal. l every Cordeliers Club. nvolving probably re wldespre � form. al politic t time it became mo. ly n a distinc S, and �oo in lrie pa one of the Paris SectIOn la de d d the aul the meetmg roun le op pe 0 Its culmination was 00 50 en 79 1 wh ' Mars on 1 7 ' the Champ de b the Cordeliers Club, . . 'pet�t1on dra s gathered to sign a Of the 6,000 person lon of Louis cal h ab the for declared g c callin was t". re martial law d the. petition bclo · who h ad slgne number couId great a fire llonale opencd . .' studded and the Garde Na on sheets were . n·le and the petiti v: r ind irect neither read no the From tures.1 ofsigna s In the pIace persona with circled crosse m that of some 250 lice reports we I.ea po the n autum evidence of and er 'umm lh... � ' aI charges dunng itself, a arrested on porllic stration demon the ded or k.illed 'm mainly self months, or woun the rest being , ers earn ge· wa re we lf ha r with a ove little nd petty traders n, shopke�pers, me fts cra clerks; yed plo em sional men, an s, bourgeoIS, pr es sprinkling of renlier y were v:o�en. lh'" ,,.. about one in twent ust 1 2 was like Tuil�nes iD Au g the on and The assault affair l mi i ary . rs earher, a �rg the Bastille twO yea . the Parisian atta e er carried out by orgamz . ingents from a numb vlsltmg C by d rte po sup , Guard been virtually wag�·earners had provincial cities. As reviously and a a ntll a few d from the Paris militi � nroned, we should . eptIOnal cases XI. would only in exc • Bucha Ct Roux, , See p. 77 abo...". 2 abo...c. For a fullcr V and pp. 90 my j ) Sec Ap�ndixeo IV_ . rioters of 1789-9' see . nlll the msurg� tiM. hlSf. . social composition of de t789 a 1791',
18.:1
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�
�
�
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;
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J:� �
:'vl.
d
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in,urr<:eUOII$ Composition sociale des -88. J,�1tf., no. 127, 1952, pp. 256-
����� �f �
�
par a l5lCf\nes .
l�
:'�����.
THE COMPOSITION OF REVOLUTIONARY CROWDS
183
expect the insurgents of 10 August to be as broadly representa. rive of the Parisian san.Huiottes as a whole as those involved in the political movement of 1791. Yet, from the lists of those applying for pensions for themselves or their dependents, we have seen that once more it was the sans·culottes of thefaubourgs
and markets that played the principal role : of 123 persons whose occupations appear on these lists, the great majority were
craftsmen, shopkeepers, journeymen, and 'general' workers, wage·earners accounting for about two-fifths of the total. 1
M far as we can tell from incomplete records, the crowds taking part in the food riots of the early months of 1792
and 1793 were of a somewhat different complexion. These
were, it may be remembered, more or less spontaneous out· bursts directed against provision merchants, particularly
grocers, at times ofsteeply rising prices. Not surprisingly, women
were much in evidence in these disturbances : grocers' depositions spoke of cohorts of women invading their shops, and laundresses and market·women of the Faubourg Saint. Marcel were picked out for special mention. One woman,
Agnes Bernard by name, was sentenced to two years' prison for her part in the riots of 1793;2 yet the number of women actually arrested-about one in eight of the prisoners-does not fully reflect the part played by them in these episodes. Another
feature was the comparatively large number of cooks and domestic servants that were involved; and of the wage·eamers arrested (some three·fifths of those appearing in the records), the majority were, in fact, servants, porters, and other un·
skilled or general workers rather than journeymen of the traditional crafts.l
Both women and craftsmen reappear in large numbers in the great popular revolt against Robespierre's Thermidorian suc·
cessors in Prairial of the Year III (May 1 795)' In this respect
there is a remarkable resemblance between this outbreak and that of October 1789, when Parisians marched to Versailles
with the double object of protesting against the shortage of
bread and of bringing the king back to the capital. In both , See Appendix IV and pp. IQ5-6 a!x",e. , A,ch. dep. Seine.el-Oille, llerieo B, Tribunal Crimine] de VcrsaiUeo, May 1793. , See Ap�ndix IV and G. Rude, 'Lea tmeutes des 25, 26 ftwier 1793', Amr. Itut. Rh.frmlf., no. 130, 1953, pp. 46-51 .
VO LU TI ON Y OF THE RE TH E AN AT OM
AR Y CROWD .
Pa s .1 . witnesses before the n evidence g Ve bY that VCr5ailles appears from tl:te ests made at o l u handf the from rs, cra . Ch:itelet and e workshop maste rc composcd o and Its they were once mo ine Saint.Anto en of t� Fa bourg n, un· occasio men, and j�ur�eym o Place on this t 1 Yet tral cen n adjoining dlstnc s. the of ves wi stal -h �de� and shin nt doubtedly goes to the eve r ila sim er any oth ent, more t an n the ld he markets . In this ev and t par g din men played t e lea the Revolution, wo . ou g ou thr centre of the stage that the popular Iu 0 1790 we saw After the prolonged . , democrats and the agItation f the movement, "ed by the . the spring of 1791. This slarted �p agal. l every Cordeliers Club. nvolving probably re wldespre � form. al politic t time it became mo. ly n a distinc S, and �oo in lrie pa one of the Paris SectIOn la de d d the aul the meetmg roun le op pe 0 Its culmination was 00 50 en 79 1 wh ' Mars on 1 7 ' the Champ de b the Cordeliers Club, . . 'pet�t1on dra s gathered to sign a Of the 6,000 person lon of Louis cal h ab the for declared g c callin was t". re martial law d the. petition bclo · who h ad slgne number couId great a fire llonale opencd . .' studded and the Garde Na on sheets were . n·le and the petiti v: r ind irect neither read no the From tures.1 ofsigna s In the pIace persona with circled crosse m that of some 250 lice reports we I.ea po the n autum evidence of and er 'umm lh... � ' aI charges dunng itself, a arrested on porllic stration demon the ded or k.illed 'm mainly self months, or woun the rest being , ers earn ge· wa re we lf ha r with a ove little nd petty traders n, shopke�pers, me fts cra clerks; yed plo em sional men, an s, bourgeoIS, pr es sprinkling of renlier y were v:o�en. lh'" ,,.. about one in twent ust 1 2 was like Tuil�nes iD Au g the on and The assault affair l mi i ary . rs earher, a �rg the Bastille twO yea . the Parisian atta e er carried out by orgamz . ingents from a numb vlsltmg C by d rte po sup , Guard been virtually wag�·earners had provincial cities. As reviously and a a ntll a few d from the Paris militi � nroned, we should . eptIOnal cases XI. would only in exc • Bucha Ct Roux, , See p. 77 abo...". 2 abo...c. For a fullcr V and pp. 90 my j ) Sec Ap�ndixeo IV_ . rioters of 1789-9' see . nlll the msurg� tiM. hlSf. . social composition of de t789 a 1791',
18.:1
�
�
�
�
� �
�
;;�
;
fi
�
0
� � �
J:� �
:'vl.
d
�;
�?
in,urr<:eUOII$ Composition sociale des -88. J,�1tf., no. 127, 1952, pp. 256-
����� �f �
�
par a l5lCf\nes .
l�
:'�����.
THE COMPOSITION OF REVOLUTIONARY CROWDS
183
expect the insurgents of 10 August to be as broadly representa. rive of the Parisian san.Huiottes as a whole as those involved in the political movement of 1791. Yet, from the lists of those applying for pensions for themselves or their dependents, we have seen that once more it was the sans·culottes of thefaubourgs
and markets that played the principal role : of 123 persons whose occupations appear on these lists, the great majority were
craftsmen, shopkeepers, journeymen, and 'general' workers, wage·earners accounting for about two-fifths of the total. 1
M far as we can tell from incomplete records, the crowds taking part in the food riots of the early months of 1792
and 1793 were of a somewhat different complexion. These
were, it may be remembered, more or less spontaneous out· bursts directed against provision merchants, particularly
grocers, at times ofsteeply rising prices. Not surprisingly, women
were much in evidence in these disturbances : grocers' depositions spoke of cohorts of women invading their shops, and laundresses and market·women of the Faubourg Saint. Marcel were picked out for special mention. One woman,
Agnes Bernard by name, was sentenced to two years' prison for her part in the riots of 1793;2 yet the number of women actually arrested-about one in eight of the prisoners-does not fully reflect the part played by them in these episodes. Another
feature was the comparatively large number of cooks and domestic servants that were involved; and of the wage·eamers arrested (some three·fifths of those appearing in the records), the majority were, in fact, servants, porters, and other un·
skilled or general workers rather than journeymen of the traditional crafts.l
Both women and craftsmen reappear in large numbers in the great popular revolt against Robespierre's Thermidorian suc·
cessors in Prairial of the Year III (May 1 795)' In this respect
there is a remarkable resemblance between this outbreak and that of October 1789, when Parisians marched to Versailles
with the double object of protesting against the shortage of
bread and of bringing the king back to the capital. In both , See Appendix IV and pp. IQ5-6 a!x",e. , A,ch. dep. Seine.el-Oille, llerieo B, Tribunal Crimine] de VcrsaiUeo, May 1793. , See Ap�ndix IV and G. Rude, 'Lea tmeutes des 25, 26 ftwier 1793', Amr. Itut. Rh.frmlf., no. 130, 1953, pp. 46-51 .
IS.
D THE ANATOMY OF THE REVOLUTIONARY CROW
w cases the women of the markets and'faubourgs played a signifi en en craftsm and men trades of cant part and an insurrection roUed in battalions of the National Guard foUowed c1oseI� �)D �al the heels of a women's revolt for bread. In the case of Pral king t �or ted a ns civilia of lists the � in ed reflect � this feature is of part in the disturbances: alongside a substantJal mmonty ndent indepe women we find a prevalence of workshop masters, craftsmen, and journeymen of a wide variety of trades.' From this brief review we may note both the com�on feature and certain significant differences in the composlbon of t�e rioten and insurgents of this period. Th� common feature 11, ofcoune, the predominance ofsaru..t.aJo te.s In all but ooe of these joumies. Yet other social elements played some part: overw whelmingly so in Vendemiaire of the Year IV; bU,t �ere were also small groups of bourgeois, renlitrs, merchants, ClVlI servants, and professional men engaged in the d�tructi�n of the barriJre: us (possibly as direct agents of the Orleamst facbon at the Pah Mars de Champ Royal) in the capture of the Bastille, the affair 'the assault on the Tuileries, and in the outbreak of Prairlal.1 Women, as we have seen, were particularly in eviden�e in the march to Versailles, the food riots of 1792-3, and In Prairial, This is, of course, not altogether surprising, � in these episodes food prices and other bread and butter questions were well to the fore; we find women playing a less conspicuo� p.art in such an essentially political movement as t�at culnunau�g in the 'massacre' ofthe Champ de Mars-less sbll, of co�rse, 10 largely military operations like the assaults o� the �asulle a?d the Tuileries and in the expUlsion of the Glrondm deputies from the Convention, Again, while wage-earners played a substantial part on all these occasions, the only imp?rtant out break in which they appear to have clearly predommated was the Reveillon riots,in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine. The re�n for this is not hard to find: though it cannot be termed a stnke or a wages movement (Reveillon's own workers do not �ppe� to have been engaged), it was the only �ne of thes� acuons 10 which there is the slightest trace of a direct �nfl�ct between workers and employers. It is also no doubt slgmficant that craftsmen-whether masters, independent craftsmen, or journeymen-were more conspicuously in evidence in some of , Sec Appendixes IV-V.
• Sec Appendix IV.
THE COMPOSITION OF REVOLUTIONARY CROW DS
185
thejoumies than in others. This seems particularly to have been �e case w�en a district of small crafts became substantially , , 1Ovolved-like the Cite 10 the riots of 1787 and 1788 or the Faubourg Saint-Antoine on various other occasions; but it also appears to have been a feature of the more organized, politic al movements-such as the Champ de Mars affair and the armed attacks on the Bastille and the Tuileries-when the driving element was no doubt the small shopkeepers and works hop , masters who, !n many cases, brought their gar;ons, journeymen , and apprenuces along with them. In this connexion it is perhaps of interest to note the sustained militancy of memb ers of certain trades s,uch as furnishing, building, metal-work, and dr�, Most COnspiCUOUS of all were the locksmiths, joiners and ca�1Oet-maktrs, shoemakers, and tailors ; others frequently in eVIdence were stone-masons, hairdressers, and engravers; and, of those e?gaged in less skilful occupations, wine-merchants, water-camers, porters, cooks, and domestic servants, Work ers employ�d in manufa�tories (textiles, glass, tobacco, tapest ries, porcelain) played, With the exception of the gauze-workers 'a relatively inconspicuous role in these movements,' A study ofthese records confirms the traditional view that the par� of Pa� most fr�quently and wholeheartedly engaged in th� nots an? I nsurrecU?DS ofthe Revolution were the Faubourgs �alnt-Antome a?d Satnt Marcel. This is strikingly borne out � �n, t�e case of Sa:II�t-Anto1Oe, whose craftsmen and journeymen Imtt�ted and dommated the Reveillon riots, the capture of the Bastille, and the overthrow of the monarchy, and played an outstanding part in the revolution of May-June 1793 and the popular revolt o� Prairial; the police reports suggest, in fact, , was only In the that It events of 1787-8 and in the Champ de Mars affair �at Saint-Antoine played little or no part. The Faubourg Salnt-Marcel, on the other hand, while it contri buted substantially to the commotions of September-October 1788 and was represented by a score ofvoluntetrs at the siege of the , B�ulIe, only began to play a really conspicuous role in the spnng and summer of 1791. After this the part it played was
, See Appendix, IV, We have noted, of course, the particular militancy of the workers engaged on the Qulitrl d'_1 in '794 and the early months of 1795 f�e lIP, 134, '36, '45-0 above); but thcsc wen:: generally fOmler JOiners, and metal·workers from Imall worbhop$ of whom mentio locksmiths, n hal already been made,
IS.
D THE ANATOMY OF THE REVOLUTIONARY CROW
w cases the women of the markets and'faubourgs played a signifi en en craftsm and men trades of cant part and an insurrection roUed in battalions of the National Guard foUowed c1oseI� �)D �al the heels of a women's revolt for bread. In the case of Pral king t �or ted a ns civilia of lists the � in ed reflect � this feature is of part in the disturbances: alongside a substantJal mmonty ndent indepe women we find a prevalence of workshop masters, craftsmen, and journeymen of a wide variety of trades.' From this brief review we may note both the com�on feature and certain significant differences in the composlbon of t�e rioten and insurgents of this period. Th� common feature 11, ofcoune, the predominance ofsaru..t.aJo te.s In all but ooe of these joumies. Yet other social elements played some part: overw whelmingly so in Vendemiaire of the Year IV; bU,t �ere were also small groups of bourgeois, renlitrs, merchants, ClVlI servants, and professional men engaged in the d�tructi�n of the barriJre: us (possibly as direct agents of the Orleamst facbon at the Pah Mars de Champ Royal) in the capture of the Bastille, the affair 'the assault on the Tuileries, and in the outbreak of Prairlal.1 Women, as we have seen, were particularly in eviden�e in the march to Versailles, the food riots of 1792-3, and In Prairial, This is, of course, not altogether surprising, � in these episodes food prices and other bread and butter questions were well to the fore; we find women playing a less conspicuo� p.art in such an essentially political movement as t�at culnunau�g in the 'massacre' ofthe Champ de Mars-less sbll, of co�rse, 10 largely military operations like the assaults o� the �asulle a?d the Tuileries and in the expUlsion of the Glrondm deputies from the Convention, Again, while wage-earners played a substantial part on all these occasions, the only imp?rtant out break in which they appear to have clearly predommated was the Reveillon riots,in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine. The re�n for this is not hard to find: though it cannot be termed a stnke or a wages movement (Reveillon's own workers do not �ppe� to have been engaged), it was the only �ne of thes� acuons 10 which there is the slightest trace of a direct �nfl�ct between workers and employers. It is also no doubt slgmficant that craftsmen-whether masters, independent craftsmen, or journeymen-were more conspicuously in evidence in some of , Sec Appendixes IV-V.
• Sec Appendix IV.
THE COMPOSITION OF REVOLUTIONARY CROW DS
185
thejoumies than in others. This seems particularly to have been �e case w�en a district of small crafts became substantially , , 1Ovolved-like the Cite 10 the riots of 1787 and 1788 or the Faubourg Saint-Antoine on various other occasions; but it also appears to have been a feature of the more organized, politic al movements-such as the Champ de Mars affair and the armed attacks on the Bastille and the Tuileries-when the driving element was no doubt the small shopkeepers and works hop , masters who, !n many cases, brought their gar;ons, journeymen , and apprenuces along with them. In this connexion it is perhaps of interest to note the sustained militancy of memb ers of certain trades s,uch as furnishing, building, metal-work, and dr�, Most COnspiCUOUS of all were the locksmiths, joiners and ca�1Oet-maktrs, shoemakers, and tailors ; others frequently in eVIdence were stone-masons, hairdressers, and engravers; and, of those e?gaged in less skilful occupations, wine-merchants, water-camers, porters, cooks, and domestic servants, Work ers employ�d in manufa�tories (textiles, glass, tobacco, tapest ries, porcelain) played, With the exception of the gauze-workers 'a relatively inconspicuous role in these movements,' A study ofthese records confirms the traditional view that the par� of Pa� most fr�quently and wholeheartedly engaged in th� nots an? I nsurrecU?DS ofthe Revolution were the Faubourgs �alnt-Antome a?d Satnt Marcel. This is strikingly borne out � �n, t�e case of Sa:II�t-Anto1Oe, whose craftsmen and journeymen Imtt�ted and dommated the Reveillon riots, the capture of the Bastille, and the overthrow of the monarchy, and played an outstanding part in the revolution of May-June 1793 and the popular revolt o� Prairial; the police reports suggest, in fact, , was only In the that It events of 1787-8 and in the Champ de Mars affair �at Saint-Antoine played little or no part. The Faubourg Salnt-Marcel, on the other hand, while it contri buted substantially to the commotions of September-October 1788 and was represented by a score ofvoluntetrs at the siege of the , B�ulIe, only began to play a really conspicuous role in the spnng and summer of 1791. After this the part it played was
, See Appendix, IV, We have noted, of course, the particular militancy of the workers engaged on the Qulitrl d'_1 in '794 and the early months of 1795 f�e lIP, 134, '36, '45-0 above); but thcsc wen:: generally fOmler JOiners, and metal·workers from Imall worbhop$ of whom mentio locksmiths, n hal already been made,
I86
THE ANATOMY OF THE REVOLUTIONARY C
OWD �
' t-Antoine in the revoluuons 0f second only to that of Sam August 1792 and May-June ' 93. and in the days oCPrairial. l
:' �� �
In Vendemiaire, of course, P Hem was quite different. erates' had by now taken Although propeny-owners aD . S tet� charge of even th poPular lOns, 1, was not they but the . Sec�OJ traditional 0f Le detice (Bibliotheque) and
�
bourgeou
;:
�
at took the lead and held Butte des Moulins (PaialS oyaI) . . . . . lly-it was the Quinze •: the Imtl auve, Wh,·ie--c.haractensuca . . . spakllc Vingts in the Faubourg Samt-Antome Which alone di . 1... d a contingent of armed volunteers to oppose the counter-revoIutionary rehels.
. . . But even If It can �e demonstrated that the overwhelrrung , . aIl but the last of the revolumajority of the partl.Clp��ts m -
journles
sans
� :n in revolutlOnary crowds �;Vt:�d�men, wage.earners, and city .
poor, inSisted, neverthel�, that the dominant element �mong . In View of is• and them were the panic·fear engendered �mong l r e and small property. owners by vagran", petty thieves, and nemployed at different . . that sueh . e haps not surpnsmg stages of the Revolutio , . l ertainly voiced on more than a charge should be m� e .. I . one occasion by hosule Journ�lists' memorialists, and pohce . authorities of the day. Yet, In ItS application to the capital at
ens sans avtU.l
vagabonds, mml1l�
; .1\ :� �
�
�
. . See Ap�ndix III. ACC(lrdmg 0 the records aamined other fairly eoDSUl�ently 1 . . .n Ho i Ar the tel de V lle,lueh til '�volutionary' Sections wen: th_ �dJO' al a �� : :' h Ii'! Louvre, Oratoi�, M l!colliel. Arsenal, and certain c.entra� �UOrll � March� oa da Innocenti" GravdlJen, and Loml»rdt-with occasional It king outn hurstl ofmilitancy from Temp e, Bondy and Faubourg MonunartN: in the north . . w;' t h the and from Invalida in the -outh.w t. W are of course, only dcahng . � . active participation of Sect�ons, or rge ou� of individual. within SecIJ� In � No accounl h.l..!. therefore, been ta � 'trttt demonstration. and 'IUUrrecu���g here of such purely p repa nary initiative til shown, for "",amp\e In ....tory 'Con�il tttion There j A ril 1793 by the Halle au BI� an S ii, in fact, no� OJ(: s. . . bly in the cue: of the Fau urg e!cordance (e�ecpt for brief Jl:C" nods a d Saint·Antoine) between the . in �e Seclional committee room � �f �titions and raoluli n. eral asscmbly--often ta ng o � �d � o rs d . 1.1 enl:S resident n !�er bodia-and that of demo.....tra.l i " . e sa m . .,� w ..-; I m= �n of the two, except for a II be bccaUJ<': the X>Cl& Section. Thll may we . · I .ki ng y diffe",nt. in 1793-4, w.. .trl . b ef ...riod n• . . Ta yinc, op. Cit. • • I. ' 8,4', " _,., 8', 130,135.. P. Gaxolle, LA RlurXlI1_!,,'tIflJU4, pp. 112, '33-4, 146. 1
��
�;
�
m�'�;! ��;:i�
THE COMPOSITIO N
OF REVOLUTION ARY CROW
DS 187 least, it has little foundation in fact Among . the Sixty-eight persons arrested, wounded, and killed in the Reveillon riots whom details are for available, there were only three withou abode-a cobbler, t fixed a carter, and a nav vy. I Of nearly ei scheduled for arrest ghty after the burning of the arrested for breaking and four the windows of the Barriere Saint.O all were of fixed abode enis, and OCcupation.: Of some sixty perso arrested at the time ns ofthe looting ofthe Saint.Lazare monas in July 1 789, nine tery were unemployed workers withou t abode, who were fixed caught up in the general drag-net directed against vagrants, aveu, and dwellers in lodging-hou at the time of the ses JUly revolution, and probab ly had no direct connexion with this affair at all.l Every one of the 662 Bastille and of those claiming compensatio n for themselves and their depende nts in August 1792 was of fixed abode settled occupation.4 and In the weeks preced ing the Champ de demonstration one Mars beggar was arrested for abusing the and queen, another king for applaUding their flight from Paris, and two more for causing a disturbance and insulting the Natio Guard; three other nal persons are described as being sans rest ofthe 250 arrested the during this period appe ar to have been settled abode.$ Noris of there any mention in the records ofvagr or beggars among ants those arrested in Germinal and Prairia Year III; nor, even l of the more surprisingly perhaps, among those implicated in the grocery riots of 1 792 and 1 793. Doubtl these elements mingle ess d with the rioters and insurgents on such occasions, and we know that they caused Concern to the Paris Electors during the revolution of July 1 789 ;6 but they appear to have played an altogether minor role in these movements. This does not mean, of Course, that unempl oyed workers or workers and crafts men living in furnishe d rOOms or lodgin houses (the often g. despised did nOI form a stantial elem( :It in sub_ revolutionary crowds. This was particularly the case in Ihe early years of the Revoluti on, when, quite apart from the influx of workless countrymen, there was considerable unemployment in a large number of Parisian crafts ; I Arc this,
barribu
gens sans
de la
vainqfJeUrs
Itat;
non-domicilils)
h. Nat., Y 18795, fola. .. .. . Arch. Nat., Z" 886; Y 'o6 --62
f9, fol. 18. , Ibid., fob. �o-1 - 1. 4 Aren. Nat., T 5141; Arch. Pr�r. Pol., � p. 3�6g-74; F' 44�6. 167, fol. 5 ' ; '57, fol. • P,�h'lInNJ tkJ scIanas • . . tit 1'�DnMit 134; Ab 314, pp. 1�9, 32, 36, 37. tnuroU tin Ekc/t1i'J tk P",;s, Ii. 156 If. •
J
I86
THE ANATOMY OF THE REVOLUTIONARY C
OWD �
' t-Antoine in the revoluuons 0f second only to that of Sam August 1792 and May-June ' 93. and in the days oCPrairial. l
:' �� �
In Vendemiaire, of course, P Hem was quite different. erates' had by now taken Although propeny-owners aD . S tet� charge of even th poPular lOns, 1, was not they but the . Sec�OJ traditional 0f Le detice (Bibliotheque) and
�
bourgeou
;:
�
at took the lead and held Butte des Moulins (PaialS oyaI) . . . . . lly-it was the Quinze •: the Imtl auve, Wh,·ie--c.haractensuca . . . spakllc Vingts in the Faubourg Samt-Antome Which alone di . 1... d a contingent of armed volunteers to oppose the counter-revoIutionary rehels.
. . . But even If It can �e demonstrated that the overwhelrrung , . aIl but the last of the revolumajority of the partl.Clp��ts m -
journles
sans
� :n in revolutlOnary crowds �;Vt:�d�men, wage.earners, and city .
poor, inSisted, neverthel�, that the dominant element �mong . In View of is• and them were the panic·fear engendered �mong l r e and small property. owners by vagran", petty thieves, and nemployed at different . . that sueh . e haps not surpnsmg stages of the Revolutio , . l ertainly voiced on more than a charge should be m� e .. I . one occasion by hosule Journ�lists' memorialists, and pohce . authorities of the day. Yet, In ItS application to the capital at
ens sans avtU.l
vagabonds, mml1l�
; .1\ :� �
�
�
. . See Ap�ndix III. ACC(lrdmg 0 the records aamined other fairly eoDSUl�ently 1 . . .n Ho i Ar the tel de V lle,lueh til '�volutionary' Sections wen: th_ �dJO' al a �� : :' h Ii'! Louvre, Oratoi�, M l!colliel. Arsenal, and certain c.entra� �UOrll � March� oa da Innocenti" GravdlJen, and Loml»rdt-with occasional It king outn hurstl ofmilitancy from Temp e, Bondy and Faubourg MonunartN: in the north . . w;' t h the and from Invalida in the -outh.w t. W are of course, only dcahng . � . active participation of Sect�ons, or rge ou� of individual. within SecIJ� In � No accounl h.l..!. therefore, been ta � 'trttt demonstration. and 'IUUrrecu���g here of such purely p repa nary initiative til shown, for "",amp\e In ....tory 'Con�il tttion There j A ril 1793 by the Halle au BI� an S ii, in fact, no� OJ(: s. . . bly in the cue: of the Fau urg e!cordance (e�ecpt for brief Jl:C" nods a d Saint·Antoine) between the . in �e Seclional committee room � �f �titions and raoluli n. eral asscmbly--often ta ng o � �d � o rs d . 1.1 enl:S resident n !�er bodia-and that of demo.....tra.l i " . e sa m . .,� w ..-; I m= �n of the two, except for a II be bccaUJ<': the X>Cl& Section. Thll may we . · I .ki ng y diffe",nt. in 1793-4, w.. .trl . b ef ...riod n• . . Ta yinc, op. Cit. • • I. ' 8,4', " _,., 8', 130,135.. P. Gaxolle, LA RlurXlI1_!,,'tIflJU4, pp. 112, '33-4, 146. 1
��
�;
�
m�'�;! ��;:i�
THE COMPOSITIO N
OF REVOLUTION ARY CROW
DS 187 least, it has little foundation in fact Among . the Sixty-eight persons arrested, wounded, and killed in the Reveillon riots whom details are for available, there were only three withou abode-a cobbler, t fixed a carter, and a nav vy. I Of nearly ei scheduled for arrest ghty after the burning of the arrested for breaking and four the windows of the Barriere Saint.O all were of fixed abode enis, and OCcupation.: Of some sixty perso arrested at the time ns ofthe looting ofthe Saint.Lazare monas in July 1 789, nine tery were unemployed workers withou t abode, who were fixed caught up in the general drag-net directed against vagrants, aveu, and dwellers in lodging-hou at the time of the ses JUly revolution, and probab ly had no direct connexion with this affair at all.l Every one of the 662 Bastille and of those claiming compensatio n for themselves and their depende nts in August 1792 was of fixed abode settled occupation.4 and In the weeks preced ing the Champ de demonstration one Mars beggar was arrested for abusing the and queen, another king for applaUding their flight from Paris, and two more for causing a disturbance and insulting the Natio Guard; three other nal persons are described as being sans rest ofthe 250 arrested the during this period appe ar to have been settled abode.$ Noris of there any mention in the records ofvagr or beggars among ants those arrested in Germinal and Prairia Year III; nor, even l of the more surprisingly perhaps, among those implicated in the grocery riots of 1 792 and 1 793. Doubtl these elements mingle ess d with the rioters and insurgents on such occasions, and we know that they caused Concern to the Paris Electors during the revolution of July 1 789 ;6 but they appear to have played an altogether minor role in these movements. This does not mean, of Course, that unempl oyed workers or workers and crafts men living in furnishe d rOOms or lodgin houses (the often g. despised did nOI form a stantial elem( :It in sub_ revolutionary crowds. This was particularly the case in Ihe early years of the Revoluti on, when, quite apart from the influx of workless countrymen, there was considerable unemployment in a large number of Parisian crafts ; I Arc this,
barribu
gens sans
de la
vainqfJeUrs
Itat;
non-domicilils)
h. Nat., Y 18795, fola. .. .. . Arch. Nat., Z" 886; Y 'o6 --62
f9, fol. 18. , Ibid., fob. �o-1 - 1. 4 Aren. Nat., T 5141; Arch. Pr�r. Pol., � p. 3�6g-74; F' 44�6. 167, fol. 5 ' ; '57, fol. • P,�h'lInNJ tkJ scIanas • . . tit 1'�DnMit 134; Ab 314, pp. 1�9, 32, 36, 37. tnuroU tin Ekc/t1i'J tk P",;s, Ii. 156 If. •
J
LUTIONARY CROWD THE ANATOMY OF THE REVO
188
n of 179 1 • however, beca1'J)e a declining factor after the autum . ded In
or wou� We find that eight of some fifty worken arrested prc:'poru?n was the that and loyed unemp were riots lon Reveil the lO wIth the somewhat higher among those arrested in cOnne� ? clrcurrutan. 1.5 there Champ de Mars affair.! In July 1789, too, . Journc:y• en, craftsm loyed tial evidence to suggest that unemp attlfets en and labourers (only a handful of whom were from the on assault the in part took that those ritJ) were among 'h� . were sums ua substan that le, � examp for Bastille: we know, . of the ed after the fall of the fortress to relieve the distress d the etitione later who utters stone·c 900 of that, p ;:Shollrg and to have claimed several relief, t loymen unemp for ly Assemb that unem· been present at its capture.� We have seen, too, . played a chanti e d ployed workers from neighbouring aIllins raid on the and s certain part in the destruction of the harrib'e a sub ormed f ieiliis non·dom the Saint.Lazare monastery.) The and en, craftsm s,?,a , arners wage·e ? stantial proportion of the un the to hrrut means no by , � capital �m. petty traders of the me e t of fiction a was it though � ers, labour � played or casual als, rovInCI for only ed provid garnu or p that the /Wul the foreigners, cut.throats, thieves, and gens sans aueu : mdeed, to l�w by logeurs or tenants of such premises were compelled pohce the to �n keep a daily check and to give a daily repo�. surp� hardty 1.5 It rs! all their lodgers.• In view of their numbe taking ing to find them fairly well represente� among those arrested of four m one s perhap part in these disturbances�s de la_ in the Reveillon affair, one in ten among the lIatnqueu With the Bastille one in five of those most actively concerned arrest� those of �ix i one and ent, movem ? Mars de Cham qUIte and jailed in the grocery riots.' But thU 15, of course, a
�
maison
�ose
p
, See Appendix V . . op. cit., !lnd Knel, v. Wo. • An:h. Nat., C t34, doD.6, rolt. 14-1,5; S. Lacroix,
•
See pp. 180-1 above. 1789, pp. III, n. 5; 419, n. 4· • • . idli/s period in which the rrtm-fIom • In the eeruus of 1795-the only cc:nsw ofthe IIIU Un '��1IU7I M.euriot, are accounted for-they number 9,7911 for 115 Seetions (P. raullng the ich wu d iU fur 11 P. 32)' but this was a period of malt exodus, wh (1. de la Monneraye. hOlds ..,'d lodgi�g.houses of a large part o.f their �Clidents !!I 13). L4 eriu ill wpnwU d Paril penJaN III RlI1IIiIltIOlt (Pam, 19118) � pp. -: . lud I 1151 of the Mill' d a dix V To take a random sample from M , Sec A , Boicharnp one with lodged tinamith, A. Lamoureu.x a S iU keeper of the roe de Lappe; Marc-Anu:nne Saint·Paul. a tnaI�er cel; Jean Gabnel, fisherman, lived in a lodging.hOUlt in the Faubourg Saint-Mar 4 Monin, PfIris til
�7:.stilu: J. r:;"ging-howe
THE COMPO SITION OF REVOLUTION ARY CROWDS
ISg
separate question from that of Taine's gens sans alJelJ and gives no further indication of the number of vagrants involve d. The further contention that criminals and bandits played a signi�cant part in the revolutionary journies collaps es no less readily when looked at more closely. The police in cross examining their prisoners habitually inquired whether they had served previous tet'llU of imprisonment and it was easy enough to verify whether, as in the case of more serious offences, they had been branded w�th the notorious V of the thiefor G ofthe galley• . conVlct . The eight commissioners examining the Reveillon priso�e� were able t? find only three who had incurre d previous . two conVicUons of any kind-m cases these had involved short tenos of detention in the Hotel de la Force on minor charges whereas the port·worker Teteigne was found to be brande d a V.I Yet such a case is exceptional. Of those arreste d for looting the Saint·Lazare monastery only one had served a prison sentence-the butcher's boy Quatrevaux, who had spent seventeen days in the Force on a previous convict ion.l Not one of the twenty·one arrested for the murder of Chatel a municipal officer, during a food riot at Saint-Denis i� August 1789, appears to have had a criminal record; and only three of fifteen arrested in a similar disturbance at Versail les in September had served previous sentences--one for stealing four p�ec� of wood in 788 and two for minor breaches of army dlSC1pli, ne.J Of some 150 persons arrested in the Paris Section s for political offences during the months preceding and follow. ing the Champ de Mars affair, only four appear to have served previous sentences, and these, again, were of a trivial nature .• Not one of the thirty·nine tried in the Year IV for alleged com plicity in the September massacres had appeared in court bef ore.5 Such information is, unfortunately, not available for the other great jollrnies of the Revolution; yet this evidence, as far as it goes, is overwhelming and should prove conclusive. By and
with
J
a printet", lod� with a wine-merchant orthe rue de Pllue, offlhe Plue Maubert· and Gamhi and Semain, rivenide worken, lodged al the H6tel de Chiloru in th; rue du Figuier in the parUh of Saint-Paul (Arch. Nal., T 5141). r Arch. Nat., Y 1,5101, 13454. • Ar<:h. Nat., Z' 46g1. • Nat., Y 10497; Arch. dq,. Seine-et-Oix, teriCi B, PJiv6lt de j'H6td du Ro•. Proo!dura, '78g, fob. 7--21. 4 Ar<:b'. Pr�f. Pol., Aa 137, foil. '71-8; 173, foil. 114, 115�; !lIS, fob. 451-!l. See abo Appendix V. f p. Caron, us Mamv:ru iU up""""', p. I I I .
�.
LUTIONARY CROWD THE ANATOMY OF THE REVO
188
n of 179 1 • however, beca1'J)e a declining factor after the autum . ded In
or wou� We find that eight of some fifty worken arrested prc:'poru?n was the that and loyed unemp were riots lon Reveil the lO wIth the somewhat higher among those arrested in cOnne� ? clrcurrutan. 1.5 there Champ de Mars affair.! In July 1789, too, . Journc:y• en, craftsm loyed tial evidence to suggest that unemp attlfets en and labourers (only a handful of whom were from the on assault the in part took that those ritJ) were among 'h� . were sums ua substan that le, � examp for Bastille: we know, . of the ed after the fall of the fortress to relieve the distress d the etitione later who utters stone·c 900 of that, p ;:Shollrg and to have claimed several relief, t loymen unemp for ly Assemb that unem· been present at its capture.� We have seen, too, . played a chanti e d ployed workers from neighbouring aIllins raid on the and s certain part in the destruction of the harrib'e a sub ormed f ieiliis non·dom the Saint.Lazare monastery.) The and en, craftsm s,?,a , arners wage·e ? stantial proportion of the un the to hrrut means no by , � capital �m. petty traders of the me e t of fiction a was it though � ers, labour � played or casual als, rovInCI for only ed provid garnu or p that the /Wul the foreigners, cut.throats, thieves, and gens sans aueu : mdeed, to l�w by logeurs or tenants of such premises were compelled pohce the to �n keep a daily check and to give a daily repo�. surp� hardty 1.5 It rs! all their lodgers.• In view of their numbe taking ing to find them fairly well represente� among those arrested of four m one s perhap part in these disturbances�s de la_ in the Reveillon affair, one in ten among the lIatnqueu With the Bastille one in five of those most actively concerned arrest� those of �ix i one and ent, movem ? Mars de Cham qUIte and jailed in the grocery riots.' But thU 15, of course, a
�
maison
�ose
p
, See Appendix V . . op. cit., !lnd Knel, v. Wo. • An:h. Nat., C t34, doD.6, rolt. 14-1,5; S. Lacroix,
•
See pp. 180-1 above. 1789, pp. III, n. 5; 419, n. 4· • • . idli/s period in which the rrtm-fIom • In the eeruus of 1795-the only cc:nsw ofthe IIIU Un '��1IU7I M.euriot, are accounted for-they number 9,7911 for 115 Seetions (P. raullng the ich wu d iU fur 11 P. 32)' but this was a period of malt exodus, wh (1. de la Monneraye. hOlds ..,'d lodgi�g.houses of a large part o.f their �Clidents !!I 13). L4 eriu ill wpnwU d Paril penJaN III RlI1IIiIltIOlt (Pam, 19118) � pp. -: . lud I 1151 of the Mill' d a dix V To take a random sample from M , Sec A , Boicharnp one with lodged tinamith, A. Lamoureu.x a S iU keeper of the roe de Lappe; Marc-Anu:nne Saint·Paul. a tnaI�er cel; Jean Gabnel, fisherman, lived in a lodging.hOUlt in the Faubourg Saint-Mar 4 Monin, PfIris til
�7:.stilu: J. r:;"ging-howe
THE COMPO SITION OF REVOLUTION ARY CROWDS
ISg
separate question from that of Taine's gens sans alJelJ and gives no further indication of the number of vagrants involve d. The further contention that criminals and bandits played a signi�cant part in the revolutionary journies collaps es no less readily when looked at more closely. The police in cross examining their prisoners habitually inquired whether they had served previous tet'llU of imprisonment and it was easy enough to verify whether, as in the case of more serious offences, they had been branded w�th the notorious V of the thiefor G ofthe galley• . conVlct . The eight commissioners examining the Reveillon priso�e� were able t? find only three who had incurre d previous . two conVicUons of any kind-m cases these had involved short tenos of detention in the Hotel de la Force on minor charges whereas the port·worker Teteigne was found to be brande d a V.I Yet such a case is exceptional. Of those arreste d for looting the Saint·Lazare monastery only one had served a prison sentence-the butcher's boy Quatrevaux, who had spent seventeen days in the Force on a previous convict ion.l Not one of the twenty·one arrested for the murder of Chatel a municipal officer, during a food riot at Saint-Denis i� August 1789, appears to have had a criminal record; and only three of fifteen arrested in a similar disturbance at Versail les in September had served previous sentences--one for stealing four p�ec� of wood in 788 and two for minor breaches of army dlSC1pli, ne.J Of some 150 persons arrested in the Paris Section s for political offences during the months preceding and follow. ing the Champ de Mars affair, only four appear to have served previous sentences, and these, again, were of a trivial nature .• Not one of the thirty·nine tried in the Year IV for alleged com plicity in the September massacres had appeared in court bef ore.5 Such information is, unfortunately, not available for the other great jollrnies of the Revolution; yet this evidence, as far as it goes, is overwhelming and should prove conclusive. By and
with
J
a printet", lod� with a wine-merchant orthe rue de Pllue, offlhe Plue Maubert· and Gamhi and Semain, rivenide worken, lodged al the H6tel de Chiloru in th; rue du Figuier in the parUh of Saint-Paul (Arch. Nal., T 5141). r Arch. Nat., Y 1,5101, 13454. • Ar<:h. Nat., Z' 46g1. • Nat., Y 10497; Arch. dq,. Seine-et-Oix, teriCi B, PJiv6lt de j'H6td du Ro•. Proo!dura, '78g, fob. 7--21. 4 Ar<:b'. Pr�f. Pol., Aa 137, foil. '71-8; 173, foil. 114, 115�; !lIS, fob. 451-!l. See abo Appendix V. f p. Caron, us Mamv:ru iU up""""', p. I I I .
�.
19o
,
THE ANATOMY OF THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD
large it does not appear, in fact, that those ta�ng part in . revolutionary crowds were any more gaven to come, or ��en to violence or disorder, than the ordinary run of Panslan citizens from whom they were recruited. It may, of course, be argued that such perso�s wer� not . fully typical ofthe Parisian trUllUpeuple in so far as thelT par��lpa tion in revolutionary events marks them off as a mthtant minority. This point should, however, not be pressed too far. It is presumably true enough of the small groups of metUUrs (or 'hommes de main', as Caron called them), who probably played some part in even the most seemingly spontaneous or all these movement!; we shall return to these in a later chapter. Again, the term may no doubt be used of those sans.culotu� rarely wage-earners, as we have seen-who played an acuve part in the Sections in the Year II, or were members of local Revolutionary Committees or even of the Co��une: �hese �re . they of course to whom the epithet sans-culotte, m Its soclo-poilu cal sense, has most generally been applied. Dou�tless, t�o, we should consider as a militant minority the recogmzed valnqtuurs u la Bastille those who stormed the Tuileries in August J 792, or who adv � nced on the Convention under arms in Prairial, and even those few hundred who denounced the Constituent Assembly and the National Guard in such downright, poli tical tenns-we have noted the case of the cook, Constance l!.vrard-in the spring and summer of I79I. Yet the term can hardly be applied with the same confidence to the labourers and journeymen who destroyed Reveillon's house, to the men and women who invaded grocers' shops and imposed their own, popular, form of price-control in 1792-3, to the many who applauded the September massacres (or even to the mamurturs themselves?), or to the women who marched to Versailles in October or who demonstrated for bread and the Constitution of 1793 in Prairial. Where, then, sbould we draw the line? This, of course, raises wider issues than those we have been considering in the present chapter. It may perhaps be possible to answer the question with greater assurance when we have examined the motives and other forms of compulsion that drew crowds together and released their revolutionary energies.
XIII THE MOTIVES OF REVOLUTI ONARY CROWDS wh�t has bee� sai�, it is perhaps not surpr ising to AFTER .t1. find Tame and hlStonans of his school insist ing that
bribery and corruption, and the quest for loot, were among the major factors stimulating revol utionary activity. 'Dans la plupart des mouvements populaires ', wrote Mortimer Ternaux, 'l'argent joue un plus grand role que la passion." The market-women who marched to Vers ailles in October 17�9 had, ac�ording to Taine, been hired for the purpose;' whIle de Galher, a more recent writer, is even more specific in asserting that artisans and journeymen were bribed to take part in the assault on the Bastille: 'On emba uche dans les ateliers [he writes) it. raison d'un louis par tete.' J The battalions that �tormed the Tuileries in August 1792 are described by Morumer-Ternaux as 'Ies miserables qui emprunterent Ie masque du devouement patriotique pour se livrer impuncment au meurtre et au pillage'... Certainly, there is no lack of contemporary assertion that appears to confirm this view. Both royalist opponents of the . R�volutlon and revolutionary authorities were remarkably free with such charges when it suited them. Mon tioie, for instance the e�it�r o� L'Ami du Roi, claimed to have first-hand proof of the dlstnbubon of money to the Reveillon rioters :
J'ai interroge plusieurs de ces miserables [he wrote] ' " et il ne m'est reste aucun dome qu'ils n'eussent tous ete payes et que la tue n'eut eli: de douze livres.S
And B�enval, commander-in-chief of the armed forces mus tered to quell theriots, claimed on the unan imous testimony ofthe
, M. Mortimer-Temaux, His/Qi" d, fil Tnn ur (8 voU.' Paris" 186�-81) viii 4�5 Taine, op. cit. i. I �9. 1 A. de Gallier, 'Lc:s e:meuti ers de 1 789', R"w des tjUlSlUnu his/Qriq ulII, xxx iv ( 1 3) , Ir�'. . . . • Mortimer·Temaux, op. cit. . ii. 105. Montjole. A f nnoITU, 1. 91-93; quoted by Chauin, Ln ludioM d /,s (allier. tk PQriJ ," 178:J. iii. 58. I
�
.
•
19o
,
THE ANATOMY OF THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD
large it does not appear, in fact, that those ta�ng part in . revolutionary crowds were any more gaven to come, or ��en to violence or disorder, than the ordinary run of Panslan citizens from whom they were recruited. It may, of course, be argued that such perso�s wer� not . fully typical ofthe Parisian trUllUpeuple in so far as thelT par��lpa tion in revolutionary events marks them off as a mthtant minority. This point should, however, not be pressed too far. It is presumably true enough of the small groups of metUUrs (or 'hommes de main', as Caron called them), who probably played some part in even the most seemingly spontaneous or all these movement!; we shall return to these in a later chapter. Again, the term may no doubt be used of those sans.culotu� rarely wage-earners, as we have seen-who played an acuve part in the Sections in the Year II, or were members of local Revolutionary Committees or even of the Co��une: �hese �re . they of course to whom the epithet sans-culotte, m Its soclo-poilu cal sense, has most generally been applied. Dou�tless, t�o, we should consider as a militant minority the recogmzed valnqtuurs u la Bastille those who stormed the Tuileries in August J 792, or who adv � nced on the Convention under arms in Prairial, and even those few hundred who denounced the Constituent Assembly and the National Guard in such downright, poli tical tenns-we have noted the case of the cook, Constance l!.vrard-in the spring and summer of I79I. Yet the term can hardly be applied with the same confidence to the labourers and journeymen who destroyed Reveillon's house, to the men and women who invaded grocers' shops and imposed their own, popular, form of price-control in 1792-3, to the many who applauded the September massacres (or even to the mamurturs themselves?), or to the women who marched to Versailles in October or who demonstrated for bread and the Constitution of 1793 in Prairial. Where, then, sbould we draw the line? This, of course, raises wider issues than those we have been considering in the present chapter. It may perhaps be possible to answer the question with greater assurance when we have examined the motives and other forms of compulsion that drew crowds together and released their revolutionary energies.
XIII THE MOTIVES OF REVOLUTI ONARY CROWDS wh�t has bee� sai�, it is perhaps not surpr ising to AFTER .t1. find Tame and hlStonans of his school insist ing that
bribery and corruption, and the quest for loot, were among the major factors stimulating revol utionary activity. 'Dans la plupart des mouvements populaires ', wrote Mortimer Ternaux, 'l'argent joue un plus grand role que la passion." The market-women who marched to Vers ailles in October 17�9 had, ac�ording to Taine, been hired for the purpose;' whIle de Galher, a more recent writer, is even more specific in asserting that artisans and journeymen were bribed to take part in the assault on the Bastille: 'On emba uche dans les ateliers [he writes) it. raison d'un louis par tete.' J The battalions that �tormed the Tuileries in August 1792 are described by Morumer-Ternaux as 'Ies miserables qui emprunterent Ie masque du devouement patriotique pour se livrer impuncment au meurtre et au pillage'... Certainly, there is no lack of contemporary assertion that appears to confirm this view. Both royalist opponents of the . R�volutlon and revolutionary authorities were remarkably free with such charges when it suited them. Mon tioie, for instance the e�it�r o� L'Ami du Roi, claimed to have first-hand proof of the dlstnbubon of money to the Reveillon rioters :
J'ai interroge plusieurs de ces miserables [he wrote] ' " et il ne m'est reste aucun dome qu'ils n'eussent tous ete payes et que la tue n'eut eli: de douze livres.S
And B�enval, commander-in-chief of the armed forces mus tered to quell theriots, claimed on the unan imous testimony ofthe
, M. Mortimer-Temaux, His/Qi" d, fil Tnn ur (8 voU.' Paris" 186�-81) viii 4�5 Taine, op. cit. i. I �9. 1 A. de Gallier, 'Lc:s e:meuti ers de 1 789', R"w des tjUlSlUnu his/Qriq ulII, xxx iv ( 1 3) , Ir�'. . . . • Mortimer·Temaux, op. cit. . ii. 105. Montjole. A f nnoITU, 1. 91-93; quoted by Chauin, Ln ludioM d /,s (allier. tk PQriJ ," 178:J. iii. 58. I
�
.
•
CROWD E REVOLUTIONARY THE ANATOMY OF TH
multe voyait des gens .ex�ter Ie. t� Chatelet1s police spies '�qu']on of tlOlS VlC pal nCl t'.1 Both the pn et meme distribuer de l'argen s.1 tion usa acc ila , made sim � the riots, Henriot and Reveillon r s of the Samt-L�zare aff:u nes wit a 9, 178 y Again, in Jul ile, n displaying bags of silver; wh claimed that he had seen me rioter orted that he had heard a at the barrrii es, a witness rep rker wo Mirabeau, and a gauzeboast of having been paid by ur 'po day a t he received 9 was reputed to have said tha the t tha a.l rdy noted in his Journ commettre ces dtsordres'.J Ha a ers, who attempted to �ang riot adringleaders among the bre 33 h WIt nd fou ber, were each baker at Versailles in Septem te let inquiry set up to investig� ate Cb e Th in their pockets.4 WIt s ero num from � er solicited the events of 5 and 6 Octob , ent gtm Re rs nde Fla iers of the nesses the testimony that sold ers of more dubious occupation Paris market-women and oth ist -presumably by the Orlean had been handsomeiy bribed rce sou out to discredit. On this faction which the inquiry set to wn freely to give substance Taine and his followers have dra their arguments.s n preceding the Champ de Ma In the period of social tension as d nde br y rall � ion were libe affray critics of the administrat . new regtme. The gOSSip-sheet, the of s mie paid agents of the ene ed workers of the and describes the recently disb I.e itieux' ,6 Bailly, les par 'h�ritJ as 'ces gens soudoyes Fauboused Saint-Antoine rg the d mayor of Paris, had earlier ascribe by thieves were done t? death. riots of May 1790, when three 105est tives: 'L'administranon excited crowds, to similar mo r u dans Ie dessein d'entreteni and truite que I'argent a ete rep ss ma o s rge cha � Nor were such une dangereuse fermentation." Revolutlon or the to tile hos se tho by ely , corruption voiced mer Bailly. To the Jaco�1O depu by constitutional monarchists like ities of February 1793 It seem� ties and Paris municipal author rioters should have been moninconceivable that the grocery lection des Mtmoitel
'9'
•
liures
liures
Babillard ateliers de
au BorG" BUI_I (Col Ikrville and Samue, Mimoim , Paris, 192'), ii. 346. vob. 2 . o;aiJe fran , ,� • . .","' 6 ) . !I .... " Q rchuifs l la Rtvolution H (Bib. Nat., Lb" . '9 ; Expoll )' tnriM Exposijusl�ifpour k �iIUT 6 .8). . pour k sind RJvrilltm (Bib. Nat., Lb" • Hardy, ]0I,I11IIJi viii. ¥IS. ; Z'. 886. 9, ,,�, l Arch. Nat., Z' ,,69' (IC<' especially witnessca not. 20, 2 I
.
•
ul tU p",u • Pr«iJur, ,ri",iM1J4 GU CMte 6 6 37 387) · 71, 87, Bg, 9', '44, 1 " 1 .j., 3, • 1.1 BGbUliUJ. no. lOOv,
6 7 MtnU'k!Ir (r/imF.), iv.
� July '79"
_
THE MOTIVES OF REVOLUTIONARY CROWDS
193
vate� purely by their desire for cheaper coffee, sugar, or soap; and, lO the reports drawn up by police agents, there are various r�fer�nc� to men and women carrying bundles of assignats or dlS�nbutlng handfuls of gold and silver.' In Prairial, too, it was c�all�ned y the police n �he testimony of their agents 'qu'on � . ete d lStnbue des assignats dans Ie faubourg dlSaJ.� qu Ii avalt . Antome pour fomenter la rebellion'.z In the case of persons arrested, wounded, or killed in such . . dlSturbances, the autho��ies ha�, of course, a ready-ta-hand me�hod ?f not only vOICIng their suspicions but of checking . th�r valIdity. �� their approach to this problem the French polic� and mumclpal o� government committees of the day were no different from their counterparts in Britain or elsewhere w�en faced with a challenge to the existing order by 'the in fenor set of people': the venality of the masses was taken for granted �nd the remedy for popular insurrection was sought in the trackmg down of presumed conspirators rather than in the removal of social grievances. Thus, after the Reveillon riots, the arreste,d and wounded are asked in their cross-examination by the polIce commissioners whether they have any knowledge o� the pay,,?ent of money to instigate disturbances,J Jean N�colas PepI�, tallow-porter, when questioned in connexion WIth the lootlng of Saint-Lazare and the general events of 1 2 to July at the Palais Royal and elsewhere is asked 's'il a rec;u �e l·argent de ces particuliers'.• Michel 'Adden, Bastille . worker, later hanged for provoking a 'sedition' in the demohtlon int-Antoine, is asked 'si avant ou depuis Ie 1 2 � �ubo� rg a JUl I �et II n a rec;u de l'argent de differentes personneS pour exciter �es tumultes a Paris'.5 Franc;ois Billon, charged with . threatenmg to hang a baker at the Ecole MTt ' 10 the I I alre . mal �utu �n 0f 1 789� 15 asked 's'i! a ete excite acela par quelques . ". . en lUi remettant 1Otenuonnes quo au·•..· •nt cherche"a Ie ScuUlre de I 'argent•.6 And so we can go on-with those arrested in the
�
J4
�
• �8 • February , Arch. Nat.' AFIV I470 (reporu ,or 2
(793). See a!Jo Mathia'
Aulard, PiUUpnu/MrJ Iii ,/«tUm II " ",.·� . .1· 74�· t . . ' Seetheeross-=am",abon al the H6lel-Dieu of �3 wounded by Conunissioner
Be:uva11et on , May '7Bg (Arch. Nat., Y • ,033). Arqh. Nal., Z' 469' (29 July 1 78g). , Arch. Nat., Y .8768 (2. October '78g). • Arch. Nat., Y .8769 (16 November 1789).
CROWD E REVOLUTIONARY THE ANATOMY OF TH
multe voyait des gens .ex�ter Ie. t� Chatelet1s police spies '�qu']on of tlOlS VlC pal nCl t'.1 Both the pn et meme distribuer de l'argen s.1 tion usa acc ila , made sim � the riots, Henriot and Reveillon r s of the Samt-L�zare aff:u nes wit a 9, 178 y Again, in Jul ile, n displaying bags of silver; wh claimed that he had seen me rioter orted that he had heard a at the barrrii es, a witness rep rker wo Mirabeau, and a gauzeboast of having been paid by ur 'po day a t he received 9 was reputed to have said tha the t tha a.l rdy noted in his Journ commettre ces dtsordres'.J Ha a ers, who attempted to �ang riot adringleaders among the bre 33 h WIt nd fou ber, were each baker at Versailles in Septem te let inquiry set up to investig� ate Cb e Th in their pockets.4 WIt s ero num from � er solicited the events of 5 and 6 Octob , ent gtm Re rs nde Fla iers of the nesses the testimony that sold ers of more dubious occupation Paris market-women and oth ist -presumably by the Orlean had been handsomeiy bribed rce sou out to discredit. On this faction which the inquiry set to wn freely to give substance Taine and his followers have dra their arguments.s n preceding the Champ de Ma In the period of social tension as d nde br y rall � ion were libe affray critics of the administrat . new regtme. The gOSSip-sheet, the of s mie paid agents of the ene ed workers of the and describes the recently disb I.e itieux' ,6 Bailly, les par 'h�ritJ as 'ces gens soudoyes Fauboused Saint-Antoine rg the d mayor of Paris, had earlier ascribe by thieves were done t? death. riots of May 1790, when three 105est tives: 'L'administranon excited crowds, to similar mo r u dans Ie dessein d'entreteni and truite que I'argent a ete rep ss ma o s rge cha � Nor were such une dangereuse fermentation." Revolutlon or the to tile hos se tho by ely , corruption voiced mer Bailly. To the Jaco�1O depu by constitutional monarchists like ities of February 1793 It seem� ties and Paris municipal author rioters should have been moninconceivable that the grocery lection des Mtmoitel
'9'
•
liures
liures
Babillard ateliers de
au BorG" BUI_I (Col Ikrville and Samue, Mimoim , Paris, 192'), ii. 346. vob. 2 . o;aiJe fran , ,� • . .","' 6 ) . !I .... " Q rchuifs l la Rtvolution H (Bib. Nat., Lb" . '9 ; Expoll )' tnriM Exposijusl�ifpour k �iIUT 6 .8). . pour k sind RJvrilltm (Bib. Nat., Lb" • Hardy, ]0I,I11IIJi viii. ¥IS. ; Z'. 886. 9, ,,�, l Arch. Nat., Z' ,,69' (IC<' especially witnessca not. 20, 2 I
.
•
ul tU p",u • Pr«iJur, ,ri",iM1J4 GU CMte 6 6 37 387) · 71, 87, Bg, 9', '44, 1 " 1 .j., 3, • 1.1 BGbUliUJ. no. lOOv,
6 7 MtnU'k!Ir (r/imF.), iv.
� July '79"
_
THE MOTIVES OF REVOLUTIONARY CROWDS
193
vate� purely by their desire for cheaper coffee, sugar, or soap; and, lO the reports drawn up by police agents, there are various r�fer�nc� to men and women carrying bundles of assignats or dlS�nbutlng handfuls of gold and silver.' In Prairial, too, it was c�all�ned y the police n �he testimony of their agents 'qu'on � . ete d lStnbue des assignats dans Ie faubourg dlSaJ.� qu Ii avalt . Antome pour fomenter la rebellion'.z In the case of persons arrested, wounded, or killed in such . . dlSturbances, the autho��ies ha�, of course, a ready-ta-hand me�hod ?f not only vOICIng their suspicions but of checking . th�r valIdity. �� their approach to this problem the French polic� and mumclpal o� government committees of the day were no different from their counterparts in Britain or elsewhere w�en faced with a challenge to the existing order by 'the in fenor set of people': the venality of the masses was taken for granted �nd the remedy for popular insurrection was sought in the trackmg down of presumed conspirators rather than in the removal of social grievances. Thus, after the Reveillon riots, the arreste,d and wounded are asked in their cross-examination by the polIce commissioners whether they have any knowledge o� the pay,,?ent of money to instigate disturbances,J Jean N�colas PepI�, tallow-porter, when questioned in connexion WIth the lootlng of Saint-Lazare and the general events of 1 2 to July at the Palais Royal and elsewhere is asked 's'il a rec;u �e l·argent de ces particuliers'.• Michel 'Adden, Bastille . worker, later hanged for provoking a 'sedition' in the demohtlon int-Antoine, is asked 'si avant ou depuis Ie 1 2 � �ubo� rg a JUl I �et II n a rec;u de l'argent de differentes personneS pour exciter �es tumultes a Paris'.5 Franc;ois Billon, charged with . threatenmg to hang a baker at the Ecole MTt ' 10 the I I alre . mal �utu �n 0f 1 789� 15 asked 's'i! a ete excite acela par quelques . ". . en lUi remettant 1Otenuonnes quo au·•..· •nt cherche"a Ie ScuUlre de I 'argent•.6 And so we can go on-with those arrested in the
�
J4
�
• �8 • February , Arch. Nat.' AFIV I470 (reporu ,or 2
(793). See a!Jo Mathia'
Aulard, PiUUpnu/MrJ Iii ,/«tUm II " ",.·� . .1· 74�· t . . ' Seetheeross-=am",abon al the H6lel-Dieu of �3 wounded by Conunissioner
Be:uva11et on , May '7Bg (Arch. Nat., Y • ,033). Arqh. Nal., Z' 469' (29 July 1 78g). , Arch. Nat., Y .8768 (2. October '78g). • Arch. Nat., Y .8769 (16 November 1789).
THE MOTIVES OF REVOLUTIONARY CROWDS
19+ THE ANATOMY OF THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD summer and autumn of 1791, with those questioned in con nexion with the grocery riots, and those summoned to appear before the Military Commission or the Committee of Gen:ral Security in Prairial of the Year 1IJ.l Usually the answer
a
flat denial; but sometimes it is of greater interest. In 1791, for . example, we find a domestic servant of the Vend6me SectlOn replying to the familiar question with the unexpc:cted re�ort . that, far from receiving money for taking part m politIcal affairs, it has cost him 24
sow in the past four months to do
15
so-
apparently a reference to his subscription to the Jacobin Club ofwhich he was a member.1 In Prairial a Quinze Vingts gunner,
when asked if he knows of any distribution of money in the
flWhourg, answers 'no'; though he adds that 'he has he�rd sevtr� people say that money and two pounds of bread were given out to stir up rebellion.' But in no single instance do we find a
straightforward admission that a prisoner or other witness has
personally been present at su�h a transaction. . Moreover the police had the far more effecttve course of searching their prisoners and had every motive for making public the discovery of any suspicious objects or sums of money found on them. In nearly every case for which we have records the results of such searches are purely negative. It is true that a paper-worker, arrested after the Reveillon riots, was found in
liurtS
possession of 4 which he admitted having received from two individuals whom he had met at the Palais Royal-but this
happened a full week after the riots were over.4 This seerns a pretty shaky foundation on which to base the charges of mass bribery proffered by Besenval and Montjoie, and repeated by writers in the Again, one of four young workers arrested at the Barriere Saint-Denis on 14 July 1789 was found with 157 iiurtS, 1 2 in silver in his pockets; but this sum had quite evidently either been stolen at the or
RtllUt dts questions historiques, sow
ham'irts
(as the prisoner insisted) been picked up in the raid on the Saint Lazare monastery,S And even Hardy, who was usually a reliable
, Arch. Prtf. Pol., Kriet Aa; Arch. Nal., W 546, F" (ltrie alphabethiq\le). • Arch. Prtf. Pol., Aa 206, rob. 366-7. , Arch. Nal., F" 473!i, dou. 4 (my ilalia) . • Arch. Nat., Y 14119 (5-6 May 17Sg). See also the examination by Commis sioner Odenl of 18 COI'pICI, which had been brought 10 the Monlro\lge cemelery for identification (Arch. Nat., Y 15019), and pp. 41-42 above. J Arch. Nat., Y 10634, fol. '49; 15683.
195
�
witness, appears to have been completely misled by reports t at
the Versailles bread-rioters of September 1789 were found with considerable sums in their purses : the police reporu relating to
the case are completely silent on the matter,' As for the far more substantial charges ofbribery made in the course of the C ate1et
�
inquiry into the events of October, for lack of other eVidence we must largely discount them owing to the vagueness of the assertions and thedubious natureofthe majority ofthe witnesses,1 While, therefore, the evidence of widespread bribery is
negligible, we cannot discount so readily the desire for loot as a stimulus to participation in revolutionary activities. Yet, even
so, it has been greatly exaggerated and there is little sign at any stage of indiscriminate pillage. We have se�n that a nu�b�r of . food-shops were pillaged during the Reveillon nots-lD Itself significant of the underlying cause of those disturbances,l At
the
harritrts, too, there was looting of the personal effects and
savings of customs officials, though it did not reach great pro portions,. Looting played a far more substantial pa�t in thc raid on the Saint-Lazare monastery; yet even here It was a by-product of the main operation, which was to cart grain to the central corn market.! It played some part again, though a
journitS
minor one, in the grocery riots of 1793.6 ]n the other of the Revolution it played no significant part at all. Yet we have noted that one historian ascribed this motive to the assailants of
the Tuileries in August 1 792. Considerable looting, it is true, followed the fall of the tluittlW; in fact, we have the record of 134 persons detained in the Hotel de la Force between 10 August and 2 September of that year for pilfering, or being suspected of pilfering, a wide variety of objects;7 and several others were arrested on such charges in the Sections'--though not one of these appears to have been among the armed attackers. What is more remarkable is that many humble citizens, wage
earners among them, went out of their way to deposit valuables found at the Tuileries for safe-keeping with their Sections;9 • Arch. s"ine-eI·O;,.-" seri"" B. PrMI� de I'HOlei du Roi. Proc�dur"" 11Sg,
• s"e p. 49· ' See p. 43. • See pp. 72-13. ' Bib. Nat., Lb" 6'4U. • 5«: p. 116, Arch. Prtr. PoL, Aa 88, fob. !i14-44; 1!i3, (01. 48; 1!i7. rol. 200; 173, fob. 43-
roll. 7-21.
• See p. !i0. I
• Arch. Pdf. Pol., Aa 88, rob. ,546-7' ; �'9, Sagnac, La ChuJI: it /Q fOJH"'ll, pp. 291-8.
44; �6�, fols. *0-42.
rol.
32; 262, fob. 42-44. Sre alo.o
THE MOTIVES OF REVOLUTIONARY CROWDS
19+ THE ANATOMY OF THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD summer and autumn of 1791, with those questioned in con nexion with the grocery riots, and those summoned to appear before the Military Commission or the Committee of Gen:ral Security in Prairial of the Year 1IJ.l Usually the answer
a
flat denial; but sometimes it is of greater interest. In 1791, for . example, we find a domestic servant of the Vend6me SectlOn replying to the familiar question with the unexpc:cted re�ort . that, far from receiving money for taking part m politIcal affairs, it has cost him 24
sow in the past four months to do
15
so-
apparently a reference to his subscription to the Jacobin Club ofwhich he was a member.1 In Prairial a Quinze Vingts gunner,
when asked if he knows of any distribution of money in the
flWhourg, answers 'no'; though he adds that 'he has he�rd sevtr� people say that money and two pounds of bread were given out to stir up rebellion.' But in no single instance do we find a
straightforward admission that a prisoner or other witness has
personally been present at su�h a transaction. . Moreover the police had the far more effecttve course of searching their prisoners and had every motive for making public the discovery of any suspicious objects or sums of money found on them. In nearly every case for which we have records the results of such searches are purely negative. It is true that a paper-worker, arrested after the Reveillon riots, was found in
liurtS
possession of 4 which he admitted having received from two individuals whom he had met at the Palais Royal-but this
happened a full week after the riots were over.4 This seerns a pretty shaky foundation on which to base the charges of mass bribery proffered by Besenval and Montjoie, and repeated by writers in the Again, one of four young workers arrested at the Barriere Saint-Denis on 14 July 1789 was found with 157 iiurtS, 1 2 in silver in his pockets; but this sum had quite evidently either been stolen at the or
RtllUt dts questions historiques, sow
ham'irts
(as the prisoner insisted) been picked up in the raid on the Saint Lazare monastery,S And even Hardy, who was usually a reliable
, Arch. Prtf. Pol., Kriet Aa; Arch. Nal., W 546, F" (ltrie alphabethiq\le). • Arch. Prtf. Pol., Aa 206, rob. 366-7. , Arch. Nal., F" 473!i, dou. 4 (my ilalia) . • Arch. Nat., Y 14119 (5-6 May 17Sg). See also the examination by Commis sioner Odenl of 18 COI'pICI, which had been brought 10 the Monlro\lge cemelery for identification (Arch. Nat., Y 15019), and pp. 41-42 above. J Arch. Nat., Y 10634, fol. '49; 15683.
195
�
witness, appears to have been completely misled by reports t at
the Versailles bread-rioters of September 1789 were found with considerable sums in their purses : the police reporu relating to
the case are completely silent on the matter,' As for the far more substantial charges ofbribery made in the course of the C ate1et
�
inquiry into the events of October, for lack of other eVidence we must largely discount them owing to the vagueness of the assertions and thedubious natureofthe majority ofthe witnesses,1 While, therefore, the evidence of widespread bribery is
negligible, we cannot discount so readily the desire for loot as a stimulus to participation in revolutionary activities. Yet, even
so, it has been greatly exaggerated and there is little sign at any stage of indiscriminate pillage. We have se�n that a nu�b�r of . food-shops were pillaged during the Reveillon nots-lD Itself significant of the underlying cause of those disturbances,l At
the
harritrts, too, there was looting of the personal effects and
savings of customs officials, though it did not reach great pro portions,. Looting played a far more substantial pa�t in thc raid on the Saint-Lazare monastery; yet even here It was a by-product of the main operation, which was to cart grain to the central corn market.! It played some part again, though a
journitS
minor one, in the grocery riots of 1793.6 ]n the other of the Revolution it played no significant part at all. Yet we have noted that one historian ascribed this motive to the assailants of
the Tuileries in August 1 792. Considerable looting, it is true, followed the fall of the tluittlW; in fact, we have the record of 134 persons detained in the Hotel de la Force between 10 August and 2 September of that year for pilfering, or being suspected of pilfering, a wide variety of objects;7 and several others were arrested on such charges in the Sections'--though not one of these appears to have been among the armed attackers. What is more remarkable is that many humble citizens, wage
earners among them, went out of their way to deposit valuables found at the Tuileries for safe-keeping with their Sections;9 • Arch. s"ine-eI·O;,.-" seri"" B. PrMI� de I'HOlei du Roi. Proc�dur"" 11Sg,
• s"e p. 49· ' See p. 43. • See pp. 72-13. ' Bib. Nat., Lb" 6'4U. • 5«: p. 116, Arch. Prtr. PoL, Aa 88, fob. !i14-44; 1!i3, (01. 48; 1!i7. rol. 200; 173, fob. 43-
roll. 7-21.
• See p. !i0. I
• Arch. Pdf. Pol., Aa 88, rob. ,546-7' ; �'9, Sagnac, La ChuJI: it /Q fOJH"'ll, pp. 291-8.
44; �6�, fols. *0-42.
rol.
32; 262, fob. 42-44. Sre alo.o
196 THE ANATOMY OF THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD
THE MOTIVES OF REVOLUTIONARY CROWDS
197
of Lafayette, supporting his claim to a fair hearing with an appeal to 'Ie droit de I'homme'. 1 In the following weeks, as the
and that even bitterly hostile witnesses felt compelled to admit that the armed battalions, far from condoning or taking part in
pillage, summarily executed those weaker brethren among
rift developed in the National Assembly between the constitu
same fate befell many who tried to pillage during the September
the Parisian menu peuple openly championed the former against
tional monarchists and the Court Party over the royal veto,
their unarmed supporters who attempted to engage in it.1 The
the latter, and we have seen that unemployed workers of the
massacres.1 In response to what motives, then, did the Parisian sans
Ecole Militaire and wage-earners and soldiers in the Place de
how far did they differ from the aims of those who promoted or
days before the actual event, to go and fetch the royal family
culottes participate in such large numbers in these events? And initiated them? In the first place, it is evident that revolutionary
crowds, far from being mere passive instruments, absorbed
and adapted the slogans and ideas of the political groups contending for power both on the eve and in the course of the
Revolution. During the rivolte nobiliaire, for example, we saw
Greve and the Palais Royal expressed their readiness, several
"
back to Paris_1 Another feature of this period was, of course, the
adoption by demonstrators and rioters of anti-clerical slogans;
and, at Versailles, the marchers treated the deputies of the
clergy with scant respect and greeted them with shouts of 'A bas la calotte!' l In the midst of the social calm of the year 1790 Parisians
how the rioting crowds of clerks and journeymen on the Pont Neufburned Lamoignon, the unpopular garde in effigy
rallied in tens of thousands, at the call ofthe National Assembly,
popularity had already switched to the Third Estate, shortly to
political ideas of the democrats and Republicans were begin
to have been incited by royalist agents) shouted the revolu
sans-culottes. The results of this indoctrination were clearly
Ie Tiers Etat!'4 The same political rallying cry of 'Tiers Etat'
called by the Cordeliers Club with a purely political object
des sceaux,
and chanted the slogans of the parltmentairts, 'A bas Lamoignon !' and 'Vive Henri IV!') Later, during the Reveillon riots, when
meet at Versailles, the demonstrators (though widely believed tionary slogans of the day: 'Vive Ie Roi ! Vive M, Necker! Vive
was voiced by crowds who burned down the bamires and sacked
the monastery of the Saint-Lazare brotherhood in July5-
though, on occasion, its meaning appears to have been trans
formed into a call to action of the poor against the rich.6 The
to the Champ de Mars to celebrate the first anniversary of the Revolution; but, before many months had passed, the social and ning to find a 'response among the more active, at least, of the
evident in the Champ de Mars demonstration of July 1 7 9 1 ,
to sign a petition questioning the king's right to continue in office after his flight to Varennes. Among the 6,000 who had time to sign the petition or scratch their crosses on it before the arrival of the National Guard, there may have been many who
new ideas of 'liberty' and 'the rights of man' were also gaining
did so without a clear understanding of its contents; yet the cook, Constance Evrard, at least, clearly stated under cross
, Sagnac, op. cit., pp. 136, 195. Sagnac quotes the MiITw;res of the royali,t Madame de Tound: 'II est remarquable que eelle annte de bandits ,'ttail interdit Ie wI aux Tuileries el mettait impitoyablement a mort ceux qu'elle surprenait s'appropriant qudque chose du chateau.' Caron, op. cit., p. [ I I . Roederer told Napoleon: 'Les massacreurs ne pil leren! pas'. , Hardy, op. cit., viii. 4g--68. For a large part of what follows in this chapter � G. Rud�, 'The Motives of Popular In.mrrection in Paris during the French Revolution', Brdltlin of 1M 11tS11M' of Hi.r;lmical iWtMCh, xxvi (1953). 53-74. • Hardy, op. cit. viii. 299; An:h. Nat., KK 641, foJ. 17. • Arch. Nat., Z'· 886; Z' 469 1. • Arthur Young, too, is inclined to identify 'tiers �tat' with 'the poor' (tec, e.g., TraVtls in Franct and Italy (Everyman edition), pp. 1711-3). See also p. 43 above.
organiser autrement Ie pouvoir executif' ; and of nearly 130
ground among the menu peuplt, and we find ajourneyman gun smith, arrested at Versailles in August for speaking slightingly
•
examination that she believed its purposes were 'it faire
persons sent to the Force prison in connexion with the demon
stration, the grea� majority had been arrested for expressing
[ An:h. Nat., Y 18,&>. The examiningpolice commissioner's retort is not without interest: 'Qu'il parle souvent du mot de libert� et des droits de I'homme, ce qui annonce assez qu'il a I'esprit dispos� it. la sMition.' • See pp. 7'-7'1.. , See pp. 65-66. How far the anti-clerical movement ofthe Revolution and tbe later 'deehristianization' movement sprang from the deeper feelings and experiences of the mtlJU peuple itself, and how far they owed their origins to non-popular sources ouch as the professional classes or liberal aristocracy, are still matters for debate. The evidence in favour of the latter theory seems fairly .trong.
196 THE ANATOMY OF THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD
THE MOTIVES OF REVOLUTIONARY CROWDS
197
of Lafayette, supporting his claim to a fair hearing with an appeal to 'Ie droit de I'homme'. 1 In the following weeks, as the
and that even bitterly hostile witnesses felt compelled to admit that the armed battalions, far from condoning or taking part in
pillage, summarily executed those weaker brethren among
rift developed in the National Assembly between the constitu
same fate befell many who tried to pillage during the September
the Parisian menu peuple openly championed the former against
tional monarchists and the Court Party over the royal veto,
their unarmed supporters who attempted to engage in it.1 The
the latter, and we have seen that unemployed workers of the
massacres.1 In response to what motives, then, did the Parisian sans
Ecole Militaire and wage-earners and soldiers in the Place de
how far did they differ from the aims of those who promoted or
days before the actual event, to go and fetch the royal family
culottes participate in such large numbers in these events? And initiated them? In the first place, it is evident that revolutionary
crowds, far from being mere passive instruments, absorbed
and adapted the slogans and ideas of the political groups contending for power both on the eve and in the course of the
Revolution. During the rivolte nobiliaire, for example, we saw
Greve and the Palais Royal expressed their readiness, several
"
back to Paris_1 Another feature of this period was, of course, the
adoption by demonstrators and rioters of anti-clerical slogans;
and, at Versailles, the marchers treated the deputies of the
clergy with scant respect and greeted them with shouts of 'A bas la calotte!' l In the midst of the social calm of the year 1790 Parisians
how the rioting crowds of clerks and journeymen on the Pont Neufburned Lamoignon, the unpopular garde in effigy
rallied in tens of thousands, at the call ofthe National Assembly,
popularity had already switched to the Third Estate, shortly to
political ideas of the democrats and Republicans were begin
to have been incited by royalist agents) shouted the revolu
sans-culottes. The results of this indoctrination were clearly
Ie Tiers Etat!'4 The same political rallying cry of 'Tiers Etat'
called by the Cordeliers Club with a purely political object
des sceaux,
and chanted the slogans of the parltmentairts, 'A bas Lamoignon !' and 'Vive Henri IV!') Later, during the Reveillon riots, when
meet at Versailles, the demonstrators (though widely believed tionary slogans of the day: 'Vive Ie Roi ! Vive M, Necker! Vive
was voiced by crowds who burned down the bamires and sacked
the monastery of the Saint-Lazare brotherhood in July5-
though, on occasion, its meaning appears to have been trans
formed into a call to action of the poor against the rich.6 The
to the Champ de Mars to celebrate the first anniversary of the Revolution; but, before many months had passed, the social and ning to find a 'response among the more active, at least, of the
evident in the Champ de Mars demonstration of July 1 7 9 1 ,
to sign a petition questioning the king's right to continue in office after his flight to Varennes. Among the 6,000 who had time to sign the petition or scratch their crosses on it before the arrival of the National Guard, there may have been many who
new ideas of 'liberty' and 'the rights of man' were also gaining
did so without a clear understanding of its contents; yet the cook, Constance Evrard, at least, clearly stated under cross
, Sagnac, op. cit., pp. 136, 195. Sagnac quotes the MiITw;res of the royali,t Madame de Tound: 'II est remarquable que eelle annte de bandits ,'ttail interdit Ie wI aux Tuileries el mettait impitoyablement a mort ceux qu'elle surprenait s'appropriant qudque chose du chateau.' Caron, op. cit., p. [ I I . Roederer told Napoleon: 'Les massacreurs ne pil leren! pas'. , Hardy, op. cit., viii. 4g--68. For a large part of what follows in this chapter � G. Rud�, 'The Motives of Popular In.mrrection in Paris during the French Revolution', Brdltlin of 1M 11tS11M' of Hi.r;lmical iWtMCh, xxvi (1953). 53-74. • Hardy, op. cit. viii. 299; An:h. Nat., KK 641, foJ. 17. • Arch. Nat., Z'· 886; Z' 469 1. • Arthur Young, too, is inclined to identify 'tiers �tat' with 'the poor' (tec, e.g., TraVtls in Franct and Italy (Everyman edition), pp. 1711-3). See also p. 43 above.
organiser autrement Ie pouvoir executif' ; and of nearly 130
ground among the menu peuplt, and we find ajourneyman gun smith, arrested at Versailles in August for speaking slightingly
•
examination that she believed its purposes were 'it faire
persons sent to the Force prison in connexion with the demon
stration, the grea� majority had been arrested for expressing
[ An:h. Nat., Y 18,&>. The examiningpolice commissioner's retort is not without interest: 'Qu'il parle souvent du mot de libert� et des droits de I'homme, ce qui annonce assez qu'il a I'esprit dispos� it. la sMition.' • See pp. 7'-7'1.. , See pp. 65-66. How far the anti-clerical movement ofthe Revolution and tbe later 'deehristianization' movement sprang from the deeper feelings and experiences of the mtlJU peuple itself, and how far they owed their origins to non-popular sources ouch as the professional classes or liberal aristocracy, are still matters for debate. The evidence in favour of the latter theory seems fairly .trong.
LUTIONARY CRO WD ,g8 THE ANATOMY OF THE REVO
the city ad political opposition to the ���onal Assembly, ministration, or the armed nulitla.' ar, evidence It is not possible to produce the same document : 10 August rchy mona in the case of the armed overthrow of the J Mayi �ne 1793 ; 1792 and the expulsion of the Girondins � of an tlons re Insur wer � � yet this is hardly surprising, as these on not tion, execu their for dent entirely different order depen on but ds, crow ary ution revol ed) unarmed (or largely unarm the orcef d arme d iz organ ally centr ,:, the deployment of a former case by Parisian National Guard, supplemented 10 the . Yet these armed units from Marseilles, Brest, and other cities hs of mont actions, too, marked the culmination of many were ulotus saru-c political preparation in which the Parisian cam the w nt eleme � thoroughly involved. An important new utl nary war paign, initiated by the Brissotins, for a . revol � was Immensely against the crowned head� of �u,:,pe, wh�ch stages: we find g openm Its iO f popular-as was the war Itsel craftsmen, and rers, labou of lists evidence of this in the long I1 fronti the man to teered � in the autumn journeymen that volun hops and of 1 79',: and in the great numbers ofworkers 10 works . . tlques, patrw manufactories who sent their contributions, or dons s of armie the of to the Assembly for the feeding and equipment the of re captu the to 1 792.J Again, we see a curtain-raiser when , June 20 on e palac Tuileries in the mass invasion of the �Antoine man", thousands of citizens of the Faubourgs Saint nted a prese ed, unarm and d arme and Saint-Marcel, both s slogan nt curre the ed �f the shout and petition to the king of ution revol the e befor days our f only was it 'patriots' ; and Mars de mp 10 August that a vast assembly ofcitizens in the C�� prepara� demanded the king's abdication.4 The same pohtIcal • 5« pp. 86-87, 9"
• Chassin and Hennet, W YoI""",;". ..alionaux
pnuJdnJ Id Rlw/lilldl< .
b rols..,
Paris, 1899-'9(4), i. ,6-136. , ':V>3-2�, 17F-g· Th� , A. Tuetey, Ripnl11i" ,11Ihg!, vol. iv, not. 2aS-392 .II, d, PIIT1S, _.,.,.., tU I. V appeared, it is true, in March '79\1, an Adruu. U. men (the Jailer �.n a.sm� Journey and en, crafUm pers, shopkee 2.'10 about by signed and !o the agtl�t,on 1ft minority), which Wall frankly hostile to the Revolution .., 'l.'lo-' (10 MS.): Bib. Nat., 249b fols. .'I, " no. 284, C Nat., favour of war {Arch. There teems lillie dou�t Lb" 1 1 162 (printed copy with significant variations)). of 1792, though ,t autumn the afier r popula less that the waT became progressively documentary lOurcCl. would be difficult to illustrate the point adequately from • See pp. '00, '04·
THE MOTIVES OF REVOLUTIONARY CROWDS
'99
tion preceded the revolution of May-June 1 793. Already in March of that year the reports ofpolice agents revea1ed that the need for a new insurrection to purge the Convention was being openly canvassed in the clubs and markets '· in April, as we saw. �e . Jacobl.ns �ecided to give this movement a precise and . l ,e and, follo ing their lead, countless deputa· I�mtted obJec �,: � tlons �nd petlnons demandmg the expulsion of the Girondin deputJ.es preceded the actual outbreak.' Finally, in the riots of Germinal and Prairial of the Year III the crowds that burst into the Convention d�manded suppo� for the political pro g�amme of e Mountam and the release ofJacobin prisoners; ptnned to their caps and blouses they wore, side by side with the word 'bre �d', the politi�al slogan, 'The Constitution of 1 793'.1 There 1S t�er�fore httle doubt that these revolutionary �rowds enthUSiastically supported and assimilated the objects, Ideas, and slogans of the political groups in the National Assembly, Cordeliers, and Jacobin Clubs whose leadership they ,,:cknowledged and in whose interest they demonstrated, peti. tloned, or took up arms. These were the objects, ideas, and . slogans of the hberal, democratic, and republican bourgeoisie . (accord tng to the stage reached by the Revolution as it moved leftwards), which the active elements among the Parisian nunu peuple, from whom the great bulk of these insurgents and demon strators were drawn, adopted as their own, because they appeared to correspond to their own interests in the fight to destroy the old regime and to safeguard the RepUblic. Yet they cannot be regarded as the particular demands of wage-earners, small shopkeepers, and workshop masters as such.l Therefore while acknowledging, against the opinion of Taine and hi� followers, the part played by the political ideas of the leaders in stimulating �ass revolu�onary activity, we can accept this only .as a partial explanatIOn. It does little to explain such non pohtJ.cal movements as the Reveillon riots, the social unrest that
�
. ... � -
- � ,� , � . . �
' not suggested that the SdlU-cJlllII/ts-particularly the Ihopkeepers, work_ ' It IS
lhop m�lers, and �Iher small proprietors among them-had, at no Itage, any . political .deall of ,he" own. In the period June 1793-July '794 when all we have .H:e�,. luch dements were very active in the Paris Scclionl, there we:e numerous pellllons and resolutionl that expressed their particular lOCial and political claima (1«=�arkov and Soboul, Dil $alUkW/Ollell <'Oil PM;S, chaps. 2-5, passim). Tiles<: can however, have playcd no part in lIimulating participation in revolutionary move-: ' that of 4-5 September 1793. menlS, �ccpt In
LUTIONARY CRO WD ,g8 THE ANATOMY OF THE REVO
the city ad political opposition to the ���onal Assembly, ministration, or the armed nulitla.' ar, evidence It is not possible to produce the same document : 10 August rchy mona in the case of the armed overthrow of the J Mayi �ne 1793 ; 1792 and the expulsion of the Girondins � of an tlons re Insur wer � � yet this is hardly surprising, as these on not tion, execu their for dent entirely different order depen on but ds, crow ary ution revol ed) unarmed (or largely unarm the orcef d arme d iz organ ally centr ,:, the deployment of a former case by Parisian National Guard, supplemented 10 the . Yet these armed units from Marseilles, Brest, and other cities hs of mont actions, too, marked the culmination of many were ulotus saru-c political preparation in which the Parisian cam the w nt eleme � thoroughly involved. An important new utl nary war paign, initiated by the Brissotins, for a . revol � was Immensely against the crowned head� of �u,:,pe, wh�ch stages: we find g openm Its iO f popular-as was the war Itsel craftsmen, and rers, labou of lists evidence of this in the long I1 fronti the man to teered � in the autumn journeymen that volun hops and of 1 79',: and in the great numbers ofworkers 10 works . . tlques, patrw manufactories who sent their contributions, or dons s of armie the of to the Assembly for the feeding and equipment the of re captu the to 1 792.J Again, we see a curtain-raiser when , June 20 on e palac Tuileries in the mass invasion of the �Antoine man", thousands of citizens of the Faubourgs Saint nted a prese ed, unarm and d arme and Saint-Marcel, both s slogan nt curre the ed �f the shout and petition to the king of ution revol the e befor days our f only was it 'patriots' ; and Mars de mp 10 August that a vast assembly ofcitizens in the C�� prepara� demanded the king's abdication.4 The same pohtIcal • 5« pp. 86-87, 9"
• Chassin and Hennet, W YoI""",;". ..alionaux
pnuJdnJ Id Rlw/lilldl< .
b rols..,
Paris, 1899-'9(4), i. ,6-136. , ':V>3-2�, 17F-g· Th� , A. Tuetey, Ripnl11i" ,11Ihg!, vol. iv, not. 2aS-392 .II, d, PIIT1S, _.,.,.., tU I. V appeared, it is true, in March '79\1, an Adruu. U. men (the Jailer �.n a.sm� Journey and en, crafUm pers, shopkee 2.'10 about by signed and !o the agtl�t,on 1ft minority), which Wall frankly hostile to the Revolution .., 'l.'lo-' (10 MS.): Bib. Nat., 249b fols. .'I, " no. 284, C Nat., favour of war {Arch. There teems lillie dou�t Lb" 1 1 162 (printed copy with significant variations)). of 1792, though ,t autumn the afier r popula less that the waT became progressively documentary lOurcCl. would be difficult to illustrate the point adequately from • See pp. '00, '04·
THE MOTIVES OF REVOLUTIONARY CROWDS
'99
tion preceded the revolution of May-June 1 793. Already in March of that year the reports ofpolice agents revea1ed that the need for a new insurrection to purge the Convention was being openly canvassed in the clubs and markets '· in April, as we saw. �e . Jacobl.ns �ecided to give this movement a precise and . l ,e and, follo ing their lead, countless deputa· I�mtted obJec �,: � tlons �nd petlnons demandmg the expulsion of the Girondin deputJ.es preceded the actual outbreak.' Finally, in the riots of Germinal and Prairial of the Year III the crowds that burst into the Convention d�manded suppo� for the political pro g�amme of e Mountam and the release ofJacobin prisoners; ptnned to their caps and blouses they wore, side by side with the word 'bre �d', the politi�al slogan, 'The Constitution of 1 793'.1 There 1S t�er�fore httle doubt that these revolutionary �rowds enthUSiastically supported and assimilated the objects, Ideas, and slogans of the political groups in the National Assembly, Cordeliers, and Jacobin Clubs whose leadership they ,,:cknowledged and in whose interest they demonstrated, peti. tloned, or took up arms. These were the objects, ideas, and . slogans of the hberal, democratic, and republican bourgeoisie . (accord tng to the stage reached by the Revolution as it moved leftwards), which the active elements among the Parisian nunu peuple, from whom the great bulk of these insurgents and demon strators were drawn, adopted as their own, because they appeared to correspond to their own interests in the fight to destroy the old regime and to safeguard the RepUblic. Yet they cannot be regarded as the particular demands of wage-earners, small shopkeepers, and workshop masters as such.l Therefore while acknowledging, against the opinion of Taine and hi� followers, the part played by the political ideas of the leaders in stimulating �ass revolu�onary activity, we can accept this only .as a partial explanatIOn. It does little to explain such non pohtJ.cal movements as the Reveillon riots, the social unrest that
�
. ... � -
- � ,� , � . . �
' not suggested that the SdlU-cJlllII/ts-particularly the Ihopkeepers, work_ ' It IS
lhop m�lers, and �Iher small proprietors among them-had, at no Itage, any . political .deall of ,he" own. In the period June 1793-July '794 when all we have .H:e�,. luch dements were very active in the Paris Scclionl, there we:e numerous pellllons and resolutionl that expressed their particular lOCial and political claima (1«=�arkov and Soboul, Dil $alUkW/Ollell <'Oil PM;S, chaps. 2-5, passim). Tiles<: can however, have playcd no part in lIimulating participation in revolutionary move-: ' that of 4-5 September 1793. menlS, �ccpt In
IlOO
THE ANATOMY OF THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD
led up to the march to Vc:rsaiUes or the overthrow of the Girondiru the invasion of the grocers' shops in 1 792 and 1793. or even e essential character of the riots of Germinal and Prairial-and yet these movemenU were an intrinsic part of the Revolution and involved people drawn from (broadly) the same social groups as those who stormed the Bastill�• overthrew . the monarchy, and signed the Champ de Mars petlllon. Above all it does not explain the almost continuous undertone of ial unrest among the menu peuple, which characterized the whole period under review, and with<>.u� which it would �ve to mobtlize been impossible for the contending po��cal the popular battalions o� the great polib�Joumtes themselves. factory explanal10n we shall have to To arrive at a more satlS find some more constant factor than the changing political slogans of the leaders, look more closely at the al demands . of the participants themselves, and test the validity of Georges Lefebvre's contention: 'L'intervention de la foule suppose des motifs particuliers." Perhaps not surprisingly such an nquiry �evea1s �hat the most constant motive of popular insurrection dunng the Revolution' as in the eighteenth century as a whole, was the compelling need of the menu peuph for the provision of cheap . and plentiful bread and other esse�tIals, and the necessary administrative measures to ensure It. We have already ob served that, on more than one occasion, this preoccupation, being at variance with the ideas on free trade an property held by all bourgeois groups, was apt to put a st��m on their alliance with even the most advanced of the politIcal leaders. It would, of course, have been comforting for the journalists of the Palais Royal and the deputies and orators of the revolu tionary Assemblies and Jacobin Club if the common people of the markets and faubourgs had been content to bedeck them selves with tricolour cockades and bonnets rouges and to mouth patriotic-radical slogans without concerning themselves over much with the satisfaction of their own particular needs and grievances-if the R veillo� riote�, for example, h�d not insisted on accompanymg their shoutmg of the unexceptIOnable slogan of'Vive Ie Tiers Iltat!' wi�h the estruction of the �roper ties of such stalwarts of the officl
th
�
�
FUPS
�
�
?
•
�
•
�
G. Lefebvre, l.tJ. RlutH�lionjrQ"'QiJl. l.tJ. r/oolutitnl dl 178g, pp. 14'-�'
THE MOTIVES OF REVOLUTIONARY CROWDS
�Ol
Re�eillon; or if the women of the markets had been merely satiSfied to march to Versailles to fetch the royal family to Pam -as required by the constitutional monarchists-without agitating so violently and vociferously for more bread and better quality flour. This divergence of interest is perhaps best illustrated in the grocery riots of 1 792 and 1793. In the first it was solemnly proposed by theJacobins that the crisis might be solved if only the small consumers would voluntarily abstain from purchasing such 'luxuries' as coffee and sugar-'ces chetives marchandises', as Robespierre termed them; in the second, the rioters who, when the authorities refused to act, imposed their own particular form of price-control, were castigated by both Marat and Robespierre as the dupes of Pitt and the counter.rC\·olution. 'Les hommes du 14 juitlet ne se battent pas pour des bonbons.'1 It was the old social dilemma that few of the revolutionary leaders-the Jacobins only for a brief period in 1794-were prepared to face. Yet Barnave at least showed some appreciation of the problem and its significance for the Revolution when, in relating the events of October 1789 to his constituents, he clearly distinguished between the purely political aims of the bourgeoisie and the predominantly economic preoccupations of the people-'y melant l'interet du pain qui commen�ait a etre rare'.2 The theme ofshortage and high prices (particularly of bread) as a major cause of social disturbance in eighteenth-century France has been given a new emphasis by Professor Labrousse's studies in price fluctuations and budgets in the years preceding the outbreak of the Revolution. He has shown the catastrophic effects on the poorer sections of the urban population in parti cular of the chronic shortage and high price of wheat during these years, reaching a climax in the period 1787 to 1 789.3 We can appreciate better the Parisian wage-earners' hosti lity to the old regime and their willingness to join with the bourgeoisie in destroying it, when we learn, for example, that the proportion of his income that a Paris builder's labourer would have to spend on bread in order to maintain his normal , Mathiez, op. cil., pp. 46-49, 151-7 • Arch. Nat., W. I�, no.. �OO-I. J C.-E. Labrousr..:, LA Crist d, NWII1mUj'Q1IfIJis" pp. xlii·l. .
IlOO
THE ANATOMY OF THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD
led up to the march to Vc:rsaiUes or the overthrow of the Girondiru the invasion of the grocers' shops in 1 792 and 1793. or even e essential character of the riots of Germinal and Prairial-and yet these movemenU were an intrinsic part of the Revolution and involved people drawn from (broadly) the same social groups as those who stormed the Bastill�• overthrew . the monarchy, and signed the Champ de Mars petlllon. Above all it does not explain the almost continuous undertone of ial unrest among the menu peuple, which characterized the whole period under review, and with<>.u� which it would �ve to mobtlize been impossible for the contending po��cal the popular battalions o� the great polib�Joumtes themselves. factory explanal10n we shall have to To arrive at a more satlS find some more constant factor than the changing political slogans of the leaders, look more closely at the al demands . of the participants themselves, and test the validity of Georges Lefebvre's contention: 'L'intervention de la foule suppose des motifs particuliers." Perhaps not surprisingly such an nquiry �evea1s �hat the most constant motive of popular insurrection dunng the Revolution' as in the eighteenth century as a whole, was the compelling need of the menu peuph for the provision of cheap . and plentiful bread and other esse�tIals, and the necessary administrative measures to ensure It. We have already ob served that, on more than one occasion, this preoccupation, being at variance with the ideas on free trade an property held by all bourgeois groups, was apt to put a st��m on their alliance with even the most advanced of the politIcal leaders. It would, of course, have been comforting for the journalists of the Palais Royal and the deputies and orators of the revolu tionary Assemblies and Jacobin Club if the common people of the markets and faubourgs had been content to bedeck them selves with tricolour cockades and bonnets rouges and to mouth patriotic-radical slogans without concerning themselves over much with the satisfaction of their own particular needs and grievances-if the R veillo� riote�, for example, h�d not insisted on accompanymg their shoutmg of the unexceptIOnable slogan of'Vive Ie Tiers Iltat!' wi�h the estruction of the �roper ties of such stalwarts of the officl
th
�
�
FUPS
�
�
?
•
�
•
�
G. Lefebvre, l.tJ. RlutH�lionjrQ"'QiJl. l.tJ. r/oolutitnl dl 178g, pp. 14'-�'
THE MOTIVES OF REVOLUTIONARY CROWDS
�Ol
Re�eillon; or if the women of the markets had been merely satiSfied to march to Versailles to fetch the royal family to Pam -as required by the constitutional monarchists-without agitating so violently and vociferously for more bread and better quality flour. This divergence of interest is perhaps best illustrated in the grocery riots of 1 792 and 1793. In the first it was solemnly proposed by theJacobins that the crisis might be solved if only the small consumers would voluntarily abstain from purchasing such 'luxuries' as coffee and sugar-'ces chetives marchandises', as Robespierre termed them; in the second, the rioters who, when the authorities refused to act, imposed their own particular form of price-control, were castigated by both Marat and Robespierre as the dupes of Pitt and the counter.rC\·olution. 'Les hommes du 14 juitlet ne se battent pas pour des bonbons.'1 It was the old social dilemma that few of the revolutionary leaders-the Jacobins only for a brief period in 1794-were prepared to face. Yet Barnave at least showed some appreciation of the problem and its significance for the Revolution when, in relating the events of October 1789 to his constituents, he clearly distinguished between the purely political aims of the bourgeoisie and the predominantly economic preoccupations of the people-'y melant l'interet du pain qui commen�ait a etre rare'.2 The theme ofshortage and high prices (particularly of bread) as a major cause of social disturbance in eighteenth-century France has been given a new emphasis by Professor Labrousse's studies in price fluctuations and budgets in the years preceding the outbreak of the Revolution. He has shown the catastrophic effects on the poorer sections of the urban population in parti cular of the chronic shortage and high price of wheat during these years, reaching a climax in the period 1787 to 1 789.3 We can appreciate better the Parisian wage-earners' hosti lity to the old regime and their willingness to join with the bourgeoisie in destroying it, when we learn, for example, that the proportion of his income that a Paris builder's labourer would have to spend on bread in order to maintain his normal , Mathiez, op. cil., pp. 46-49, 151-7 • Arch. Nat., W. I�, no.. �OO-I. J C.-E. Labrousr..:, LA Crist d, NWII1mUj'Q1IfIJis" pp. xlii·l. .
202
THE ANATOMY OF THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD
consumption rose from about 50 per cent. in August 1788 to . over 80 per cent. between February andJul� 1 789 [ It is, therefore, not surprising that the pnce and supply of bread should emerge so clearly from contemporary documents as a constant source of popular disquiet during the insurrec
tionary movements of 1788 and the early yean of the Revolu tion. We saw, for instance, that the movement launched by the Palau clerks in the Place Dauphine and on the Pont Neuf to celebrate the recall of the Parlemmt in August 1788 coincided with a sudden sharp rise in the price of bread-and that, a few days later, th menu ptIJple of the faubourgs :"nd markets joined
�
the riots and changed their character. Agam, the fact that the riots, after a fortnight's respite, started up again wi�h renew�d vigour may have been due as much to the further 1Ocreas� 10 the price of bread in early September as to the. enthUSiasm aroused by the dismissal of Lamoignon.1 Further mes followed in November and December and, by the time of the Reveillon riots in April, the price of the 4-lb. loaf had already, for thr�e
whole months stood at the unusually high level of 141 sow; 10 fact, as we ha e seen, it was this high cost and scarcity ofbrea that served as the prime cause of the disturbances, thoug It was not their immediate pretext.l Apart from other suppor�ng evidence, the point is underlined by a report �ent to t e king by the lieutenant of police, Thiroux e Cros�e, 10 t � Illiddle of
�
�
�
?
�
�
the riots: 'Quoique la sedition paralsse touJ�u� dl?gee cont�e Ie sr Reveillon: on demande vivement la dlmmutIon du pnx du pain.'4 Afer this temporary erup on the br�ad motive . appears almost continuously as the malO stImulus m the pr.o tracted popular movement which sprang up �t the end of May,
�
rose to a climax in the days of 12-J4July, again on 5-6 October, and did not visibly subside until the early days of November, when the first stage of the political revolution, which placed
power firmly in the hands of the constitutional monarchists, was already long completed. . . ' In the weeks preceding theJuly revolution, which culmmated in the seizure of the Bastille, Hardy vividly illustrates in his Journal the popular mood and the authorities' constant fear of an outbreak on a larger and more violent scale than that which , See Ap�ndix VII, Table . . • See pp. 42-43.
• Sec pp. 31-32; Hardy, op. <:it. viii. 72. An:h. Nat., C -221, no. 160/146, fo!. 48.
•
THE MOTIVES OF REVOLUTIONARY CROWDS
203
had occurred in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine at the end of April. On nine occasions during May, June, and the early days ofJuly he records the posting ofspecial guards in the markets to quell bread riots. On 13 June he noted that the police had
forbidden a rise in the 4-lb. loaf from 141 to 1 5
sous,
as re
quested by the bakers, for fear of social disturbance. A few days before the political revolution itself, a crowd publicly' burned the
pamphlet, Esperance du peuple, which suggested two prices for
bread-3 sow and 5 sous per lb. 'Le but avait ete mal saisi par
la c1asse inferieure du peuple', wrote Hardy.1 During the July revolution the same theme constantly recurs. A major purpose of the organized attack on the Saint-Lazare monastery in the early houn of 13 July was to remove grain stored in its barns to the central markets, and among the local raiders, who looted its rooms, the cry of 'allons chercher du pain' was heard; while to the wage-earners, shopkeepers, and petty traders who burned
down the customs posts under orders from the poitical l leaders at the Palais Royal the issue was quite a simple one-to ensure cheaper food and drink : as a locksmith seen smashing the furniture in the office of the Chaillot barriire put it, 'nous allons boire Ie vin it trois sols'.l It has, of course, already been amply demonstrated that the popular insurrection of5-6 October, which achieved its political purpose of bringing the royal family to Paris, was even more clearly connected with the provision of bread for the hungry Parisian masses. We have seen that the lull following the murder
of Foullon and his son-in-law, Berthier, on 22 July was short lived. After a good harvest the price of bread was reduced to 12 sow in early August ; but, partly owing to drought, the expected abundance in the bakers' shops did not materialize and the resultant shortage which lasted until November kept the popular movement in a state of continuous animation.
There followed the remarkable series of demonstrations of market-women and others at the Hotel de Ville and at bakers' shops, culminating in the great march to Versailles. Note worthy features of this journie were of course the slogans
shouted by the marchers-'Cherchons Ie boulanger, la bou langere et Ie petit mitron'-and the persistence with which the , Hardy, op. cit. viii. 310, 312, 3<1;0, 33<1;, 341, 3+" 3¥i, 35[, 378, 384. Arch. Nat., Z' ¥>gl; Z'· 886.
,
•
202
THE ANATOMY OF THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD
consumption rose from about 50 per cent. in August 1788 to . over 80 per cent. between February andJul� 1 789 [ It is, therefore, not surprising that the pnce and supply of bread should emerge so clearly from contemporary documents as a constant source of popular disquiet during the insurrec
tionary movements of 1788 and the early yean of the Revolu tion. We saw, for instance, that the movement launched by the Palau clerks in the Place Dauphine and on the Pont Neuf to celebrate the recall of the Parlemmt in August 1788 coincided with a sudden sharp rise in the price of bread-and that, a few days later, th menu ptIJple of the faubourgs :"nd markets joined
�
the riots and changed their character. Agam, the fact that the riots, after a fortnight's respite, started up again wi�h renew�d vigour may have been due as much to the further 1Ocreas� 10 the price of bread in early September as to the. enthUSiasm aroused by the dismissal of Lamoignon.1 Further mes followed in November and December and, by the time of the Reveillon riots in April, the price of the 4-lb. loaf had already, for thr�e
whole months stood at the unusually high level of 141 sow; 10 fact, as we ha e seen, it was this high cost and scarcity ofbrea that served as the prime cause of the disturbances, thoug It was not their immediate pretext.l Apart from other suppor�ng evidence, the point is underlined by a report �ent to t e king by the lieutenant of police, Thiroux e Cros�e, 10 t � Illiddle of
�
�
�
?
�
�
the riots: 'Quoique la sedition paralsse touJ�u� dl?gee cont�e Ie sr Reveillon: on demande vivement la dlmmutIon du pnx du pain.'4 Afer this temporary erup on the br�ad motive . appears almost continuously as the malO stImulus m the pr.o tracted popular movement which sprang up �t the end of May,
�
rose to a climax in the days of 12-J4July, again on 5-6 October, and did not visibly subside until the early days of November, when the first stage of the political revolution, which placed
power firmly in the hands of the constitutional monarchists, was already long completed. . . ' In the weeks preceding theJuly revolution, which culmmated in the seizure of the Bastille, Hardy vividly illustrates in his Journal the popular mood and the authorities' constant fear of an outbreak on a larger and more violent scale than that which , See Ap�ndix VII, Table . . • See pp. 42-43.
• Sec pp. 31-32; Hardy, op. <:it. viii. 72. An:h. Nat., C -221, no. 160/146, fo!. 48.
•
THE MOTIVES OF REVOLUTIONARY CROWDS
203
had occurred in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine at the end of April. On nine occasions during May, June, and the early days ofJuly he records the posting ofspecial guards in the markets to quell bread riots. On 13 June he noted that the police had
forbidden a rise in the 4-lb. loaf from 141 to 1 5
sous,
as re
quested by the bakers, for fear of social disturbance. A few days before the political revolution itself, a crowd publicly' burned the
pamphlet, Esperance du peuple, which suggested two prices for
bread-3 sow and 5 sous per lb. 'Le but avait ete mal saisi par
la c1asse inferieure du peuple', wrote Hardy.1 During the July revolution the same theme constantly recurs. A major purpose of the organized attack on the Saint-Lazare monastery in the early houn of 13 July was to remove grain stored in its barns to the central markets, and among the local raiders, who looted its rooms, the cry of 'allons chercher du pain' was heard; while to the wage-earners, shopkeepers, and petty traders who burned
down the customs posts under orders from the poitical l leaders at the Palais Royal the issue was quite a simple one-to ensure cheaper food and drink : as a locksmith seen smashing the furniture in the office of the Chaillot barriire put it, 'nous allons boire Ie vin it trois sols'.l It has, of course, already been amply demonstrated that the popular insurrection of5-6 October, which achieved its political purpose of bringing the royal family to Paris, was even more clearly connected with the provision of bread for the hungry Parisian masses. We have seen that the lull following the murder
of Foullon and his son-in-law, Berthier, on 22 July was short lived. After a good harvest the price of bread was reduced to 12 sow in early August ; but, partly owing to drought, the expected abundance in the bakers' shops did not materialize and the resultant shortage which lasted until November kept the popular movement in a state of continuous animation.
There followed the remarkable series of demonstrations of market-women and others at the Hotel de Ville and at bakers' shops, culminating in the great march to Versailles. Note worthy features of this journie were of course the slogans
shouted by the marchers-'Cherchons Ie boulanger, la bou langere et Ie petit mitron'-and the persistence with which the , Hardy, op. cit. viii. 310, 312, 3<1;0, 33<1;, 341, 3+" 3¥i, 35[, 378, 384. Arch. Nat., Z' ¥>gl; Z'· 886.
,
•
110+ THE ANATOMY OF THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD women and their spokesman, Maillard, urged the National Assembly to feed the people of Paris,1 The Champ de Mars demonstration, on t e othe: and, although widely supported by the menu peuple 10 a maJonty of
?
�
the Paris Sections, was, in many respects, the most purely
political of the great Parisian joumtts, By early November 1789 the protracted social movement of the first months of the Revolution had been brought to an end as the result of the energetic measures taken by the National
�embly and Com·
mune to supply Paris with cheap and plenuful b,read and to , curb public disorder, The particular prob ems armng from th , , collapse of the assignat and war·ume IOflauon were yet to �ome,
�
�
so it came about that the Champ de Mars demonstrauon, of July 1791 was the only one ofth� great Parisianjoumles which was not associated in any way With a popular d�mand for �he control of bread or of any other commodity of pnme n:cesslty, � conslderab e
�
The demonstration was, it is true, preceded by
wages movement, involving many thousa�ds ofJourneymen 10 , a variety of trades, and by months of agttaUon among the un· employed, threatened with starvation by the closure of the
ateliers de chariti, Yet these movements, though taken under the
c,o
protective wing of the rdeliers Club and its affiliates, can�ot be directly connected With the Champ de Mars demonst�auon itself, and the demands of these workers are not reflected 10 the cross.examination of the numerous wage·earners, shopkee�ers, and workshop masters arrested during this period in the vano� Paris Sections,: In this respect the Champ de Mars affair appears to fall outside the general pattern of social disturbance , that is here emerging, The parucular dem�nds of the commo . people are, in this case, rarely expressed 10 econonuc terms, • See Part n, Chap. v.
�
.
See Part II, Chap. VI. Despite the political importance of these Independent movements ofwage-camen-particularly thO$e of 179' and 179;4:- ey o not . appear to have played any significant part in stimulaung p�rt1c,patlon 'n the . jolllrllu of this period (unlCII, of count:, we include the worken demonstra?on at . the H6tel de Ville on 9 Thcnnidor). The economic motive most frcqumtly ,mpel· ling the wage-earncn was ofmunc the one that they Ihared with e mmu as awhole-the need for cheap and plmtiful b«ad. [For a more dewled mauon ice my article ill the BoJkti� oJlhe I.H.R. (cited n i nOle 3, p. 19Ei above), pp. 71-H·] , There was, however, the lady who, when accu.ted ofinsultin �ayetle and the National Guard, retorted thaI her aCC\lJCr would not be 10 w ll hng 10 aasun;e their defence: 'Ii Ie comparanl avail aUlant de mill que Ics aUlrcs a gagner Ie pa,n qu'il mange' (Arch. Pr8". Pol., � '53, fol. 7); and the kitchen·maid who, when
� �
S
� �
��
exam
THE MOTIVES OF REVO LUTIO NARY CROWDS
20:; Their demands or protests assum e, rather, a political form as witness the numerous insults hurled at the National Guard and the complaints against the Assem bly and citygovernment by those arrested in the course of the move ment. In a sense, there· fore, the Champ de Mars affair and the popular movement of the spring and summer of t 791 mark an important stage in the development of the Parisian sans.r:uloties as a force in the Revolu tion. With the split in the revolutionar y bou geoisie and the determined attempts of the democrats and Republicans to win a firm basis of support among the peopl e, they are beginning to play a more independent part: not only are they voicing the particular programme of the more radical section of the bourgeoisie, but they are beginning, however hesita tingly, to express their own social grievances in a political form. With the spring of t 792 the Revolution entered on a new stage which was to give a new intensity and a new direction to the popular movement. The fall in the value of the tl.fsignat had already begun to react on prices in the autumn of 1791, but it was the outbreak of war that ushered in a long period of catastrophic inflation, during which the attention of the sans culottes was almost continuously riveted to the probl em of prices, food shortage, and the compelling need to force measures of control in the price and supply of the necess ities of life on un· willing authorities. From the point ofview ofthe social historian the whole period is dominated by this preoccupation, It was only by degrees, however, that the Parisi an sans-culottes, with the assistance of the Hebertists and, even more, of the Enrages, found a programme of social demands that corresponded to their particular needs and which they were eventually to force for a brief period on theJacobin Convention in the shape of the Maximum General. In the first place their anger was directed against grocers, as it had previously been directed against bakers and millers, and found expression in attempts by revolu tionary crowds to compel provision merch ants (particularly the more substantial among them) to sell their wares at pre-Revolu tion prices. The first of these move ments-that of January February 1 792-was limited to a few north -central districts and
r
""ked to'explain her hOitility to the National Guard, said me found difficulty in buying bn:ad owing to the baken' lack of small chang<: (Arch. PUr. Pol., Aa 8:). rol. 117).
110+ THE ANATOMY OF THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD women and their spokesman, Maillard, urged the National Assembly to feed the people of Paris,1 The Champ de Mars demonstration, on t e othe: and, although widely supported by the menu peuple 10 a maJonty of
?
�
the Paris Sections, was, in many respects, the most purely
political of the great Parisian joumtts, By early November 1789 the protracted social movement of the first months of the Revolution had been brought to an end as the result of the energetic measures taken by the National
�embly and Com·
mune to supply Paris with cheap and plenuful b,read and to , curb public disorder, The particular prob ems armng from th , , collapse of the assignat and war·ume IOflauon were yet to �ome,
�
�
so it came about that the Champ de Mars demonstrauon, of July 1791 was the only one ofth� great Parisianjoumles which was not associated in any way With a popular d�mand for �he control of bread or of any other commodity of pnme n:cesslty, � conslderab e
�
The demonstration was, it is true, preceded by
wages movement, involving many thousa�ds ofJourneymen 10 , a variety of trades, and by months of agttaUon among the un· employed, threatened with starvation by the closure of the
ateliers de chariti, Yet these movements, though taken under the
c,o
protective wing of the rdeliers Club and its affiliates, can�ot be directly connected With the Champ de Mars demonst�auon itself, and the demands of these workers are not reflected 10 the cross.examination of the numerous wage·earners, shopkee�ers, and workshop masters arrested during this period in the vano� Paris Sections,: In this respect the Champ de Mars affair appears to fall outside the general pattern of social disturbance , that is here emerging, The parucular dem�nds of the commo . people are, in this case, rarely expressed 10 econonuc terms, • See Part n, Chap. v.
�
.
See Part II, Chap. VI. Despite the political importance of these Independent movements ofwage-camen-particularly thO$e of 179' and 179;4:- ey o not . appear to have played any significant part in stimulaung p�rt1c,patlon 'n the . jolllrllu of this period (unlCII, of count:, we include the worken demonstra?on at . the H6tel de Ville on 9 Thcnnidor). The economic motive most frcqumtly ,mpel· ling the wage-earncn was ofmunc the one that they Ihared with e mmu as awhole-the need for cheap and plmtiful b«ad. [For a more dewled mauon ice my article ill the BoJkti� oJlhe I.H.R. (cited n i nOle 3, p. 19Ei above), pp. 71-H·] , There was, however, the lady who, when accu.ted ofinsultin �ayetle and the National Guard, retorted thaI her aCC\lJCr would not be 10 w ll hng 10 aasun;e their defence: 'Ii Ie comparanl avail aUlant de mill que Ics aUlrcs a gagner Ie pa,n qu'il mange' (Arch. Pr8". Pol., � '53, fol. 7); and the kitchen·maid who, when
� �
S
� �
��
exam
THE MOTIVES OF REVO LUTIO NARY CROWDS
20:; Their demands or protests assum e, rather, a political form as witness the numerous insults hurled at the National Guard and the complaints against the Assem bly and citygovernment by those arrested in the course of the move ment. In a sense, there· fore, the Champ de Mars affair and the popular movement of the spring and summer of t 791 mark an important stage in the development of the Parisian sans.r:uloties as a force in the Revolu tion. With the split in the revolutionar y bou geoisie and the determined attempts of the democrats and Republicans to win a firm basis of support among the peopl e, they are beginning to play a more independent part: not only are they voicing the particular programme of the more radical section of the bourgeoisie, but they are beginning, however hesita tingly, to express their own social grievances in a political form. With the spring of t 792 the Revolution entered on a new stage which was to give a new intensity and a new direction to the popular movement. The fall in the value of the tl.fsignat had already begun to react on prices in the autumn of 1791, but it was the outbreak of war that ushered in a long period of catastrophic inflation, during which the attention of the sans culottes was almost continuously riveted to the probl em of prices, food shortage, and the compelling need to force measures of control in the price and supply of the necess ities of life on un· willing authorities. From the point ofview ofthe social historian the whole period is dominated by this preoccupation, It was only by degrees, however, that the Parisi an sans-culottes, with the assistance of the Hebertists and, even more, of the Enrages, found a programme of social demands that corresponded to their particular needs and which they were eventually to force for a brief period on theJacobin Convention in the shape of the Maximum General. In the first place their anger was directed against grocers, as it had previously been directed against bakers and millers, and found expression in attempts by revolu tionary crowds to compel provision merch ants (particularly the more substantial among them) to sell their wares at pre-Revolu tion prices. The first of these move ments-that of January February 1 792-was limited to a few north -central districts and
r
""ked to'explain her hOitility to the National Guard, said me found difficulty in buying bn:ad owing to the baken' lack of small chang<: (Arch. PUr. Pol., Aa 8:). rol. 117).
ARY THE REVOLUTION THE ANATOMY OF
CROWD
no int-Marcel and hathdthe ml-Antoine and tSa wi to the FauboUf85 Saences: n xio ne con at aoX ra e 'u which followed immediate consequ June ":ugust of a : :� political joumllS of 20 r s1ight�t.1 The riots e o�lY er great shortly afterwards, was t far and of �r great f scale moveme not did nt February 1793 wencere,lonOna �� the political importa er the mo z�::t'on National Guard, the ofthe come to a stop aft z�n riot . �nd th� adopuen of a number of arrest of a f�v.: do UVe pa�:auves. I a general sense it con minor adffilwstraa er the ena m r the Maximum General tioued unabated179ft throug� �\� pierre's Revolutionary O ber Septem of 3. in or, to the last outbreak ' IiII in Thco'mdar re Government an,d Its Mo d. d beyon tnaI f the Ye erIllmo, an D Pra�. the sans-culottes lme guided by vem wid � .� the revolutionentof, Ma y-June immediately it b,rge the Jacobin Clu hrwhichf led�? th�·ns by this time identified, 1793 and the 0v�� ;:r� ���ivel�� a �cuioltls at least, ��the in the eyes 0f eor hoarders o.f food. It is not pro.......-. to hated accapartufS daily reports 0f the lice and the National analyse here theand a Of t y rt they establish clearly Guard in April the�ac\ ��e ;:;ati�n of those months for enough that, <1:tes and p �ges of the Convention, lay deep violent remedi the unfnuoUS nse . 10 •lOUU.J prices ] at popular conc�m of I ing power to ' S, though transferr �?�ron.dlO The expulsIOn the this unrest. ay all nothl�g 'mmed.''atJelu�etoare almost the Mountain, did identical lice a bakers' The reports sent i�lbyorpoMa in ad bre of ge rta �: :� i� y. Ap of n se tho th wi in March, and by the . begun to arouse concemriots shops had agam again become qu��es d b dwas thehad end of August bree ad immediate back e. ';��s of,Panslan��r. n� a familiar featu� mt'ts 1 793, directed by a 5 Se tembemer ue ground to the JOu der o�\ . It was undeatr e crt and thau nventio ed the Commune un we sa,,; h t the CoGeneral nanddecid on set their �timulus, as law of t :e ;; to . urn m . aXl the ree udec to instr t las t wh'ICh, as an a rmt.1 fl'7){JlUtlonnalr of on foot the long-delayer,dwa provisi the s.Intended to ensure su'" the ment of the Terro t to Paris from pressure of gram and ffih:nsi adequate suppliesvside stent popular 8 suc round'10g countr J 4 Under pp. " 4-1 .
\I06
•
Wl
'
.
, Ste pp. 95-g6, 10 ... • . ,F" , • Arch. Nr.'., F' 3 •
"
__
, .70'' F'" t i l Seine: 27.
•
� Sec
• S« pp. ,26-7,
THE MOTIVES OF REVOLUTIONARY CROWDS
207
the Convention and the Committee of Public Safety managed, by a policy of controls, to halt inflation and to arrest for several months the fall in the value of the assignat. Yet the demands of a revolutionary war and the hostility of the farmen, who tended to hoard their produce in anticipation of better times or failed to produce at all for fear ofrequisition, kept food in short supply. The resultant hardships and the Committee's attempts to appease the large producers and merchants naturally placed a heavy strain on the alliance between the government and the Parisian sans-culottes, We have already shown that the dis satisfaction thus occasioned, together with the particular grie vance of the wage-earners at the authorities' decision to enforce the Maximum on wages, served to deprive Robespierre and his associates of the popular support on which they might have counted on the fatal night of9-IO Thermidor,' Many Parisians of coune lived to regret the fall of Robes- pierre. Yet they took some time to react: the arrest ofJacobin leaden, the purges of local committees, the closure of political clubs, and, even, the destruction of their own creation, the Maximum General, left them more or less unmoved; but when, largely in consequence of government policy. inflation ran riot and the prices of essential goods soared, a popular movement of formidable proportions took shape, gathered momentum in the early months of 1 795, and broke out in the violent eruptions of Germinal and Prairial. As we saw, this movement merged with and drew strength from the political movement directed by the surviving popular societies and Jacobin remnants, but its most consistent and continuous element was the hunger for bread.1 Yet we must avoid the temptation, to which some historians have succumbed, of presenting the popular insurrection! of the Revolution as being almost exclusively dominated by short term economic considerations-as though each of these move ments were, in essence, an 'emeute de la faim'. This was, of COurse, far from being the case. Not only have we seen that the sons-culottes identified themselves fully with a wide and varying range of political ideas and calls to action as the Revolution advanc�d; but we noted in particular the essentially political nature of the Champ de Mars demonstration and the whole , !ke Part II, Chr.p. IX.
• Sec Pari II, Chr.p. X.
ARY THE REVOLUTION THE ANATOMY OF
CROWD
no int-Marcel and hathdthe ml-Antoine and tSa wi to the FauboUf85 Saences: n xio ne con at aoX ra e 'u which followed immediate consequ June ":ugust of a : :� political joumllS of 20 r s1ight�t.1 The riots e o�lY er great shortly afterwards, was t far and of �r great f scale moveme not did nt February 1793 wencere,lonOna �� the political importa er the mo z�::t'on National Guard, the ofthe come to a stop aft z�n riot . �nd th� adopuen of a number of arrest of a f�v.: do UVe pa�:auves. I a general sense it con minor adffilwstraa er the ena m r the Maximum General tioued unabated179ft throug� �\� pierre's Revolutionary O ber Septem of 3. in or, to the last outbreak ' IiII in Thco'mdar re Government an,d Its Mo d. d beyon tnaI f the Ye erIllmo, an D Pra�. the sans-culottes lme guided by vem wid � .� the revolutionentof, Ma y-June immediately it b,rge the Jacobin Clu hrwhichf led�? th�·ns by this time identified, 1793 and the 0v�� ;:r� ���ivel�� a �cuioltls at least, ��the in the eyes 0f eor hoarders o.f food. It is not pro.......-. to hated accapartufS daily reports 0f the lice and the National analyse here theand a Of t y rt they establish clearly Guard in April the�ac\ ��e ;:;ati�n of those months for enough that, <1:tes and p �ges of the Convention, lay deep violent remedi the unfnuoUS nse . 10 •lOUU.J prices ] at popular conc�m of I ing power to ' S, though transferr �?�ron.dlO The expulsIOn the this unrest. ay all nothl�g 'mmed.''atJelu�etoare almost the Mountain, did identical lice a bakers' The reports sent i�lbyorpoMa in ad bre of ge rta �: :� i� y. Ap of n se tho th wi in March, and by the . begun to arouse concemriots shops had agam again become qu��es d b dwas thehad end of August bree ad immediate back e. ';��s of,Panslan��r. n� a familiar featu� mt'ts 1 793, directed by a 5 Se tembemer ue ground to the JOu der o�\ . It was undeatr e crt and thau nventio ed the Commune un we sa,,; h t the CoGeneral nanddecid on set their �timulus, as law of t :e ;; to . urn m . aXl the ree udec to instr t las t wh'ICh, as an a rmt.1 fl'7){JlUtlonnalr of on foot the long-delayer,dwa provisi the s.Intended to ensure su'" the ment of the Terro t to Paris from pressure of gram and ffih:nsi adequate suppliesvside stent popular 8 suc round'10g countr J 4 Under pp. " 4-1 .
\I06
•
Wl
'
.
, Ste pp. 95-g6, 10 ... • . ,F" , • Arch. Nr.'., F' 3 •
"
__
, .70'' F'" t i l Seine: 27.
•
� Sec
• S« pp. ,26-7,
THE MOTIVES OF REVOLUTIONARY CROWDS
207
the Convention and the Committee of Public Safety managed, by a policy of controls, to halt inflation and to arrest for several months the fall in the value of the assignat. Yet the demands of a revolutionary war and the hostility of the farmen, who tended to hoard their produce in anticipation of better times or failed to produce at all for fear ofrequisition, kept food in short supply. The resultant hardships and the Committee's attempts to appease the large producers and merchants naturally placed a heavy strain on the alliance between the government and the Parisian sans-culottes, We have already shown that the dis satisfaction thus occasioned, together with the particular grie vance of the wage-earners at the authorities' decision to enforce the Maximum on wages, served to deprive Robespierre and his associates of the popular support on which they might have counted on the fatal night of9-IO Thermidor,' Many Parisians of coune lived to regret the fall of Robes- pierre. Yet they took some time to react: the arrest ofJacobin leaden, the purges of local committees, the closure of political clubs, and, even, the destruction of their own creation, the Maximum General, left them more or less unmoved; but when, largely in consequence of government policy. inflation ran riot and the prices of essential goods soared, a popular movement of formidable proportions took shape, gathered momentum in the early months of 1 795, and broke out in the violent eruptions of Germinal and Prairial. As we saw, this movement merged with and drew strength from the political movement directed by the surviving popular societies and Jacobin remnants, but its most consistent and continuous element was the hunger for bread.1 Yet we must avoid the temptation, to which some historians have succumbed, of presenting the popular insurrection! of the Revolution as being almost exclusively dominated by short term economic considerations-as though each of these move ments were, in essence, an 'emeute de la faim'. This was, of COurse, far from being the case. Not only have we seen that the sons-culottes identified themselves fully with a wide and varying range of political ideas and calls to action as the Revolution advanc�d; but we noted in particular the essentially political nature of the Champ de Mars demonstration and the whole , !ke Part II, Chr.p. IX.
• Sec Pari II, Chr.p. X.
'l08
THE ANATOMY OF THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD
preparatory movement leading up to it, not to mention the active support of the sans-culottts for such exclusively military political actions as the assault on the Bastille and the Tuileries and the expulsion of the Girondins from the Convention. In the case of the Champ de Mars affair at least, the threat of famine or ofrising prices played no part whatsoever. On the other hand, we have noted the abstention of the sans-culottes from any direct political intervention in the events ofVendemiaire of the Year IV-in striking contrast with their active participation, a few months earlier, in the days of Germinal and Prairial, though popular concern with bread-shortage and inflation was as acute in the one case as in the other.' The essential difference lay of course in the changed political conditions and in the very differing ainu of the rebels of Vendemiaire from those of Prairial :1 in spite of continuing inflation and near-famine conditions, the active sans-culottts were not prepared to carry their hostility to the Therrnidorian Convention to the point of giving comfort to the declared enemies of the Republic. The point is of interest: for one thing, it serves to disprove the con tention that the mtnu peuple, for lack of political maturity, were
prepared to follow the lead of any demagogue irrespective of their own interests or inclinations; for another, it shows that a satisfactory explanation of popular participation in, or absten tion from, these movements cannot be given without proper account being taken of both political and economic factors and that concentration on the one to the exclusion of the other will only produce a distorted picture. Yet, when all is said and done, the inescapable conclusion remains that the primary and most constant motive impelling revolutionary crowds during this period was the concern for the provision of cheap and plentiful food. This, more than any other factor, was the raw material out of whieh the popular Revolution was forged. It alone accounts for the continuity of the social ferment that was such a marked feature of the capital in these years and out of whieh the great political
joumitJ themselves developed. Even more it accounts for the , S<:e Part II, Chap. XI. • II iI true that the� were other raclo... involved, or which the mOl.t importAllt wlU the pu�ly technical difficulty o{staging a concerted action after the cnahinl defeat of Prairia1; but this docs not invalidate the argument in any way.
THE MOTIVES OF REVO LUTI ONAR Y CROWDS
'log
oc�asional outbreaks of i dependent activi ty by the menu peuple, � gomg ey�nd or runnmg counter to the intere sts of their bourgeolS allIes and castigated by them as 'coun ter-revolutionary' . -5uch outbreaks as the bhnd fury of the Reveillon rioters or the more cons�ructive eff rts of Parisians to impose a form of � popul�r pnce-c ntrol 10 the � ��oce,!, riots of 1 792 and 1793. Yet wlthou� the Impact ofpolltlcal ldeas , mainly derived from the bourgeoIS leaders, such movements would have remained strangely purposeless and barren of resul t; and had the sans �ulottes not been able to absorb and to adapt these ideas, their mfluence on the course and Outcome of the Revolution would have been far less substantial than in fact it was.
?
'l08
THE ANATOMY OF THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD
preparatory movement leading up to it, not to mention the active support of the sans-culottts for such exclusively military political actions as the assault on the Bastille and the Tuileries and the expulsion of the Girondins from the Convention. In the case of the Champ de Mars affair at least, the threat of famine or ofrising prices played no part whatsoever. On the other hand, we have noted the abstention of the sans-culottes from any direct political intervention in the events ofVendemiaire of the Year IV-in striking contrast with their active participation, a few months earlier, in the days of Germinal and Prairial, though popular concern with bread-shortage and inflation was as acute in the one case as in the other.' The essential difference lay of course in the changed political conditions and in the very differing ainu of the rebels of Vendemiaire from those of Prairial :1 in spite of continuing inflation and near-famine conditions, the active sans-culottts were not prepared to carry their hostility to the Therrnidorian Convention to the point of giving comfort to the declared enemies of the Republic. The point is of interest: for one thing, it serves to disprove the con tention that the mtnu peuple, for lack of political maturity, were
prepared to follow the lead of any demagogue irrespective of their own interests or inclinations; for another, it shows that a satisfactory explanation of popular participation in, or absten tion from, these movements cannot be given without proper account being taken of both political and economic factors and that concentration on the one to the exclusion of the other will only produce a distorted picture. Yet, when all is said and done, the inescapable conclusion remains that the primary and most constant motive impelling revolutionary crowds during this period was the concern for the provision of cheap and plentiful food. This, more than any other factor, was the raw material out of whieh the popular Revolution was forged. It alone accounts for the continuity of the social ferment that was such a marked feature of the capital in these years and out of whieh the great political
joumitJ themselves developed. Even more it accounts for the , S<:e Part II, Chap. XI. • II iI true that the� were other raclo... involved, or which the mOl.t importAllt wlU the pu�ly technical difficulty o{staging a concerted action after the cnahinl defeat of Prairia1; but this docs not invalidate the argument in any way.
THE MOTIVES OF REVO LUTI ONAR Y CROWDS
'log
oc�asional outbreaks of i dependent activi ty by the menu peuple, � gomg ey�nd or runnmg counter to the intere sts of their bourgeolS allIes and castigated by them as 'coun ter-revolutionary' . -5uch outbreaks as the bhnd fury of the Reveillon rioters or the more cons�ructive eff rts of Parisians to impose a form of � popul�r pnce-c ntrol 10 the � ��oce,!, riots of 1 792 and 1793. Yet wlthou� the Impact ofpolltlcal ldeas , mainly derived from the bourgeoIS leaders, such movements would have remained strangely purposeless and barren of resul t; and had the sans �ulottes not been able to absorb and to adapt these ideas, their mfluence on the course and Outcome of the Revolution would have been far less substantial than in fact it was.
?
THE GENERATION OF REVOLUTIONARY ACTIVITY
l li l
distributed free of charge to army units by the Ministry of War in 1793,1 served a similar purpose in the barrack�room; and we
are told that the Constitution of 1791 was read aloud and dis- cussed at meetings of outnitrs and others before its adoption by the Assembly,l
XIV F THE G E N ERATION O CTIVITY REVOLUTI ONARY A
�
�
ay we remain, to some of w ich . £ T other questions still eas 1 ry ona olu rev � wece the attem t an answer. How o w did the particular atm Ho ? tted smi tran ns and oga , d ark at t , oISm her or � � e, audacity, sphere of tension, violenc ous )oumteS elop ? How were th� va revolutionary crowds, dev Wh t we prepared and orgaruzed. : crthc Revolution in Paris r ten o ers and the crowds that . the links between the lead nt were t elT to action? To what exte s call r thei to e ons resp in . . . ' actions spontaneous? f e t popular OpiniOn It is evident, of course, tha u o re y ". , fonned the main those who as individuals ulded Y t C direct mo t, par e larg in as. cr wds-w tiona o ans h�ve ottts themselves. Some hl5t � ex e nce of the sans-cul reac� theu of gh nou we have already said c: de ied this,, but to p .. e " hav .. .... to not ts pnc rising food to economiC cnsls and to ' h Wit ed e we are mainly concer� the Oint further, Yet her a ved that the mtnU peupu den thos ideas and slogans , as we sa , ch, whi and ups gro al , assimilated from other soci them mto tical voc�bula and drew , , , both gave them a new poli on sts and poI � clans lutionary Journali action as allies of the revo con eas I e the: e olution, How wer , eracy was the reat 'ournitS of the Rev lllit re whe t, villages �t leas con e e to them? In the n largelY municauon must have bee com such ral ene almos where ns, tow ket mar and s capital oral '! a d eve in provincial rep rts dearth of newspapers,l the Art ur Young found such a alo rd Estate of 1789 were read of the dcputies of the Thi , To � a the ide outs or re squa n their constituents in the mai lCh w t Hebert's PiTt Duchtsru, w We may assume, tOO, tha
Y
l
Z
�
?
� � � rr;: 0
�
� i i � h
0rmaD}0 0
� ?
�
:
,
Yet it would be wrong to assume that the Parisian sans culottts at least had no direct access to the writings of the political
�
r::
�
�
� � �� � I�
, cy at th"IS ume sec E Champion pc:apnt(Pariilhter:a t O ; ..nd D. Momet, � '7119 l, (Paris,pp.1933), pp. 4�pp.o-�·174, J7�, 18�, I8!j-6 iN FrlJ/tU , TrlWtU A, Young 17�, pp. 83-3.j.· , G. Lefebvre, La Grand. Ptur
1 FOf" 19�1 ), coJrinl de l RI,«)/wioltjrlll'\fllisr d. .. 1
og-
lIM JlIlly, til
.
..A
FrlVlt. d'""," Ed , La «I,ulld
S ''nk/J " us 0"l·nt '
thinkers and journalists, In the capital the degree of literacy appears to have been considerably higher than in the provinces :
this is attested by both contemporary observers and police records, Restif de la Bretonne no doubt exaggerated when he wrote in 1789:
Depuis quelque temps, les ouvriers de la capitale sont devenw: intraitables parce qu'ils ont lu, dans nos livres, une verilt� trop forte pour eux : que l'ouvrier est un homme precieux,)
But the police reports of the Chatelet and the Sections on those arrested in riots in this period suggest that the great majority of the small workshop masters and tradesmen, and a large propor tion of the adult male wage-eamers-the journeymen, in particular-could at least sign their names,4 While we may perhaps take it for granted that no considerable body of sans culottes read Rousseau or any other philosopht first-hand,s there is ample evidence that some pamphleteers and political writers addressed themselves directly to them, their women-folk in cluded, This is suggested by the large number of pamphlets not only purporting to reflect the views oftheJauhourgs and markets, but written in popular language, Hebert's Pht Duchtsm is an
obvious case in point ; and it is interesting to note the remark attributed to a market-woman in a tract of 1789, Premitr dialogut of
, Thedainumber ordered by'793the(Tuetcy, Ministry was increased from 8,000 to ly as fromcopiesScplember RlpnlOirt, vol. lI, no. �'.I2'), naJional II Ilfll",", no, viii, 23 April 1791, , Reatifop.detil.,la Brelmlne, iflSl7ijlliDtu. ]tnaMJ illlinu, p. 130; uot by �Iornet, p. 426. lI V. Theandincidence of lileracy orbetweenvaried widely one typeAppend; of wage-catn« another--cvc n more one type of Satu..culDlu an d anOlher. It was considerably higher, wc should expecl, among maste" than amongjourncymen; higher amongjourneymen than mongworuhop 'general' or workersmalein manufacture; considerably higher among men than among workers workers, lowell among the many unemployed worken and women; ¥Id, of P-t':uanu who fillnl. Ihe Dltiirrs ,/will in the early of the Revolution, For a diac1.lDion of quealion Mornct, op. cit., �BI, 449. • !>IITCIIT.
1'.1,000
IB
• Sec
!>ItS
q
coone
aa
•
this
dt
sec
..
months pp.
ed
O.
betw«n
THE GENERATION OF REVOLUTIONARY ACTIVITY
l li l
distributed free of charge to army units by the Ministry of War in 1793,1 served a similar purpose in the barrack�room; and we
are told that the Constitution of 1791 was read aloud and dis- cussed at meetings of outnitrs and others before its adoption by the Assembly,l
XIV F THE G E N ERATION O CTIVITY REVOLUTI ONARY A
�
�
ay we remain, to some of w ich . £ T other questions still eas 1 ry ona olu rev � wece the attem t an answer. How o w did the particular atm Ho ? tted smi tran ns and oga , d ark at t , oISm her or � � e, audacity, sphere of tension, violenc ous )oumteS elop ? How were th� va revolutionary crowds, dev Wh t we prepared and orgaruzed. : crthc Revolution in Paris r ten o ers and the crowds that . the links between the lead nt were t elT to action? To what exte s call r thei to e ons resp in . . . ' actions spontaneous? f e t popular OpiniOn It is evident, of course, tha u o re y ". , fonned the main those who as individuals ulded Y t C direct mo t, par e larg in as. cr wds-w tiona o ans h�ve ottts themselves. Some hl5t � ex e nce of the sans-cul reac� theu of gh nou we have already said c: de ied this,, but to p .. e " hav .. .... to not ts pnc rising food to economiC cnsls and to ' h Wit ed e we are mainly concer� the Oint further, Yet her a ved that the mtnU peupu den thos ideas and slogans , as we sa , ch, whi and ups gro al , assimilated from other soci them mto tical voc�bula and drew , , , both gave them a new poli on sts and poI � clans lutionary Journali action as allies of the revo con eas I e the: e olution, How wer , eracy was the reat 'ournitS of the Rev lllit re whe t, villages �t leas con e e to them? In the n largelY municauon must have bee com such ral ene almos where ns, tow ket mar and s capital oral '! a d eve in provincial rep rts dearth of newspapers,l the Art ur Young found such a alo rd Estate of 1789 were read of the dcputies of the Thi , To � a the ide outs or re squa n their constituents in the mai lCh w t Hebert's PiTt Duchtsru, w We may assume, tOO, tha
Y
l
Z
�
?
� � � rr;: 0
�
� i i � h
0rmaD}0 0
� ?
�
:
,
Yet it would be wrong to assume that the Parisian sans culottts at least had no direct access to the writings of the political
�
r::
�
�
� � �� � I�
, cy at th"IS ume sec E Champion pc:apnt(Pariilhter:a t O ; ..nd D. Momet, � '7119 l, (Paris,pp.1933), pp. 4�pp.o-�·174, J7�, 18�, I8!j-6 iN FrlJ/tU , TrlWtU A, Young 17�, pp. 83-3.j.· , G. Lefebvre, La Grand. Ptur
1 FOf" 19�1 ), coJrinl de l RI,«)/wioltjrlll'\fllisr d. .. 1
og-
lIM JlIlly, til
.
..A
FrlVlt. d'""," Ed , La «I,ulld
S ''nk/J " us 0"l·nt '
thinkers and journalists, In the capital the degree of literacy appears to have been considerably higher than in the provinces :
this is attested by both contemporary observers and police records, Restif de la Bretonne no doubt exaggerated when he wrote in 1789:
Depuis quelque temps, les ouvriers de la capitale sont devenw: intraitables parce qu'ils ont lu, dans nos livres, une verilt� trop forte pour eux : que l'ouvrier est un homme precieux,)
But the police reports of the Chatelet and the Sections on those arrested in riots in this period suggest that the great majority of the small workshop masters and tradesmen, and a large propor tion of the adult male wage-eamers-the journeymen, in particular-could at least sign their names,4 While we may perhaps take it for granted that no considerable body of sans culottes read Rousseau or any other philosopht first-hand,s there is ample evidence that some pamphleteers and political writers addressed themselves directly to them, their women-folk in cluded, This is suggested by the large number of pamphlets not only purporting to reflect the views oftheJauhourgs and markets, but written in popular language, Hebert's Pht Duchtsm is an
obvious case in point ; and it is interesting to note the remark attributed to a market-woman in a tract of 1789, Premitr dialogut of
, Thedainumber ordered by'793the(Tuetcy, Ministry was increased from 8,000 to ly as fromcopiesScplember RlpnlOirt, vol. lI, no. �'.I2'), naJional II Ilfll",", no, viii, 23 April 1791, , Reatifop.detil.,la Brelmlne, iflSl7ijlliDtu. ]tnaMJ illlinu, p. 130; uot by �Iornet, p. 426. lI V. Theandincidence of lileracy orbetweenvaried widely one typeAppend; of wage-catn« another--cvc n more one type of Satu..culDlu an d anOlher. It was considerably higher, wc should expecl, among maste" than amongjourncymen; higher amongjourneymen than mongworuhop 'general' or workersmalein manufacture; considerably higher among men than among workers workers, lowell among the many unemployed worken and women; ¥Id, of P-t':uanu who fillnl. Ihe Dltiirrs ,/will in the early of the Revolution, For a diac1.lDion of quealion Mornct, op. cit., �BI, 449. • !>IITCIIT.
1'.1,000
IB
• Sec
!>ItS
q
coone
aa
•
this
dt
sec
..
months pp.
ed
O.
betw«n
212
CRO WD E REV OL UT ION AR Y THE ANATOMY OF TH
, la halle: 'Dame! j'savons lire entre une poissarde et un fort de ch rea to orts in 179 1 made special eff j'espere !'L The democrats le pub ion : Marat's Ami du prop
the wage-earning populat kers j1 en cobblers and building wor lished letters from journeym c1asse 'Ia of ent cribing the enrolm and Louise Robert, in des May in s ietie Soc al on' in Fratern la moins eclairee de la nati ient ava lui ils s: plu nt ne lui suffisaie 179 1, wrote : 'Lesjournaux the ng amo too, e, enc evid is 'l There inspire Ie desir de s'instruire. rs Ma de mp Cha the with nexion police reports drawn up in con , tion ch suggests that a fair propor affair of the same year, whi the mcn and other workers read at least, of the active journey cook, Constance Evrard, told the revolutionary press. Thus Section the Fontaine de Crenelle the police commissioner of Des ille Cam Marat, Audouin, 'qu'elle lisait Prudhomme, cco toba a j4 ateur du Peuple' moulins et tres souvent l'Or du mi L'A of n found in possessio worker, when arrested, was from s view his ve deri med to peuplej a commercial traveller clai neyman cobbler asserted jour a and e; mm dho Pru Marat and tic through reading the democra that his opinions were formed sted arre ons pers 250 the of , that press.s It is perhaps significant l charges during this period, tica poli on ions Sect is Par in the phlets accused of distributing pam twelve were news-vendors, with case customers.6 If this is the and newspapers among such o dem the t can only assume tha the active wage-earners, we k wor ll sma the e widely among cratic press circulated far mor r thei than ate liter e were mor shop masters and tradesmen, who s. their view journeymen and often moulded the journals and pamphlets that e, efor ther ly, like s It seem the shaping popular opinion on played an important part in t, day and, on occasion at leas in main political questions of the ctly for the great revolutionary preparing such opinion dire seen the part played by the events in the capital. We have of deliers Club in the agitation democratic press and the Cor and ts chan mer nst tement agai 1 7 9 ' ; and Marat's ferocious inci y '793 no doubt contributed ruar Feb 5 eof'2 icist Publ grocers in Lt
7577, p. 16. June 1791, pp. 1-5' no. 468, 24 May 1791, p. 7; no. 487, 12 p. 376. 1791, May 10 no. xxiv, f, 'trang. d l }'I.r<�" "a/iaM See p. 87. 36, fol. 40; Arch. Nat., DXXIXb Arch. l'rH. Pol., Ab 324, p. 44; Nt. 76, IV. • �e Appendix 376, fo!. 37.
I Bib. Nat., Lb'" 1 L'Ami dupeupl.,
, •
• no.
THE GENERATION O F REVOLUTIONARY A CT I V I TY 1I13
�
�
to t e atmosp ere of the grocery riots that immediately followed Aga1O, accordmg to police informers, more than 500 copies o the p �mphlet, L'lnsurrectjon du peuple, were distributed in a propnately selected districts of the capital on the eve of t revolt of 1st Prairial of the Year III.' Yet, by and large, it see probable th�t the great body of participants in these events were drawn m by other means. A more systematic indoctrination of the sans-culottes with the . . Ideas of the advanced political groups took place by th enrolme?t in the Natio?al Guard and, above all, in the c1u . and Socletlcs and SectIOnal committees. It IS - m - terestmg to observ� h�w the sons-culottes, at first excluded from positions of authonty 10 such bodies, gradually came to 'capture' them and even, for a brief period, to convert them into vehicl!or the ..... ' . . own views expression 0fthelr rather than those of the porti l at leaders �ho established them. When the National Guard as orme� m Ju y 1 789, Barnave rejoiced that, in large part at . . . • east, It was bonne bourgeoise" "l soon atite'"J passIVe CItizens 1" cllly ebarred from its ranks ;l yet such distinctions were Imp � - , were abolIshed m the summer of 1)92 ,- and, WI-th Hannot s . appomtment as commander-in_chief in May 1793, it became lar�ely composed of sans-culottes and, for many months' it re mamed the obedient instrument of the Jacobin Commune. There seems 1�t.t1e dDubt that it was under these conditions that the future milItary cadres of the armed uprising of Prairial developed. An e��n more signifi�ant part in the political education of the PansJan menu peuple In Jacobin principles must have been play�d by the clubs and popular societies. We have already con�ld.ere the rDI� of certain of these, the so-called Fraternal SOCletl�s, m mo�ldl?g the opinion of cooks, water-carriers, and other Slmple� ouuyurs 10 the months preceding the Champ de M demonstration and petition Ofl79 I-at a time when the 'pare . th� Co�dehers Club, opened its doors to 'passive' citizens y reducmg �ts �ubscription to '2 soU! a month." During this . . penod, SOCieties hke the Club Fratemel des Jacobins, the Club
f
e � _
��
i
}
:
�
�
�Y'
��
· · I. - 735· ,-A. Aulard, Paris ptruliJn.l14 r'tJtli01l IhmnidiJr . ' M �, nos. 197-8. " , ,, .... ' 0,00IU,-"'" fi,allflUU .._ ., Ia .... ( 1 M. Tourncux, Bibliogrophil. d. l'hiJ/Qir' tit Pilris Y' .. no, 670�. • Sec pp. 85-86. 5 v J..s. Pans, ' 1 Il...":12-1913), II,
, ' Are, ", Nal., \ II 12,
o
212
CRO WD E REV OL UT ION AR Y THE ANATOMY OF TH
, la halle: 'Dame! j'savons lire entre une poissarde et un fort de ch rea to orts in 179 1 made special eff j'espere !'L The democrats le pub ion : Marat's Ami du prop
the wage-earning populat kers j1 en cobblers and building wor lished letters from journeym c1asse 'Ia of ent cribing the enrolm and Louise Robert, in des May in s ietie Soc al on' in Fratern la moins eclairee de la nati ient ava lui ils s: plu nt ne lui suffisaie 179 1, wrote : 'Lesjournaux the ng amo too, e, enc evid is 'l There inspire Ie desir de s'instruire. rs Ma de mp Cha the with nexion police reports drawn up in con , tion ch suggests that a fair propor affair of the same year, whi the mcn and other workers read at least, of the active journey cook, Constance Evrard, told the revolutionary press. Thus Section the Fontaine de Crenelle the police commissioner of Des ille Cam Marat, Audouin, 'qu'elle lisait Prudhomme, cco toba a j4 ateur du Peuple' moulins et tres souvent l'Or du mi L'A of n found in possessio worker, when arrested, was from s view his ve deri med to peuplej a commercial traveller clai neyman cobbler asserted jour a and e; mm dho Pru Marat and tic through reading the democra that his opinions were formed sted arre ons pers 250 the of , that press.s It is perhaps significant l charges during this period, tica poli on ions Sect is Par in the phlets accused of distributing pam twelve were news-vendors, with case customers.6 If this is the and newspapers among such o dem the t can only assume tha the active wage-earners, we k wor ll sma the e widely among cratic press circulated far mor r thei than ate liter e were mor shop masters and tradesmen, who s. their view journeymen and often moulded the journals and pamphlets that e, efor ther ly, like s It seem the shaping popular opinion on played an important part in t, day and, on occasion at leas in main political questions of the ctly for the great revolutionary preparing such opinion dire seen the part played by the events in the capital. We have of deliers Club in the agitation democratic press and the Cor and ts chan mer nst tement agai 1 7 9 ' ; and Marat's ferocious inci y '793 no doubt contributed ruar Feb 5 eof'2 icist Publ grocers in Lt
7577, p. 16. June 1791, pp. 1-5' no. 468, 24 May 1791, p. 7; no. 487, 12 p. 376. 1791, May 10 no. xxiv, f, 'trang. d l }'I.r<�" "a/iaM See p. 87. 36, fol. 40; Arch. Nat., DXXIXb Arch. l'rH. Pol., Ab 324, p. 44; Nt. 76, IV. • �e Appendix 376, fo!. 37.
I Bib. Nat., Lb'" 1 L'Ami dupeupl.,
, •
• no.
THE GENERATION O F REVOLUTIONARY A CT I V I TY 1I13
�
�
to t e atmosp ere of the grocery riots that immediately followed Aga1O, accordmg to police informers, more than 500 copies o the p �mphlet, L'lnsurrectjon du peuple, were distributed in a propnately selected districts of the capital on the eve of t revolt of 1st Prairial of the Year III.' Yet, by and large, it see probable th�t the great body of participants in these events were drawn m by other means. A more systematic indoctrination of the sans-culottes with the . . Ideas of the advanced political groups took place by th enrolme?t in the Natio?al Guard and, above all, in the c1u . and Socletlcs and SectIOnal committees. It IS - m - terestmg to observ� h�w the sons-culottes, at first excluded from positions of authonty 10 such bodies, gradually came to 'capture' them and even, for a brief period, to convert them into vehicl!or the ..... ' . . own views expression 0fthelr rather than those of the porti l at leaders �ho established them. When the National Guard as orme� m Ju y 1 789, Barnave rejoiced that, in large part at . . . • east, It was bonne bourgeoise" "l soon atite'"J passIVe CItizens 1" cllly ebarred from its ranks ;l yet such distinctions were Imp � - , were abolIshed m the summer of 1)92 ,- and, WI-th Hannot s . appomtment as commander-in_chief in May 1793, it became lar�ely composed of sans-culottes and, for many months' it re mamed the obedient instrument of the Jacobin Commune. There seems 1�t.t1e dDubt that it was under these conditions that the future milItary cadres of the armed uprising of Prairial developed. An e��n more signifi�ant part in the political education of the PansJan menu peuple In Jacobin principles must have been play�d by the clubs and popular societies. We have already con�ld.ere the rDI� of certain of these, the so-called Fraternal SOCletl�s, m mo�ldl?g the opinion of cooks, water-carriers, and other Slmple� ouuyurs 10 the months preceding the Champ de M demonstration and petition Ofl79 I-at a time when the 'pare . th� Co�dehers Club, opened its doors to 'passive' citizens y reducmg �ts �ubscription to '2 soU! a month." During this . . penod, SOCieties hke the Club Fratemel des Jacobins, the Club
f
e � _
��
i
}
:
�
�
�Y'
��
· · I. - 735· ,-A. Aulard, Paris ptruliJn.l14 r'tJtli01l IhmnidiJr . ' M �, nos. 197-8. " , ,, .... ' 0,00IU,-"'" fi,allflUU .._ ., Ia .... ( 1 M. Tourncux, Bibliogrophil. d. l'hiJ/Qir' tit Pilris Y' .. no, 670�. • Sec pp. 85-86. 5 v J..s. Pans, ' 1 Il...":12-1913), II,
, ' Are, ", Nal., \ II 12,
o
ill4-
THE ANATOM Y OF THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD
!
des HaIles, and the Societe des Ennemis du Despotisme. argely composed of such dements, were able to a�tract meeu!"gs of , , 300 to 800 persons,' By early 1792 the SOCIeues wer� s�nngtng up everywhere and, in May of that year, the complatnt lS ade tbat the workers of the Gobelins tapestry manufacture sont , r of toujours de garde ou de club',1 A year later a bookhmde , the Pantheon quarter protests at the scandalous behaVIour of the workers employed on the construction of the c urch of Sainte.Genevieve, 'qui sc sont formes en club d se reuDissent en . , ., dehors et apres l'assemhlee de Ia seeUon The Revolutionary Committees were, from the start, largely , . rePre composed ofsans-culottes: at the inaugural meeung of theIr . sentatives they petitioned the Commune and the Co�venuo � to indemnify their members, 'presque touS des ouvn�rs qUi vivent de leur travail'.4 Even the ChaJllPs tlysces SectlOn, on the western boundary of the fashionable rc;sidentia quart:�, , had, in June 1 793, a Committee 'compose d ouv�ers, meles avec quelques bourgeois'.s From figures quoted earher w.e s�w that in the Year II the overwhelming majority of commtSSa!res were shopkeepers, small workshop masters, and independent craftsmen, while only a little over a quarter were made up of renters, i manufacturers, civil servants, contractors, and members of the professions.' While we know a great deal less of the com position of the Popular Societies in Paris, it appears to have been somewhat similar;7 the same is true of th� Commune of this period;8 and the regular attendance o a fair body of sans culottes at the general meetings of the Secllons was assured by the payment of40 sous as compensation for time lost from work.�
�
�
�
�
, 1. Bourdin, In S«iilis JIoIIuUJirrs d Paris p.ndaroJ /� RllIOiululII (hr:', 1 937), pp. 131--"9. Mlle Bourdin', account coven only the penod 17�' • Ac<:h. N..t., 0' 11053· . . . • Duuud's report to Garat on 119 May 1793 {A. Schmidt, op. (:It. I. 330) . J Sehmidt, op. cit i�. 511. • Sec pp. 130-1. • Arch. N t., F' 1150. : . t;"t th m m� for Pans. C!f lV v r u • Then: is only a handrul oflUch lists now s mplet th hu� etRqrubhcalnede I U ..t I have seen is that or the Socittt popu 9 in the Thtitre Fran�aiJ Section, whole 1180 memben m J,,?�al)' 17 4 comp . lOme 1100 crafumen and shopkeepen in 6o-odd tradco (15 jOtnen, 114 tallon, and shoc:m..lr.en) 118 clerks 16 misccllanwUl wage-carnen, and I. score oImerchants. ntr..cton, and slock-jobbc (Brit. Mus., F. 827 �5)) ' What little I know of membcnhip ofprovinciai JO(:ictico l owe to Mr. RIchard Cobb, who has wor . • • See p. 131. I retOrd.s. ulensivdy on French provincia . . ' • E. Mclli�, us &diDns r/, Paris pmdlVll /0: /UvolUIIOII jrtJ",nu, {Pans, 18,.) •
co
�
P· 145·
e
..
t!'ese
....
�
�
�
THE GEN ERA TIO N OF REVOLUTIONARY ACT IVIT Y
This being the case, it is not surp rising that these bodies often became centres for the propaga tion of the views of the sans �otUs themselves-derived in part, it is true, from the revolu tlon�ry leaders- ther than of those of the majority in the ':" National Convention. This, of course, helps to explain why the larg�r part of the societies was compelled to close down and the mdependence of the Sect ions restricted in the spring of J 7941-a process that was completed by' the more 'mo dera te' Conventio after Thermidor, with the wholesale 'purging' � and reconstrucllon of the Commun e, the comitis ciuils and comitls rioolutionnaires, and the withdraw al of the 'forty sous'.' A:5 we have seen, by September J 795 , there were no societies club s committees, or assemblies that still directly voiced the o inio of the sans-culottes and, when the primary assemblies were convened to discu the draft Con stitution of the Year III, only � a h.and ul f ouvnm attended � their meetings.J Henceforward, their agitation and the utteranc e of their grievances were onc e more confined to the streets, wor kshops, and markets. Wi.th all thi , a onsiderableperhaps the preponderating � � part 10 spreadmg Ideas and mou lding opinions must still have been played by the spoken word in public meeting-places workshop�, wine-shops, markets , and food-shops. There ample eVidence for this view in the police reports and othe r cont�mporary comment on the disturbances of the period. Dunng the rivolte nohiliaire, it was the Pont Neuf and Plac e Dauphine that se ed as the main focal points of politica � . l gossip and revolullonary agit ation: this was of course due to their im�ediate proximity to the Palais de Justice, where the parlenunlalres and their mos t vocal supporters, the law yers' clerks and ushers, bo h ad the r scene of operations. In June � 1 789 the centre of agItatlon, which had lain for a while in the eastern /trubourgs, shifted to the Palais Royal where the Duk e �f Orleans and his retinue oforat ors, pamphl teers, and journa hsts had established their hea dquarters. It was from here that the crowds set out on the nigh t of 30 June to release the eleven Gardes Fran�ais from the Abbaye prison, where they had been locked up for refusing to fire on Parisians who had
�
�
215
�
i;
�
�
:
• 1)iirty.nine of these WeT<: dosed down in Par� during May-June 1 79+ alone (A. Soboul, 'Robapierre and the Popular Movement of ' 9 7 3-4', PaJl lIIIIi Proso/ll, 9 May [ 54, p. Gg). • See p. '43. ) See p. [66.
ill4-
THE ANATOM Y OF THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD
!
des HaIles, and the Societe des Ennemis du Despotisme. argely composed of such dements, were able to a�tract meeu!"gs of , , 300 to 800 persons,' By early 1792 the SOCIeues wer� s�nngtng up everywhere and, in May of that year, the complatnt lS ade tbat the workers of the Gobelins tapestry manufacture sont , r of toujours de garde ou de club',1 A year later a bookhmde , the Pantheon quarter protests at the scandalous behaVIour of the workers employed on the construction of the c urch of Sainte.Genevieve, 'qui sc sont formes en club d se reuDissent en . , ., dehors et apres l'assemhlee de Ia seeUon The Revolutionary Committees were, from the start, largely , . rePre composed ofsans-culottes: at the inaugural meeung of theIr . sentatives they petitioned the Commune and the Co�venuo � to indemnify their members, 'presque touS des ouvn�rs qUi vivent de leur travail'.4 Even the ChaJllPs tlysces SectlOn, on the western boundary of the fashionable rc;sidentia quart:�, , had, in June 1 793, a Committee 'compose d ouv�ers, meles avec quelques bourgeois'.s From figures quoted earher w.e s�w that in the Year II the overwhelming majority of commtSSa!res were shopkeepers, small workshop masters, and independent craftsmen, while only a little over a quarter were made up of renters, i manufacturers, civil servants, contractors, and members of the professions.' While we know a great deal less of the com position of the Popular Societies in Paris, it appears to have been somewhat similar;7 the same is true of th� Commune of this period;8 and the regular attendance o a fair body of sans culottes at the general meetings of the Secllons was assured by the payment of40 sous as compensation for time lost from work.�
�
�
�
�
, 1. Bourdin, In S«iilis JIoIIuUJirrs d Paris p.ndaroJ /� RllIOiululII (hr:', 1 937), pp. 131--"9. Mlle Bourdin', account coven only the penod 17�' • Ac<:h. N..t., 0' 11053· . . . • Duuud's report to Garat on 119 May 1793 {A. Schmidt, op. (:It. I. 330) . J Sehmidt, op. cit i�. 511. • Sec pp. 130-1. • Arch. N t., F' 1150. : . t;"t th m m� for Pans. C!f lV v r u • Then: is only a handrul oflUch lists now s mplet th hu� etRqrubhcalnede I U ..t I have seen is that or the Socittt popu 9 in the Thtitre Fran�aiJ Section, whole 1180 memben m J,,?�al)' 17 4 comp . lOme 1100 crafumen and shopkeepen in 6o-odd tradco (15 jOtnen, 114 tallon, and shoc:m..lr.en) 118 clerks 16 misccllanwUl wage-carnen, and I. score oImerchants. ntr..cton, and slock-jobbc (Brit. Mus., F. 827 �5)) ' What little I know of membcnhip ofprovinciai JO(:ictico l owe to Mr. RIchard Cobb, who has wor . • • See p. 131. I retOrd.s. ulensivdy on French provincia . . ' • E. Mclli�, us &diDns r/, Paris pmdlVll /0: /UvolUIIOII jrtJ",nu, {Pans, 18,.) •
co
�
P· 145·
e
..
t!'ese
....
�
�
�
THE GEN ERA TIO N OF REVOLUTIONARY ACT IVIT Y
This being the case, it is not surp rising that these bodies often became centres for the propaga tion of the views of the sans �otUs themselves-derived in part, it is true, from the revolu tlon�ry leaders- ther than of those of the majority in the ':" National Convention. This, of course, helps to explain why the larg�r part of the societies was compelled to close down and the mdependence of the Sect ions restricted in the spring of J 7941-a process that was completed by' the more 'mo dera te' Conventio after Thermidor, with the wholesale 'purging' � and reconstrucllon of the Commun e, the comitis ciuils and comitls rioolutionnaires, and the withdraw al of the 'forty sous'.' A:5 we have seen, by September J 795 , there were no societies club s committees, or assemblies that still directly voiced the o inio of the sans-culottes and, when the primary assemblies were convened to discu the draft Con stitution of the Year III, only � a h.and ul f ouvnm attended � their meetings.J Henceforward, their agitation and the utteranc e of their grievances were onc e more confined to the streets, wor kshops, and markets. Wi.th all thi , a onsiderableperhaps the preponderating � � part 10 spreadmg Ideas and mou lding opinions must still have been played by the spoken word in public meeting-places workshop�, wine-shops, markets , and food-shops. There ample eVidence for this view in the police reports and othe r cont�mporary comment on the disturbances of the period. Dunng the rivolte nohiliaire, it was the Pont Neuf and Plac e Dauphine that se ed as the main focal points of politica � . l gossip and revolullonary agit ation: this was of course due to their im�ediate proximity to the Palais de Justice, where the parlenunlalres and their mos t vocal supporters, the law yers' clerks and ushers, bo h ad the r scene of operations. In June � 1 789 the centre of agItatlon, which had lain for a while in the eastern /trubourgs, shifted to the Palais Royal where the Duk e �f Orleans and his retinue oforat ors, pamphl teers, and journa hsts had established their hea dquarters. It was from here that the crowds set out on the nigh t of 30 June to release the eleven Gardes Fran�ais from the Abbaye prison, where they had been locked up for refusing to fire on Parisians who had
�
�
215
�
i;
�
�
:
• 1)iirty.nine of these WeT<: dosed down in Par� during May-June 1 79+ alone (A. Soboul, 'Robapierre and the Popular Movement of ' 9 7 3-4', PaJl lIIIIi Proso/ll, 9 May [ 54, p. Gg). • See p. '43. ) See p. [66.
1116
THE ANATOMY OF THE REVOLUTIONA RY CROWD
demonstrated at Versailles against the attempt to dismiss Necker a week before.1 It was at the Palais Royal, too, that Camille Desmoulins and others gave the call to arms on 1 2 July, which touched off the Paris revolution; a?d it was from
eres, to search here that parties set out to destroy the bam religious houses and gunsmiths' shops for arms, and to fetch . grain to the central markets from the monastery of the S�lI�t Lazare brotherhood.1 The Palais Royal played its part agam 10 preparing opinion for the march to Versailles in October: it was in its gardens and cafes that the Marquis �e
�",:int-Hux:u�e and
his associates tried to force the pace by moong Panslans �o
march at the end of August; and, with greater sur;cess, Its orators repeated the incitement on 4- October,l In the years to come the arcades and gardens of the Palais Royal (soon to be renamed the Maison de l'Egalite) became notorious as a
haunt of prostitutes, money-jobbers, speculators, �nd gamblers rather than of political journalists or � rato�; but It reappeared as a centre of agitation after Thenrudor: It was the scene of verbal exchanges between mtLfcadins and sans-culottes in t�e
!
spring of 1795 and of more violent outbreaks between r�y�lis , youth and republican trooPs. in the day's before V� ndemlalre. hpsed by the On other occasions the Pala ls Royal might be ec Place de Greve, lying within easy reach of the popular distri�ts and on the threshold of the city government (we have seen
I�
importance on 13 July, on 5 October 1789, and on 9 Thernu . dor) ;5 or again by the Champ de Mars, the mam venue for the . great organized demonstrations of celebratlon, or the Terr:use . des Feuillants, at the entrance to the NatlOnal ConventIon.
Other local ra.1lying centres were the Grande rue du Faubourg
Saint-Antoine and the rue Mouffetard. i less frequently that we find documentary evidence of the It s part played in preparing popular opinion by the small work shop, where master and journeyman worked, and often supped
, Hardy, up. cit. viii. 373; RtltJliIm th te qui "atJxw!.i rA�HJ" SI. c�, .Bib. Nat., Lb" 1882; M. Rouff, 'Le peuple ouvrier de Pans aux Joumm du 30 JUlD et 30 aout 1789', La Rkollllil1ftj,ilflfilu" Ixiii (July-Oceanbet' 1?12), 430-5+· I Se<: pp. 70 -71, 72. See pp. 148, ,Gg. , See pp. ¥I-�'. I See pp. !i1 -�5, 74-75, ' 37-9. Police soundings on the Iiale of 1IHU-(;�IQ�1t. opinion tended, in the year ' 793-4, to be taken in �he Place de Grhe; later lD 179�, however, the favourite ccntre for such opcr�uonl appea" to have move� north 10 the Portes Saint-Martin and Saint-Dctm (lICe Caron., and Aulard I eolle(tions of police raPJKnI3 for the period, pew;,").
THE GENE RAT ION OF REVO LUT IONA RY ACT IVIT Y 1117
and slept, under the same roof, and wher e the former's influence affecting the questions of the day must often have been decisive. Yet we catch occasional glimpses of this relationship in the police reports. We saw, for instance, how the porcelain manu facturer Olivier, deliberately or other wise, incited his work people against Reveillon by relating in lurid detail the speech that the latter was reputed to have made in the local assembly of the Sainte.Marguerite District concerning his workmen's wages.' More typical are the cases where masters and journey_ men shoulder arms together to parti cipate in the armed up_ risings of the Revolution : we saw how the brewer Santerre was followed to the Bastille by one of his journeymen (and there m�st have �een man other such cases that day in the Faubourg y Samt.Antome) ; agam, we saw Pierr e Homettc, a journeyman cabinet-maker, accompanying his empl oyer to the Tuileries on 10 August 1792 ; and farmer Guerre of the Inva lides Section arranging for the attendance unde r arms of his two [arm. hands during the revolution of May -June 1793.z On other occasions we hear ofworkshop masters being accused by hostile witnesses of inciting their workpeop le to take part in such movements as the Champ de Mars demonst.ration and the rebellion of Prairial.J
The wine-shop may have been equally potent as a channel of communication for revolutionary ideas . Not only do wine merchants appear to have been a most consistent revolutionary group-note their numbers at the Bastille and, even more, at the burning of the barrierut-but their shops were the common re sorts of the mtnu ptuple of thcfaubourgs and markets who, on Sundays and Mondays in particular, flocke d beyond the barritrtS to the popular taverns of La Courtille, Les Poreherons, and La Nouvelle France. These became ready centres for gossip and exchanges of news and rumour; for this and other reasons it is 'Perhaps no coincidence that so many of the great journtts in Paris should have started or gathered mom entum at the week end.s Gustave Bord overstates his case, but there may be more I Sec pp. 40, 43. R See pp. 8, 107, 124. 5 , Arch. PrH. PoL, Aa 1�3, fol. 6; Arch. Nat. f14707, doss. �; f'l' 4735, dOlI. 2. • Se<: Appendix IV and pp. 181, 185. � 'Jihe ReveilJon riOtll and women 't mardi of 17B!l and the grocery riOtll of 1793 were on Monda ; Ihe Parit revolution of 1789 began on a Sunday; the Champ de � Man demonstratIon ofJuly 1791 Will held on a Sunday; � June 1793 (the crucial
,
1116
THE ANATOMY OF THE REVOLUTIONA RY CROWD
demonstrated at Versailles against the attempt to dismiss Necker a week before.1 It was at the Palais Royal, too, that Camille Desmoulins and others gave the call to arms on 1 2 July, which touched off the Paris revolution; a?d it was from
eres, to search here that parties set out to destroy the bam religious houses and gunsmiths' shops for arms, and to fetch . grain to the central markets from the monastery of the S�lI�t Lazare brotherhood.1 The Palais Royal played its part agam 10 preparing opinion for the march to Versailles in October: it was in its gardens and cafes that the Marquis �e
�",:int-Hux:u�e and
his associates tried to force the pace by moong Panslans �o
march at the end of August; and, with greater sur;cess, Its orators repeated the incitement on 4- October,l In the years to come the arcades and gardens of the Palais Royal (soon to be renamed the Maison de l'Egalite) became notorious as a
haunt of prostitutes, money-jobbers, speculators, �nd gamblers rather than of political journalists or � rato�; but It reappeared as a centre of agitation after Thenrudor: It was the scene of verbal exchanges between mtLfcadins and sans-culottes in t�e
!
spring of 1795 and of more violent outbreaks between r�y�lis , youth and republican trooPs. in the day's before V� ndemlalre. hpsed by the On other occasions the Pala ls Royal might be ec Place de Greve, lying within easy reach of the popular distri�ts and on the threshold of the city government (we have seen
I�
importance on 13 July, on 5 October 1789, and on 9 Thernu . dor) ;5 or again by the Champ de Mars, the mam venue for the . great organized demonstrations of celebratlon, or the Terr:use . des Feuillants, at the entrance to the NatlOnal ConventIon.
Other local ra.1lying centres were the Grande rue du Faubourg
Saint-Antoine and the rue Mouffetard. i less frequently that we find documentary evidence of the It s part played in preparing popular opinion by the small work shop, where master and journeyman worked, and often supped
, Hardy, up. cit. viii. 373; RtltJliIm th te qui "atJxw!.i rA�HJ" SI. c�, .Bib. Nat., Lb" 1882; M. Rouff, 'Le peuple ouvrier de Pans aux Joumm du 30 JUlD et 30 aout 1789', La Rkollllil1ftj,ilflfilu" Ixiii (July-Oceanbet' 1?12), 430-5+· I Se<: pp. 70 -71, 72. See pp. 148, ,Gg. , See pp. ¥I-�'. I See pp. !i1 -�5, 74-75, ' 37-9. Police soundings on the Iiale of 1IHU-(;�IQ�1t. opinion tended, in the year ' 793-4, to be taken in �he Place de Grhe; later lD 179�, however, the favourite ccntre for such opcr�uonl appea" to have move� north 10 the Portes Saint-Martin and Saint-Dctm (lICe Caron., and Aulard I eolle(tions of police raPJKnI3 for the period, pew;,").
THE GENE RAT ION OF REVO LUT IONA RY ACT IVIT Y 1117
and slept, under the same roof, and wher e the former's influence affecting the questions of the day must often have been decisive. Yet we catch occasional glimpses of this relationship in the police reports. We saw, for instance, how the porcelain manu facturer Olivier, deliberately or other wise, incited his work people against Reveillon by relating in lurid detail the speech that the latter was reputed to have made in the local assembly of the Sainte.Marguerite District concerning his workmen's wages.' More typical are the cases where masters and journey_ men shoulder arms together to parti cipate in the armed up_ risings of the Revolution : we saw how the brewer Santerre was followed to the Bastille by one of his journeymen (and there m�st have �een man other such cases that day in the Faubourg y Samt.Antome) ; agam, we saw Pierr e Homettc, a journeyman cabinet-maker, accompanying his empl oyer to the Tuileries on 10 August 1792 ; and farmer Guerre of the Inva lides Section arranging for the attendance unde r arms of his two [arm. hands during the revolution of May -June 1793.z On other occasions we hear ofworkshop masters being accused by hostile witnesses of inciting their workpeop le to take part in such movements as the Champ de Mars demonst.ration and the rebellion of Prairial.J
The wine-shop may have been equally potent as a channel of communication for revolutionary ideas . Not only do wine merchants appear to have been a most consistent revolutionary group-note their numbers at the Bastille and, even more, at the burning of the barrierut-but their shops were the common re sorts of the mtnu ptuple of thcfaubourgs and markets who, on Sundays and Mondays in particular, flocke d beyond the barritrtS to the popular taverns of La Courtille, Les Poreherons, and La Nouvelle France. These became ready centres for gossip and exchanges of news and rumour; for this and other reasons it is 'Perhaps no coincidence that so many of the great journtts in Paris should have started or gathered mom entum at the week end.s Gustave Bord overstates his case, but there may be more I Sec pp. 40, 43. R See pp. 8, 107, 124. 5 , Arch. PrH. PoL, Aa 1�3, fol. 6; Arch. Nat. f14707, doss. �; f'l' 4735, dOlI. 2. • Se<: Appendix IV and pp. 181, 185. � 'Jihe ReveilJon riOtll and women 't mardi of 17B!l and the grocery riOtll of 1793 were on Monda ; Ihe Parit revolution of 1789 began on a Sunday; the Champ de � Man demonstratIon ofJuly 1791 Will held on a Sunday; � June 1793 (the crucial
,
218
D THE ANATOMY OF THE REVOLUTIONARY CROW
nts than a grain of truth in hi� asse.rtion tha� many of the assail� Salnt 0e of hops WIne-s the lD ted of the Bastille were recnu Antoine quarter.' Certainly the marble-dealer,Josep� Cha�ot, who was injured by a falling tile during the RtvC;lllon nots, admitted being picked up by an itinerant band of noters as he sat drinking in a wine-shop; other pe�ns arrestc;d on that occ� s er chandl a sion told a similar tale.1 AndJean-Nicolas Pepm, tallow-bearer, related, in the course of a detailed �c�ount of his experiences during the July revolution, how he ��med .the insurgents on the night of the 12th near the B�n:ere Samt mg 'chez Ie m Martin, after spending the evening drinking and d F:ance'.J lle Nouve la a d'Or Sr Chevet Md de vin au Soleil s centres of obviou e mo n ev were s : Food-shops and market � ers becam,e tem pnces high and e shortag of agitation. In days � butchers , , grocers at formed that queues the in easily frayed , y, t�e ofHard ce eviden the on seen have We shops. . and bakers' 10 ances precautions taken by the Government to keep disturb lu Rev the o. check during the weeks preceding the outbreak of tion in Paris by drafting troops into the marke� and posung guards at the door of bakers' shops; and how, dunng the follow ing summer and autumn, when such measures �ere no I�n�er possible, bakers became, on more than one occ�lOn, the VlctUns of popular violence." Although there was ?o further .resort to 'Ia lanterne' after 1 789. bakers' and grocers shops conunue.d, lS as has been amply illustrated, to be common centr:s of d that turbance and starting-points for popular demonstratIons often assumed insurrectionary proportions. . . . How then from such comparatively small begmrungs 10 marke�, bak;rs', and wine-shops did gatherings of cra�men, wage-earners, and housewives devel�p int� great revoluuo�ary crowds with all the attendant mamfestatIons of fear, herOIsm, or destructive violence? Historians have shown a certain reluc tance to deal with such questions, believing that they �lo�g more particularly to the province of the sociologist or s�ecl�hst in crowd psychology.5 Yet the specialist, for lack of histoncal
day in the anti-Cirondin revolution) was abo a Sunday; 1 0 August 17�, on the other hand, was a Friday. , G. Bord, 'La Co!l$piration m�onnique de 1789·, U (A,.,.,npondtml .0 and • Arch. Nat., Y 11033, 15'01. 2.5 May ' gOO, pp. 52'-44, 7.57-fJ7. • Sec pp. 67-6g, 78. J Arch. Nat., Z' 46gJ. J See Caron, Lu M4JS4lTIS Ik s'iJnlllm, p. vi.
THE GENERATION OF REVOLUTIONARY ACTIVITY
2'9
perspective or exact documentation, may just as easily go astray, as was the case with Gustave Lebon, the author of a number of books on this subject. According to Lebon revolu tionary crowds tended to be formed of criminal elements, degenerates, and persons with destructive instincts, who re� sponded more or less passively to the call of 'leaders" -which suggests both that the author had fed on a surfeit of Taine and that his generalized conception of revolutionary crowds would be equally appropriate to all times and to all places. Georges Lefebvre, on the other hand, has argued that the revolutionary crowd is not an abstraction but a social phenomenon which, though responding to certain general laws of development, arises in particular historical circumstances and as the result of particular social pressures and ideas; so it was in the case of the French Revolution.: In this respect it is of course necessary to distinguish from the rest those occasions when crowds collected in direct response to the call of leaders-for such demonstrations, for instance, as that in the Champ de Mars on 1 7 July '791, or such organized military operations as the armed assault on the Tuileries in August 1792 and the expulsion of the Girondin deputies on 2 June 1 793. In such cases as these the participants have already been won over, both in general and in particular, to the objects ofthe demonstration, the collective mentality ofthe crowd corresponds closely to that of the groups of individuals forming it, and there is no sharp mutation from one state of mind to anotherJ-unless, of course, some new and unexpected factor intervenes to upset the balance.' A demonstration like that of 20 June 1792 belongs to a somewhat different category: on this occasion, the break-through into the Tuileries
I G. Lebon, 1.G Rivolwu. fiattftU-u It III psydtoiogU iUs r/DD/uJUms (Paris, '912), pp. 55-fJ., 6g-g3· By the same author: pqdtolQtie iUs/QrJn (Paria, .8g5). • G. Lefebvn:, 'Foulet �volutionnairea', AJI>I. "isl. Riv.JrtUIf. xi (1934), 1-26; reprinted in Ehuus s.... /" RIlXJlwWn/rlUlf"is, (Pans, '954), pp. �7.-87. Although Lefebvre's Itudy is concerned mainly with the year • 789, his condUlio!l$ are generally applicable to the whole period 1,87"""95. I am largely indebted to him for the ideas diKuaed in the present chapter. • Ibid., p. 11711. • Iu., for example, in the early Slagel of the Champ de Mars demorutration, when IWO unknown individuals were found hiding under Ihe 'aule! de ta patrie' (Jtt p. 8t), and the 'treachery' of the Swiu guards who, On 10 August 1792, unexpeetedly opened fire on the Marseillais (see p. '04). Both n i cidenta led to paniea and provoked masucra.
218
D THE ANATOMY OF THE REVOLUTIONARY CROW
nts than a grain of truth in hi� asse.rtion tha� many of the assail� Salnt 0e of hops WIne-s the lD ted of the Bastille were recnu Antoine quarter.' Certainly the marble-dealer,Josep� Cha�ot, who was injured by a falling tile during the RtvC;lllon nots, admitted being picked up by an itinerant band of noters as he sat drinking in a wine-shop; other pe�ns arrestc;d on that occ� s er chandl a sion told a similar tale.1 AndJean-Nicolas Pepm, tallow-bearer, related, in the course of a detailed �c�ount of his experiences during the July revolution, how he ��med .the insurgents on the night of the 12th near the B�n:ere Samt mg 'chez Ie m Martin, after spending the evening drinking and d F:ance'.J lle Nouve la a d'Or Sr Chevet Md de vin au Soleil s centres of obviou e mo n ev were s : Food-shops and market � ers becam,e tem pnces high and e shortag of agitation. In days � butchers , , grocers at formed that queues the in easily frayed , y, t�e ofHard ce eviden the on seen have We shops. . and bakers' 10 ances precautions taken by the Government to keep disturb lu Rev the o. check during the weeks preceding the outbreak of tion in Paris by drafting troops into the marke� and posung guards at the door of bakers' shops; and how, dunng the follow ing summer and autumn, when such measures �ere no I�n�er possible, bakers became, on more than one occ�lOn, the VlctUns of popular violence." Although there was ?o further .resort to 'Ia lanterne' after 1 789. bakers' and grocers shops conunue.d, lS as has been amply illustrated, to be common centr:s of d that turbance and starting-points for popular demonstratIons often assumed insurrectionary proportions. . . . How then from such comparatively small begmrungs 10 marke�, bak;rs', and wine-shops did gatherings of cra�men, wage-earners, and housewives devel�p int� great revoluuo�ary crowds with all the attendant mamfestatIons of fear, herOIsm, or destructive violence? Historians have shown a certain reluc tance to deal with such questions, believing that they �lo�g more particularly to the province of the sociologist or s�ecl�hst in crowd psychology.5 Yet the specialist, for lack of histoncal
day in the anti-Cirondin revolution) was abo a Sunday; 1 0 August 17�, on the other hand, was a Friday. , G. Bord, 'La Co!l$piration m�onnique de 1789·, U (A,.,.,npondtml .0 and • Arch. Nat., Y 11033, 15'01. 2.5 May ' gOO, pp. 52'-44, 7.57-fJ7. • Sec pp. 67-6g, 78. J Arch. Nat., Z' 46gJ. J See Caron, Lu M4JS4lTIS Ik s'iJnlllm, p. vi.
THE GENERATION OF REVOLUTIONARY ACTIVITY
2'9
perspective or exact documentation, may just as easily go astray, as was the case with Gustave Lebon, the author of a number of books on this subject. According to Lebon revolu tionary crowds tended to be formed of criminal elements, degenerates, and persons with destructive instincts, who re� sponded more or less passively to the call of 'leaders" -which suggests both that the author had fed on a surfeit of Taine and that his generalized conception of revolutionary crowds would be equally appropriate to all times and to all places. Georges Lefebvre, on the other hand, has argued that the revolutionary crowd is not an abstraction but a social phenomenon which, though responding to certain general laws of development, arises in particular historical circumstances and as the result of particular social pressures and ideas; so it was in the case of the French Revolution.: In this respect it is of course necessary to distinguish from the rest those occasions when crowds collected in direct response to the call of leaders-for such demonstrations, for instance, as that in the Champ de Mars on 1 7 July '791, or such organized military operations as the armed assault on the Tuileries in August 1792 and the expulsion of the Girondin deputies on 2 June 1 793. In such cases as these the participants have already been won over, both in general and in particular, to the objects ofthe demonstration, the collective mentality ofthe crowd corresponds closely to that of the groups of individuals forming it, and there is no sharp mutation from one state of mind to anotherJ-unless, of course, some new and unexpected factor intervenes to upset the balance.' A demonstration like that of 20 June 1792 belongs to a somewhat different category: on this occasion, the break-through into the Tuileries
I G. Lebon, 1.G Rivolwu. fiattftU-u It III psydtoiogU iUs r/DD/uJUms (Paris, '912), pp. 55-fJ., 6g-g3· By the same author: pqdtolQtie iUs/QrJn (Paria, .8g5). • G. Lefebvn:, 'Foulet �volutionnairea', AJI>I. "isl. Riv.JrtUIf. xi (1934), 1-26; reprinted in Ehuus s.... /" RIlXJlwWn/rlUlf"is, (Pans, '954), pp. �7.-87. Although Lefebvre's Itudy is concerned mainly with the year • 789, his condUlio!l$ are generally applicable to the whole period 1,87"""95. I am largely indebted to him for the ideas diKuaed in the present chapter. • Ibid., p. 11711. • Iu., for example, in the early Slagel of the Champ de Mars demorutration, when IWO unknown individuals were found hiding under Ihe 'aule! de ta patrie' (Jtt p. 8t), and the 'treachery' of the Swiu guards who, On 10 August 1792, unexpeetedly opened fire on the Marseillais (see p. '04). Both n i cidenta led to paniea and provoked masucra.
�20
CROW D THE ANATOMY OF THE REVO LUTIO NARY
transformed a (which may have been purely spontaneous� acknowledg�d peaceful procession of citizens, headed by thetr to the authonty leaders, into a riotous and spontaneous challenge of the king in person.1 on that It is in fact this element of mutauon or transformatJ ' such ormf l typica most marks the rev lutionary crowd in its the of stages g openin the in tly as it appeared most frequen the and Guard al Nation the of n Revolution I before the creatio the challenge Sections h d provided a framework �ithin which. zed. We saw, orgam aucally system more be to authority might ons of the jubilati s harmles less or more the that le, for examp were trans� 1788 August in ymen journe Cite and clerks Palais entry of formed into riots of insurrectionary proportions by the and �arkets; the small masters and journeymen of the . . Insidious the by about t and this transformation was not brough believe). agitation of leaders (as Taine or Lebon would have us in the rise sudden the of er consum but by the effect on the small in place took tion m transfor abrupt such � price of bread.l No were causes utory contnb whose riots, n Revcillo the of the course their already in being after Rev-eillon and Hanriot had made ed offending speeches on 23 April. But nevertheless they develop and ps from murmuring groups in wine�shops and worksho into marching bands parading through adjoining djstric� . the m bulletsto lStance r orgies of destruction-and heroic � the here 28th: the of mght the on Faubourg Saint�Antoine m�ch so not d develope tion insurrec the of r tempo and characte through the intervention of external factors as by the 5welhng of the numbers of demonstrators by recruitment and the pre •
•
�
:
faubourgs
vailing atmosphere of nervous excitement engendered by the approach of the meeting of the Sta�es General.4 . tnd of transformatJon are The classic examples of thiS k afforded by the two great Parisian insurrections of the summer •
and autumn of 1789. In the first a more or less peacefully disposed Sunday crowd of strollers in the Palais Royal was g�l� vanized into revolutionary vigour by the news of Necker's dIS missal and the call to arms issued by orators of the entourage of the Duke of Orleans. From this followed a sequence of events that could not possibly have been planned or foreseen in detail , Set: p. 1 00. S See PP. 31-32.
I
Lefebvre, op. cit., p. 279. .. Set: pp. 34-36.
THE GENERATION OF REVOLUTIONARY ACTIVITY �UI
by even the most astute and determined ofthe court's opponents:
the parades on the boulevards with the busts ofNecker and the
Duke of Orleans; the assaults on the
barrieres and the Saint
Lazare monastery; the search for arms in gunsmiths' shops, re
ligious houses, and arsenals; the massive demonstrations outside the Hotel de Ville, where the new city government was in the
process of formation ; the storming of the Invalides in search of
weapons to arm the newly created
mili,e bourgtoise; and finally
(partly planned, but mainly the outcome of a whole series of
fortuitous events) the frontal assault on the Bastille and the
murders of de Launay and de FlesseUes.1 In October we have a
similar pattern of growth and development, though the final
stages of the insurrection bear the mark of a more conscious political direction. Certainly, to the majority of the housewives
and market-women demonstrating for cheaper and more plentiful bread in the early morning of 5 October, as to the casual obselVer, the opening shots of the uprising must have
seemed no more than a continuation of a whole series of similar
demonstrations during September. Even the mass invasion of the Hotel de Ville was but a repetition on a larger and more violent scale of similar forms of protest in preceding weeks. Yet
the diversion of the women to Versailles (partly the outcome of
weeks ofagitation by the 'patriots' and partly ofthe intervention
of Maillard and his gave an entirely new, political content to their demonstration. From this point,
volontaires de la Bastille)
although still professing mainly economic aims, it merged with
the political insurrection launched by the 'patriots' and sup ported by the marching contingents of the Parisian National Guard.l We have seen that the transformation in the nature and
activities of revolutionary crowds may result from the interven
tion of widely varying factors. Leaders are undoubtedly an important element, though they do not play the outstanding
part assigned to them by Taine and Gustave Lebon; we shall return to them later. But one factor should be noted here, though it is by no means peculiar to the events of the French Revolution and may be, in fact, one of the most constant elements contributing to certain states of collective mentality at all times and in all places. This is the element of panic�fear, �
See pp. 7 3 ft'.
�20
CROW D THE ANATOMY OF THE REVO LUTIO NARY
transformed a (which may have been purely spontaneous� acknowledg�d peaceful procession of citizens, headed by thetr to the authonty leaders, into a riotous and spontaneous challenge of the king in person.1 on that It is in fact this element of mutauon or transformatJ ' such ormf l typica most marks the rev lutionary crowd in its the of stages g openin the in tly as it appeared most frequen the and Guard al Nation the of n Revolution I before the creatio the challenge Sections h d provided a framework �ithin which. zed. We saw, orgam aucally system more be to authority might ons of the jubilati s harmles less or more the that le, for examp were trans� 1788 August in ymen journe Cite and clerks Palais entry of formed into riots of insurrectionary proportions by the and �arkets; the small masters and journeymen of the . . Insidious the by about t and this transformation was not brough believe). agitation of leaders (as Taine or Lebon would have us in the rise sudden the of er consum but by the effect on the small in place took tion m transfor abrupt such � price of bread.l No were causes utory contnb whose riots, n Revcillo the of the course their already in being after Rev-eillon and Hanriot had made ed offending speeches on 23 April. But nevertheless they develop and ps from murmuring groups in wine�shops and worksho into marching bands parading through adjoining djstric� . the m bulletsto lStance r orgies of destruction-and heroic � the here 28th: the of mght the on Faubourg Saint�Antoine m�ch so not d develope tion insurrec the of r tempo and characte through the intervention of external factors as by the 5welhng of the numbers of demonstrators by recruitment and the pre •
•
�
:
faubourgs
vailing atmosphere of nervous excitement engendered by the approach of the meeting of the Sta�es General.4 . tnd of transformatJon are The classic examples of thiS k afforded by the two great Parisian insurrections of the summer •
and autumn of 1789. In the first a more or less peacefully disposed Sunday crowd of strollers in the Palais Royal was g�l� vanized into revolutionary vigour by the news of Necker's dIS missal and the call to arms issued by orators of the entourage of the Duke of Orleans. From this followed a sequence of events that could not possibly have been planned or foreseen in detail , Set: p. 1 00. S See PP. 31-32.
I
Lefebvre, op. cit., p. 279. .. Set: pp. 34-36.
THE GENERATION OF REVOLUTIONARY ACTIVITY �UI
by even the most astute and determined ofthe court's opponents:
the parades on the boulevards with the busts ofNecker and the
Duke of Orleans; the assaults on the
barrieres and the Saint
Lazare monastery; the search for arms in gunsmiths' shops, re
ligious houses, and arsenals; the massive demonstrations outside the Hotel de Ville, where the new city government was in the
process of formation ; the storming of the Invalides in search of
weapons to arm the newly created
mili,e bourgtoise; and finally
(partly planned, but mainly the outcome of a whole series of
fortuitous events) the frontal assault on the Bastille and the
murders of de Launay and de FlesseUes.1 In October we have a
similar pattern of growth and development, though the final
stages of the insurrection bear the mark of a more conscious political direction. Certainly, to the majority of the housewives
and market-women demonstrating for cheaper and more plentiful bread in the early morning of 5 October, as to the casual obselVer, the opening shots of the uprising must have
seemed no more than a continuation of a whole series of similar
demonstrations during September. Even the mass invasion of the Hotel de Ville was but a repetition on a larger and more violent scale of similar forms of protest in preceding weeks. Yet
the diversion of the women to Versailles (partly the outcome of
weeks ofagitation by the 'patriots' and partly ofthe intervention
of Maillard and his gave an entirely new, political content to their demonstration. From this point,
volontaires de la Bastille)
although still professing mainly economic aims, it merged with
the political insurrection launched by the 'patriots' and sup ported by the marching contingents of the Parisian National Guard.l We have seen that the transformation in the nature and
activities of revolutionary crowds may result from the interven
tion of widely varying factors. Leaders are undoubtedly an important element, though they do not play the outstanding
part assigned to them by Taine and Gustave Lebon; we shall return to them later. But one factor should be noted here, though it is by no means peculiar to the events of the French Revolution and may be, in fact, one of the most constant elements contributing to certain states of collective mentality at all times and in all places. This is the element of panic�fear, �
See pp. 7 3 ft'.
2��
T H E ANATOMY OF THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD
expression, however, was the panic that seized large parts of the
propagated by rumour-particularly liable to develop where . communications are scaree and news 18 slow and hard to come by. Whatever its immediate origins in other circunutances,
countryside and affected Paris itself in the summer of 178g-- the episode known to historians as 'la Grande Peur'. It had its
here it arose from the threat, real or imaginary, to three matters ofvital moment-to property, life, and the means of subsistence.
arising from the economic crisis of 1787-9, with the widespread
In various forms we find such panics arising intermittently during the revolutionary years-both in towns and country side-and becoming more frequent with the outbreak of war in April 1792. The latter years of the old regime were haunt� by the ptuk dt famine, according to which the king and .his
ministers were credited with the deliberate intention of seeking to starve the people by creating an artificial scarcity of bread.
A similar notion gained credence-though this time associated with Turgol and not with the king-at the time ofthe grain ri� ts
origins in the combination ofrural unemployment and vagrancy. belief that the privileged orders were about to shatter the hopes and illusions aroused by the summoning of the States General. Thus the vagrants of the countryside-the errants or brigands were seen as the agents of a complot aristocratique, whose assault on small rural properties was hourly expected and aroused widespread panic. In the villages, where the peasants armed to meet a danger that proved illusory, their defensive units soon transformed themselves into aggressive bands that fired chdteaux and destroyed manorial rolls.' In Paris, which felt its back wash, the presence of several thousands of rural unemployed,
tence.1 During the Revolution, the new authorities, and some times millers and bakers, were cparged with similar designs : we
many of them herded into the ateliers de chariti on the hill of
see it in the fermentation in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine in the
terrors. This was, of course, in part the background to the
of 1 775, and probably contributed to their scope and penlS
Montmartre, while others roamed the streets, inspired similar
weeks following the Reveillon riots, in the persistent outcries
creation of the Parisian milice bourgeoise, set up to meet the
against accapareurs, in the violent assaults on millers and bakers and on Chatel, mayor's lieutenant of Saint-Derus; and the
double danger of an attack on property by the dreaded gens sans
notion is almost continuously present, though diverted tempo rarily by the 'patriots', in the insurrection of 5-6 October. It reappears in the invasions of grocers' shops in 1792 and 1793; again in Prairial and on the eve ofVendemiaire; and the R.evo lutionary Government of the Year II was able to turn It to
at Versailles : Hardy echoes these terrors in his relation of events on the morrow of the fall of the Bastille.1 The theme recurs in
aveu and a military coup against the capital by the Court Party
the spring of 1791 and, particularly. in the weeks following the king's flight to Varennes: to the Parisian municipal authorities and the majority in the Constituent Assembly, the unemployed,
good advantage in its indictment of Hebert and his associates
soon to be finally disbanded from the ateliers de chante, seemed
who, in the spring of 1794, were charged, along with other crimes, with the design of creating disorders in order to starve
the actual or potential agenu of the imigris at Coblenz-'ces gens soudoyes par les seditieux·. as I.e Babillard called them.3 Some democrats inclined to this view : the radical journalist
the capital of supplies.1 The panic-fear of an attack on property, another recurrent theme, particularly affected the bourgeoisie, substantial farmers,
•
THE GENERATION OF REVOLUTIONARY ACTIVITY �23
1.oustalot equated the 'proIetaires' with 'tollS les citoyens susceptibles d'etre facilement corrompus'; and even Maral, for
and peasant proprietors, but it also vitally concerned the small
all his deep compassion for the poor, feared that the inmates of
property-owners among the sans-culottes. We see it graphicall� illustrated in the constant repetition of the scare of 'Ia 10l agraire', used with telling effect to weaken the resolve of
the public workshops might become the ready tools of counter-
Jacobin and other bourgeois democrats, who might threaten to effect even a partial distribution of property. Its most famous • Arch. Nat., W 76, 78; Tuetey, Ri�loiTl, vol. xi, nos. '-'71.
, See pp. 23-24.
, G. Lcl'ebvn:, lA Cr/llllU p,,,, a, 178g. • 'Le complot infemalqui avail Cxisl� de rai� cntrer, dam la nuil du 14 au '5, 30.0(10 homm<':l dans la capit.a.le, ICOJndb par do brigandi' (Hardy, op. cit. viii. 395). Se.: aoo the Chevalier de Bcaurepalrc'l pamphlet of August 1789, in whicH it is alleged that the Montmartre unemployed were building fortifications for training artillery against Par;"'(IUo"JH1r1 II MM. du dis/rid dIS PI/its M4l1wriN: I U Bdillflrd, no. xxiv, 6July 1791, p. ,. Bib. Nat., Lb40 28S).
2��
T H E ANATOMY OF THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD
expression, however, was the panic that seized large parts of the
propagated by rumour-particularly liable to develop where . communications are scaree and news 18 slow and hard to come by. Whatever its immediate origins in other circunutances,
countryside and affected Paris itself in the summer of 178g-- the episode known to historians as 'la Grande Peur'. It had its
here it arose from the threat, real or imaginary, to three matters ofvital moment-to property, life, and the means of subsistence.
arising from the economic crisis of 1787-9, with the widespread
In various forms we find such panics arising intermittently during the revolutionary years-both in towns and country side-and becoming more frequent with the outbreak of war in April 1792. The latter years of the old regime were haunt� by the ptuk dt famine, according to which the king and .his
ministers were credited with the deliberate intention of seeking to starve the people by creating an artificial scarcity of bread.
A similar notion gained credence-though this time associated with Turgol and not with the king-at the time ofthe grain ri� ts
origins in the combination ofrural unemployment and vagrancy. belief that the privileged orders were about to shatter the hopes and illusions aroused by the summoning of the States General. Thus the vagrants of the countryside-the errants or brigands were seen as the agents of a complot aristocratique, whose assault on small rural properties was hourly expected and aroused widespread panic. In the villages, where the peasants armed to meet a danger that proved illusory, their defensive units soon transformed themselves into aggressive bands that fired chdteaux and destroyed manorial rolls.' In Paris, which felt its back wash, the presence of several thousands of rural unemployed,
tence.1 During the Revolution, the new authorities, and some times millers and bakers, were cparged with similar designs : we
many of them herded into the ateliers de chariti on the hill of
see it in the fermentation in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine in the
terrors. This was, of course, in part the background to the
of 1 775, and probably contributed to their scope and penlS
Montmartre, while others roamed the streets, inspired similar
weeks following the Reveillon riots, in the persistent outcries
creation of the Parisian milice bourgeoise, set up to meet the
against accapareurs, in the violent assaults on millers and bakers and on Chatel, mayor's lieutenant of Saint-Derus; and the
double danger of an attack on property by the dreaded gens sans
notion is almost continuously present, though diverted tempo rarily by the 'patriots', in the insurrection of 5-6 October. It reappears in the invasions of grocers' shops in 1792 and 1793; again in Prairial and on the eve ofVendemiaire; and the R.evo lutionary Government of the Year II was able to turn It to
at Versailles : Hardy echoes these terrors in his relation of events on the morrow of the fall of the Bastille.1 The theme recurs in
aveu and a military coup against the capital by the Court Party
the spring of 1791 and, particularly. in the weeks following the king's flight to Varennes: to the Parisian municipal authorities and the majority in the Constituent Assembly, the unemployed,
good advantage in its indictment of Hebert and his associates
soon to be finally disbanded from the ateliers de chante, seemed
who, in the spring of 1794, were charged, along with other crimes, with the design of creating disorders in order to starve
the actual or potential agenu of the imigris at Coblenz-'ces gens soudoyes par les seditieux·. as I.e Babillard called them.3 Some democrats inclined to this view : the radical journalist
the capital of supplies.1 The panic-fear of an attack on property, another recurrent theme, particularly affected the bourgeoisie, substantial farmers,
•
THE GENERATION OF REVOLUTIONARY ACTIVITY �23
1.oustalot equated the 'proIetaires' with 'tollS les citoyens susceptibles d'etre facilement corrompus'; and even Maral, for
and peasant proprietors, but it also vitally concerned the small
all his deep compassion for the poor, feared that the inmates of
property-owners among the sans-culottes. We see it graphicall� illustrated in the constant repetition of the scare of 'Ia 10l agraire', used with telling effect to weaken the resolve of
the public workshops might become the ready tools of counter-
Jacobin and other bourgeois democrats, who might threaten to effect even a partial distribution of property. Its most famous • Arch. Nat., W 76, 78; Tuetey, Ri�loiTl, vol. xi, nos. '-'71.
, See pp. 23-24.
, G. Lcl'ebvn:, lA Cr/llllU p,,,, a, 178g. • 'Le complot infemalqui avail Cxisl� de rai� cntrer, dam la nuil du 14 au '5, 30.0(10 homm<':l dans la capit.a.le, ICOJndb par do brigandi' (Hardy, op. cit. viii. 395). Se.: aoo the Chevalier de Bcaurepalrc'l pamphlet of August 1789, in whicH it is alleged that the Montmartre unemployed were building fortifications for training artillery against Par;"'(IUo"JH1r1 II MM. du dis/rid dIS PI/its M4l1wriN: I U Bdillflrd, no. xxiv, 6July 1791, p. ,. Bib. Nat., Lb40 28S).
��4 THE ANATOMY OF THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD
revolution. I On the eve of the demonstration of July 1791 there was a report of a plot to abduct the royal family and to set fire to the capital with the aid of 40,000 men mainly recruited from the unemployed,l and it was widely believed that the poor would stage a spectacular revenge on the propertied classes for
the 'massacre' of the Champ de Mars.J Such fears might arouse a militant response both among revolutionary democrats and among the conservative elements of the western districts. We find examples of the former tendency in the frequent paniC!! stirred up by rumours of imminent prison outbreaks-the various complols des primns-and the lesser-known episode of the
of the spring of 1 794.4 We have seen a classic example of the second in the panic that swept the Paris Sections on the eve of Vendemiaire, when shopkeepers, civil servants,
complot militaire
and proprietors sprang to arms in order to defend their proper ties and lives against the dreaded terrorists or buoeurs de sang, who were presumed to be letting loose on them the familiar
brigands
and scum of the prison population. In this case, of
course, it was the royalists who turned the panic to their ad vantage by converting it into an anned rebellion against the Convention.5 The third type of panic-arising from a threat to life-is, of course, closely related to the last, and sometimes, as we have seen, they appear together. We saw it in the siege of the Bastille, when de Launay's folly in opening fire on the assembled crowds led to the cry of treachery and the massacre of the Gover nor and a number of his garrison.' An almost identical situa
tion arose during the assault on the T�ileries in August 1792.7
' Jaura, HiJwi'f $l)CiaJisu, iii. 366; L'A.mi Ju/JIupu, no. 4211, 7 April '791, p. 6. There il eertainly ample evidence that attempts were made by counter.revolu tionaria in thoe early yean to stir up diseonlent-with the Revolution and the new autho.ritia-am<.>ng the wage-eamcn of lhe fo.ul.tturls and. particularly, among the unemployed in the public worluhops; but, allhough taken ICriowly by the authorities and the democrats, they met with surprisingly little lueeos. (Sec E. Tarl�, 'La Cluse ouvri�re et Ie parti eontre.r4!voh.tionnaire SOul la Con· Itituante', Lo. Rivolutitmfill1l(o.iu, lvii (1909), 304-26, 38S-404; and my PaliJilUl W.,f-£o.mm, i. �60-9.) • Areh. Nat., DXXIX' 33, 00. 3¥'. rot 26. , Ibid., no. 347, fols. 9-to. de vent<'>sl: an II', Puis tI fINl.-F,lllln, l • R. C. Cobb, 'Le Complot miitaire vii (1956), lilli-SO. , Sec pp. t 7o-� above. The panie or the property-ownen tngendered, in turn, a panie among the prison population, who feam! a repetition ofScptcmUcr 179� (let: p. 173). 7 Sec p. 219. n. 4, above. • Sec pp. 55-56.
THE GENERAT ION OF REVOLUT IONARY ACTIVITY �1I 5
�
But t ese panics were momentary and, though affecting the behaVIour of the besiegers and their supporters, did little to alter t e �ourse of events. On a far greater scale and more . drastiC m It� consequenc was the panic that developed in the � days followmg the expulSion of Louis XVI from the Tuileries when the departure of the volunteers for the frontiers w
�
�
ac�o�panied by the rumour that the inmates ofthe prisons were walung to break loose and to slaughter the women children ' , and aged : thus was created the atmosphere of mass hysteria that led to the September massacres,l Such defensive reactions were typical of the response of sans �lotte:, small proprietors, and even bourgeois, to many of the SituatIOns that developed on the eve and in the course of the French Revolution. It is the failure to recognize this fact that has led so many historians and writers from Burke onwards to represent the Revolution as a sort of unbroken chain ofinnova tions or � the systematic unfolding of the long-conceived plans ofthe phllosophes by the devotees of 'political messianism'.: Quite apart from its other fallacies such a conception once more
?
reduces t e role of the sans-culoues to that of passive instruments --:-unless It. can be shown, ofcourse, that they, too, were imbued with a deSire for 'total renovation'. The opposite is, indeed, the case. At every important stage of the Revolution the sans
culottes intervened, not to renovate society or to remodel it after a new patter�, but to reclaim traditional rights and to uphold s�andards v.:h �ch they believed to be imperilled by the innova
bons of numsters, capitalists, speculators, agricultural 'im provers', or city authorities. This defensive reaction to events is a characteristic feature of each one ofthe greatjournies that led up to or marked the progress of the Revolution. The clerks and journeymen who rioted in August-October 1 788 hailed Henri IV and acclaimed the Par/tment as the custodian of 'ancient li erties· against the innovations of the king's ministers. The . . Reveillon nots arose as a defensive action by Saint-Antoine
�
, Sec pp. t08-IO.
. ' �, e.g., J. L. T�lm�n, The Ori,itU of ToIJJi/Mitut lJrmDao.q (London, 19511). to wh ch the Re\ oluuon IS repr�nted
I as lhe iogieal outcome of the thought of ' ROllSSCa1;l Mablr, Mordly, &c., and the thought and deed. of their disciples ' (RobCJpterre, S:unt-Jwt, and olhen)_men 'impelled by a revolutionary impetw of total renovauon, and by lhe idea of a lOCiecy rec:orutrueted ddiberately wilh a view to a logical and final pamm' (po 63).
��4 THE ANATOMY OF THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD
revolution. I On the eve of the demonstration of July 1791 there was a report of a plot to abduct the royal family and to set fire to the capital with the aid of 40,000 men mainly recruited from the unemployed,l and it was widely believed that the poor would stage a spectacular revenge on the propertied classes for
the 'massacre' of the Champ de Mars.J Such fears might arouse a militant response both among revolutionary democrats and among the conservative elements of the western districts. We find examples of the former tendency in the frequent paniC!! stirred up by rumours of imminent prison outbreaks-the various complols des primns-and the lesser-known episode of the
of the spring of 1 794.4 We have seen a classic example of the second in the panic that swept the Paris Sections on the eve of Vendemiaire, when shopkeepers, civil servants,
complot militaire
and proprietors sprang to arms in order to defend their proper ties and lives against the dreaded terrorists or buoeurs de sang, who were presumed to be letting loose on them the familiar
brigands
and scum of the prison population. In this case, of
course, it was the royalists who turned the panic to their ad vantage by converting it into an anned rebellion against the Convention.5 The third type of panic-arising from a threat to life-is, of course, closely related to the last, and sometimes, as we have seen, they appear together. We saw it in the siege of the Bastille, when de Launay's folly in opening fire on the assembled crowds led to the cry of treachery and the massacre of the Gover nor and a number of his garrison.' An almost identical situa
tion arose during the assault on the T�ileries in August 1792.7
' Jaura, HiJwi'f $l)CiaJisu, iii. 366; L'A.mi Ju/JIupu, no. 4211, 7 April '791, p. 6. There il eertainly ample evidence that attempts were made by counter.revolu tionaria in thoe early yean to stir up diseonlent-with the Revolution and the new autho.ritia-am<.>ng the wage-eamcn of lhe fo.ul.tturls and. particularly, among the unemployed in the public worluhops; but, allhough taken ICriowly by the authorities and the democrats, they met with surprisingly little lueeos. (Sec E. Tarl�, 'La Cluse ouvri�re et Ie parti eontre.r4!voh.tionnaire SOul la Con· Itituante', Lo. Rivolutitmfill1l(o.iu, lvii (1909), 304-26, 38S-404; and my PaliJilUl W.,f-£o.mm, i. �60-9.) • Areh. Nat., DXXIX' 33, 00. 3¥'. rot 26. , Ibid., no. 347, fols. 9-to. de vent<'>sl: an II', Puis tI fINl.-F,lllln, l • R. C. Cobb, 'Le Complot miitaire vii (1956), lilli-SO. , Sec pp. t 7o-� above. The panie or the property-ownen tngendered, in turn, a panie among the prison population, who feam! a repetition ofScptcmUcr 179� (let: p. 173). 7 Sec p. 219. n. 4, above. • Sec pp. 55-56.
THE GENERAT ION OF REVOLUT IONARY ACTIVITY �1I 5
�
But t ese panics were momentary and, though affecting the behaVIour of the besiegers and their supporters, did little to alter t e �ourse of events. On a far greater scale and more . drastiC m It� consequenc was the panic that developed in the � days followmg the expulSion of Louis XVI from the Tuileries when the departure of the volunteers for the frontiers w
�
�
ac�o�panied by the rumour that the inmates ofthe prisons were walung to break loose and to slaughter the women children ' , and aged : thus was created the atmosphere of mass hysteria that led to the September massacres,l Such defensive reactions were typical of the response of sans �lotte:, small proprietors, and even bourgeois, to many of the SituatIOns that developed on the eve and in the course of the French Revolution. It is the failure to recognize this fact that has led so many historians and writers from Burke onwards to represent the Revolution as a sort of unbroken chain ofinnova tions or � the systematic unfolding of the long-conceived plans ofthe phllosophes by the devotees of 'political messianism'.: Quite apart from its other fallacies such a conception once more
?
reduces t e role of the sans-culoues to that of passive instruments --:-unless It. can be shown, ofcourse, that they, too, were imbued with a deSire for 'total renovation'. The opposite is, indeed, the case. At every important stage of the Revolution the sans
culottes intervened, not to renovate society or to remodel it after a new patter�, but to reclaim traditional rights and to uphold s�andards v.:h �ch they believed to be imperilled by the innova
bons of numsters, capitalists, speculators, agricultural 'im provers', or city authorities. This defensive reaction to events is a characteristic feature of each one ofthe greatjournies that led up to or marked the progress of the Revolution. The clerks and journeymen who rioted in August-October 1 788 hailed Henri IV and acclaimed the Par/tment as the custodian of 'ancient li erties· against the innovations of the king's ministers. The . . Reveillon nots arose as a defensive action by Saint-Antoine
�
, Sec pp. t08-IO.
. ' �, e.g., J. L. T�lm�n, The Ori,itU of ToIJJi/Mitut lJrmDao.q (London, 19511). to wh ch the Re\ oluuon IS repr�nted
I as lhe iogieal outcome of the thought of ' ROllSSCa1;l Mablr, Mordly, &c., and the thought and deed. of their disciples ' (RobCJpterre, S:unt-Jwt, and olhen)_men 'impelled by a revolutionary impetw of total renovauon, and by lhe idea of a lOCiecy rec:orutrueted ddiberately wilh a view to a logical and final pamm' (po 63).
'26 THE ANATOMY OF THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD
wage-earners against the threats to wages and living standards that were said to have been uttered by two employers of the Faubourg Saint-Antoine. The Paris revolution of July 1 789 began as a protest against the dismissal of a popular minister and developed into a massive defensive action against the 'aristocratic plot' visibly being hatched at Versailles. In the following weeks the assaults of peasant bands on the chattaux of the nobility and the destruction of fiscal records were a forceful riposte to the innovations of the sagnmrs, whose systematization of feudal contract and extension of seigneurial obligations con stituted an attack on the traditional property rights of the peasantry, The October insurrection took the form of a de mand for the restoration of cheaper and more plentiful bread and of a defensive action against the military measures being prepared by the court ; and the forcible return of the king to the capital revived an ancient tradition in the relations between the monarch and the people of Paris. Even the overthrow of the monarchy was as much the final act in a movement of self defence against counter-revolutionary intrigue as the logical outcome of plans hatched by consistent Republicans. 1 We have seen how the majority of the Sections that armed before Vende miaire, far from considering themselves as rebels against law fully constituted authority, believed that they were defending themselves against the attacks of a tyrannous Assembly,1 And what were the repeated outbreaks of popular price-control or
taxation populairt, but the assertion of the traditional right of the
small consumers to protection against the capitalist innovation
of the 'free market' and the new-fangled principles of supply and demand? And yet, in the prevailing conditions of revolu tionary crisis, each one of these movements, with the exception ofthat ofVendemiaire, tended to carry the Revolution forwards, to drive another nail into the coffin offeudalism, and to advance the aims of more consciously radical groups. It is not surprising perhaps that the actions of such insurgents and demonstrators should also tend to be clothed in traditional
forms and that in so many journitS of the Revolution we should catch echoes of past events. There is no innovation about the destruction of the chdttaux or the violent assaults on individuals
1 Sec pp. [0'-3.
who had incurred popular disfavour, such as de Launay, de • Sec p. 170.
THE GENERATION OF REVOLUTIONARY ACTIVITY 221
Flesselles, Foullon, and Berthier: they hark back to thejtuquerits of the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries and other more recent outbreaks of popular fury, The taxation populajrt of 1 789
and 1793 has its antecedents in that of 1 752' and 1775. Caron tells us that the prison massacres of September 1 792 marked the assertion by the people of the ancient right of'lajustice retenue'
-the sovereign's prerogative right to dispense justice without recourse to the nonnal juridical processes-traditionally vested in the king, but since iO August devolving upon the sovereign people,1 The march to Versailles to solicit the intercession of the
king as protector of his people had precedents in the riots of 1775' and, more recently, in the Parisian carriers' strike of 1786,4 Even the chant of the marchers, 'Allons chercher Ie
boulanger, la boulangere et Ie petit mitron', expressed sentiments similar to those expressed in the Bordeaux peasants' slogan of 1674: 'Vive Ie Roi et sans gabelle !';5 and in the cry ofa Parisian master locksmith of May 1775: 'Vive Ie Roi et que Ie pain ramende!'6 The same conception of the king as protector is evident in the assumption by leaders of the rebellious peasantry of July 1789 of the royal authority ('de par Ie Roi') for their acts ofa�n and destruction against the property of the nobility ; as such It echoes the conviction of the grain rioters of 1775 that
�
the king had persona ly intervened to reduce the price of corn, flour, and bread to aJust level.1 Apart from the armed insurrec tions of to August and 2 June 1 793, it is perhaps only in the petitions ofJuly 1791 and June 1792 and the agitation of the arms workers of I 794 that we find the emergence of new forms
ofaction that look forward to the urban-industrial society of the future. We should not under-estimate either the degree to which the revolutionary leaders themselves, though steeped in the ideas of the new philosophy, relied upon precedent and, far from following a consistent programme of total renovation, stumbled
, ]ocrrNJi.1 mJmoiUI au nu:rq�u d'A'lflUGfI, vii. il2g. Caron, op. <:il., pp. 435-45. , G. Rud�, 'La Taxalion popuJaire de mai 1 115 i Paris ct dans [a r�gion parillienn.,', Ann. frill. Riu.ftiltlf., no. 143, '956, p. 148. • Sec p. 21. • Traditional. 6 GJRud�, op. <:it., p. '11. 1 C. t.ef.,bvre, l.tJ Grorui. Ptlll' d, 11119, pp. 1 1 1-'7, 141; C. Rudl!, op. cit., pp. J·n-60· ,
'26 THE ANATOMY OF THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD
wage-earners against the threats to wages and living standards that were said to have been uttered by two employers of the Faubourg Saint-Antoine. The Paris revolution of July 1 789 began as a protest against the dismissal of a popular minister and developed into a massive defensive action against the 'aristocratic plot' visibly being hatched at Versailles. In the following weeks the assaults of peasant bands on the chattaux of the nobility and the destruction of fiscal records were a forceful riposte to the innovations of the sagnmrs, whose systematization of feudal contract and extension of seigneurial obligations con stituted an attack on the traditional property rights of the peasantry, The October insurrection took the form of a de mand for the restoration of cheaper and more plentiful bread and of a defensive action against the military measures being prepared by the court ; and the forcible return of the king to the capital revived an ancient tradition in the relations between the monarch and the people of Paris. Even the overthrow of the monarchy was as much the final act in a movement of self defence against counter-revolutionary intrigue as the logical outcome of plans hatched by consistent Republicans. 1 We have seen how the majority of the Sections that armed before Vende miaire, far from considering themselves as rebels against law fully constituted authority, believed that they were defending themselves against the attacks of a tyrannous Assembly,1 And what were the repeated outbreaks of popular price-control or
taxation populairt, but the assertion of the traditional right of the
small consumers to protection against the capitalist innovation
of the 'free market' and the new-fangled principles of supply and demand? And yet, in the prevailing conditions of revolu tionary crisis, each one of these movements, with the exception ofthat ofVendemiaire, tended to carry the Revolution forwards, to drive another nail into the coffin offeudalism, and to advance the aims of more consciously radical groups. It is not surprising perhaps that the actions of such insurgents and demonstrators should also tend to be clothed in traditional
forms and that in so many journitS of the Revolution we should catch echoes of past events. There is no innovation about the destruction of the chdttaux or the violent assaults on individuals
1 Sec pp. [0'-3.
who had incurred popular disfavour, such as de Launay, de • Sec p. 170.
THE GENERATION OF REVOLUTIONARY ACTIVITY 221
Flesselles, Foullon, and Berthier: they hark back to thejtuquerits of the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries and other more recent outbreaks of popular fury, The taxation populajrt of 1 789
and 1793 has its antecedents in that of 1 752' and 1775. Caron tells us that the prison massacres of September 1 792 marked the assertion by the people of the ancient right of'lajustice retenue'
-the sovereign's prerogative right to dispense justice without recourse to the nonnal juridical processes-traditionally vested in the king, but since iO August devolving upon the sovereign people,1 The march to Versailles to solicit the intercession of the
king as protector of his people had precedents in the riots of 1775' and, more recently, in the Parisian carriers' strike of 1786,4 Even the chant of the marchers, 'Allons chercher Ie
boulanger, la boulangere et Ie petit mitron', expressed sentiments similar to those expressed in the Bordeaux peasants' slogan of 1674: 'Vive Ie Roi et sans gabelle !';5 and in the cry ofa Parisian master locksmith of May 1775: 'Vive Ie Roi et que Ie pain ramende!'6 The same conception of the king as protector is evident in the assumption by leaders of the rebellious peasantry of July 1789 of the royal authority ('de par Ie Roi') for their acts ofa�n and destruction against the property of the nobility ; as such It echoes the conviction of the grain rioters of 1775 that
�
the king had persona ly intervened to reduce the price of corn, flour, and bread to aJust level.1 Apart from the armed insurrec tions of to August and 2 June 1 793, it is perhaps only in the petitions ofJuly 1791 and June 1792 and the agitation of the arms workers of I 794 that we find the emergence of new forms
ofaction that look forward to the urban-industrial society of the future. We should not under-estimate either the degree to which the revolutionary leaders themselves, though steeped in the ideas of the new philosophy, relied upon precedent and, far from following a consistent programme of total renovation, stumbled
, ]ocrrNJi.1 mJmoiUI au nu:rq�u d'A'lflUGfI, vii. il2g. Caron, op. <:il., pp. 435-45. , G. Rud�, 'La Taxalion popuJaire de mai 1 115 i Paris ct dans [a r�gion parillienn.,', Ann. frill. Riu.ftiltlf., no. 143, '956, p. 148. • Sec p. 21. • Traditional. 6 GJRud�, op. <:it., p. '11. 1 C. t.ef.,bvre, l.tJ Grorui. Ptlll' d, 11119, pp. 1 1 1-'7, 141; C. Rudl!, op. cit., pp. J·n-60· ,
228 THE ANATOMY OF THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD
from one political expedient to another-in which process the exigencies of war, the needs of social conciliation, and the ab sence of any traditions of political experience all played their
THE GENERATION OF REVOLUTIONARY ACTIVITY 229
assemblies, or committees. Again, there is little mystery about the channel ofcommunication between leaders and participants on tho.se occasions when the operation in hand was carried
part. Yet their interests, or circumstance, led them to attempt
through by military units acting under their own commanders.
new solutions; and these, as we have seen, on more than one
Yet, in the early months of the Revolution, there is still an
occasion led them into conAict with the sans-cutoUtS or involved
element that escapes us and on which the records are too often
them in devious attempts to conciliate them or to divert their
silent: how and at what stage were the mass of the participants
energies into 'safe' political channels. Such attempts were
engaged and the slogans and plans of action communicated?
successful, as we saw, in the preparation of the great political
tion in action-at the burning of the harriirlS, for example,
journJts
from the fall of the Bastille to the expulsion of the
Occasionally we catch a glimpse of this process of communica
Girondins. They failed when the sans-culottes followed their own head, as in the Reveillon riots and food riots of February 1793;
where we learn from the testimony of numerous witnesses that
the failure of the Jacobins to regain the allegiance of the
saru
ing operations in consultation with spokesmen for the women;
when the gap between them
and Fournier l'Americain hurrying back to stir up support for
and the Revolutionary Government proved unbridgeable and
the marchers in his own District ofSaint-Eustache, and inciting the poissartks at Versailles to call for the king' s return to PariS.2
yet these werc not irretrievable disasters. Far more serious was
cutoUts
in the summer of
1794,
hastened the fall of Rob�spierre and his associates in Ther midor. 1 This only goes to show once more that the elements
local leaders were acting under the direct orders of the Palais Royal.' Again, on 5 October, we find Stanislas Maillard direct
But such glimpses are rare and the exact mechanism of revolt
composing revolutionary crowds, though permeated by the
generally eludes us; yet we may assume from examples such as
political ideas of the Jacobins and advanced democrats, had social claims of their own which they persisted in advancing even against the advice and, on occasion, the interests of the
these that it was through secondary leaders like Maillard and
revolutionary leaders themselves. It remains to consider by what human agency the
sans
culoUts
were directly involved in or recruited for the great political demonstrations and insurrections of the Revolution and for those occasions when they acted on their own account. It has become evident of course t.hat each of the great political journits, though its exact result might rarely be foreseen, was the
Fournier-and otbers like Saint-Huruge. Saint-Felix, Theroigne
de Mericourt, and Claire Lacombe-that liaison was maintained, on these and similar occasions, between the topmost leaders and tbe rank-and-file participants. These intermediaries, however, were not of the
sans-culollts
themselves, being drawn from other social groups.' Thus the further question arises-did the san.I-culoties have leaders of their own to co-operate with, or receive the orders of, the agents or emissaries of the
bourgtois groups and factions, or to inspire and
outcome of considerable preparations, often carried out in full view of the authorities of the day, involving Sectional resolu
guide them when they acted on their own account? Or was the element of spontaneity considerable in this respect? There is,
tions and deputations, speeches, and newspaper articles, or even-as on 10 August, in May-June 1 793, and again in
more spirit, enterprise, and daring, or engaged in more spec-
Vendemiaire-the creation of a co"tspondanct, or liaison, com mittee of the Sections to concert and to conduct operations on the day appointed. This, of course, already goes a long way to explain how the sans-culollts became drawn in and their sympathies enlisted-particularly during the years when their most active elements crowded, or dominated, the local societies, • Sec pp. 19B fr.
of course, little doubt that, on these occasions, some showed For cx.ample, Du Hamel, a former locbmith and leader of the incendiaria at .everal Cl,lStonu POSII, lold a witnes, 'qu'ib avaient dell orol"Q pour en agir aina; e� qu'it. avaienl d'autn:s cxpMitiona i raire'; at the �rrihe S;..im-Marlin, one noter reproved another with the words: 'Brulons, I'il le faul, puiJque cela nOUI at ordonn�, mais ne volona (p....), puitque eela al defrcndu' ; and, .Ill the Barriere Blaoehe, a 9'an called for quiet 'de I'ordre du Palais Royal' (Arch. Nat., Z" 886). • PrtJe/duri fl"imjlllll� iIIU CMrel,1 , witness no. 8 1 ; Mlmo;rts Stmts d. FDUr"i"' Am/,;till;". I See p. 1 78, nOle I, above. •
•
•
•
228 THE ANATOMY OF THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD
from one political expedient to another-in which process the exigencies of war, the needs of social conciliation, and the ab sence of any traditions of political experience all played their
THE GENERATION OF REVOLUTIONARY ACTIVITY 229
assemblies, or committees. Again, there is little mystery about the channel ofcommunication between leaders and participants on tho.se occasions when the operation in hand was carried
part. Yet their interests, or circumstance, led them to attempt
through by military units acting under their own commanders.
new solutions; and these, as we have seen, on more than one
Yet, in the early months of the Revolution, there is still an
occasion led them into conAict with the sans-cutoUtS or involved
element that escapes us and on which the records are too often
them in devious attempts to conciliate them or to divert their
silent: how and at what stage were the mass of the participants
energies into 'safe' political channels. Such attempts were
engaged and the slogans and plans of action communicated?
successful, as we saw, in the preparation of the great political
tion in action-at the burning of the harriirlS, for example,
journJts
from the fall of the Bastille to the expulsion of the
Occasionally we catch a glimpse of this process of communica
Girondins. They failed when the sans-culottes followed their own head, as in the Reveillon riots and food riots of February 1793;
where we learn from the testimony of numerous witnesses that
the failure of the Jacobins to regain the allegiance of the
saru
ing operations in consultation with spokesmen for the women;
when the gap between them
and Fournier l'Americain hurrying back to stir up support for
and the Revolutionary Government proved unbridgeable and
the marchers in his own District ofSaint-Eustache, and inciting the poissartks at Versailles to call for the king' s return to PariS.2
yet these werc not irretrievable disasters. Far more serious was
cutoUts
in the summer of
1794,
hastened the fall of Rob�spierre and his associates in Ther midor. 1 This only goes to show once more that the elements
local leaders were acting under the direct orders of the Palais Royal.' Again, on 5 October, we find Stanislas Maillard direct
But such glimpses are rare and the exact mechanism of revolt
composing revolutionary crowds, though permeated by the
generally eludes us; yet we may assume from examples such as
political ideas of the Jacobins and advanced democrats, had social claims of their own which they persisted in advancing even against the advice and, on occasion, the interests of the
these that it was through secondary leaders like Maillard and
revolutionary leaders themselves. It remains to consider by what human agency the
sans
culoUts
were directly involved in or recruited for the great political demonstrations and insurrections of the Revolution and for those occasions when they acted on their own account. It has become evident of course t.hat each of the great political journits, though its exact result might rarely be foreseen, was the
Fournier-and otbers like Saint-Huruge. Saint-Felix, Theroigne
de Mericourt, and Claire Lacombe-that liaison was maintained, on these and similar occasions, between the topmost leaders and tbe rank-and-file participants. These intermediaries, however, were not of the
sans-culollts
themselves, being drawn from other social groups.' Thus the further question arises-did the san.I-culoties have leaders of their own to co-operate with, or receive the orders of, the agents or emissaries of the
bourgtois groups and factions, or to inspire and
outcome of considerable preparations, often carried out in full view of the authorities of the day, involving Sectional resolu
guide them when they acted on their own account? Or was the element of spontaneity considerable in this respect? There is,
tions and deputations, speeches, and newspaper articles, or even-as on 10 August, in May-June 1 793, and again in
more spirit, enterprise, and daring, or engaged in more spec-
Vendemiaire-the creation of a co"tspondanct, or liaison, com mittee of the Sections to concert and to conduct operations on the day appointed. This, of course, already goes a long way to explain how the sans-culollts became drawn in and their sympathies enlisted-particularly during the years when their most active elements crowded, or dominated, the local societies, • Sec pp. 19B fr.
of course, little doubt that, on these occasions, some showed For cx.ample, Du Hamel, a former locbmith and leader of the incendiaria at .everal Cl,lStonu POSII, lold a witnes, 'qu'ib avaient dell orol"Q pour en agir aina; e� qu'it. avaienl d'autn:s cxpMitiona i raire'; at the �rrihe S;..im-Marlin, one noter reproved another with the words: 'Brulons, I'il le faul, puiJque cela nOUI at ordonn�, mais ne volona (p....), puitque eela al defrcndu' ; and, .Ill the Barriere Blaoehe, a 9'an called for quiet 'de I'ordre du Palais Royal' (Arch. Nat., Z" 886). • PrtJe/duri fl"imjlllll� iIIU CMrel,1 , witness no. 8 1 ; Mlmo;rts Stmts d. FDUr"i"' Am/,;till;". I See p. 1 78, nOle I, above. •
•
•
•
OLU TION ARY CRO WD �30 THE ANATOMY OF THE REV fellows and, as such, drew tacular acts of violence, than their uard, or bystanders. In the attention of the police, National . mg part was ascnbed. to the Reveillon riots, for instance, a lead Bertin, a market-woman, one Marie-Jeanne Trumeau, jmlTrU reprieved) for having later gh who was sentenced to death (thou of 'Allons, vive Ie cries with bum incited the rioters to loot and among the sans inent Prom !" illon Tiers !!'tat!' and 'A la R�ve said witnesses, , were res barrii the culottes that burned down (alias Cadet), ont Dum and ant, assist s hant' Bataille a wine-merc h to Versailles, their chief a dock r.1 In the women's marc was the jmlme Lavarenne, spokesman, according to Maillard, porter, though she herself an illiterate sick-nurse and wife of a r compulsion) Among claimed to have been brought along unde nstration we have demo those taking part in the Champ de Mars ore remark rd-m Evra noted the remarkable cook, Constance ons than opini cal politi her of . able, it is true, for the maturity ry nots groce the g Durin .4 event for the part she played in the that several persons of February '793, the police recorded dissatisfaction and up g stirrin in part played a prominent coffee should be and es, candl , sugar which at fixing the price t of the commissioner sold. Among these, so ran a detailed repor of the Arsenal Section, was
G:
�
i connue . . . de la taille d'e�viron Une femme, assez bien, a nous n ans . . . vetue d'un d6h�bllle de trente cinq pieds un pouce, agee de mantdet de taffetas nOir et une un nt, coura dessin a toile fond bleu a fait tout ce qui montre d'or a chaine d'acier. . . . Cctte femme qui fixa Ie prix elle t u f ce . . . n seditio 1a etait en elle pour augmenter it.s dix-hu a sucre Ie et livre sols la douze a du savon several persons de After the events of Prairial, there were ity and the specially nounced to the Committee of General Secur d leading parts playe appointed Military Commission as having of the annie ers memb in the revolt; among these were former elected to been had least, at rivolutionnaire, of whom some,
' Arch. Nat., Z" 886. , Arch. Nat., Y 13gBl , ' 3454. 8.-82. nOS. a witnas , /'roc/dure ui",illt/f, • Arch. Prtf. Pol., Aa '4B, rol. 30. where thc r;oll! wcre , Arch. Prtf. Pol., Aa �, fol. �g6. ln the rue d<:$ Lombards, out for special mention and condemna. IUpposed to have Itarted, the poli<:e picked was latcr senten«d tion Agnb Bernard, a fish-wife of the Section dell Hallell; she abovc). 183 p. (see prison in yean to two . . . •
THE GENERATION OF REVOLUTIONARY ACTIVITY �31 lead their local units of the insurgent National Guard because of their known record of militancy in the Year II.' In such a c�, then, we are dealing with experienced cadres of Jace bmlSm, who have emerged as leaders in the course of the
revolutionary years; but this is a later phenomenon and we see little trace of it before the summer of 1791,1 In the earlier examples cited those reported as playing leading parts may
well h�v� ha no previous records as militants and probably only distlOgwshed themselves by thcir vigour or violence on
�
this particular occasion; we may even accept at its face value
the frequently voiced assertion that such 'leaders' were present
as much by accident as design, or were brought along by the penuasion or compulsion of neighbours or itinerant bands. In
fact, may not Marie-Jeanne Trumeau or thefemme Lavarenne
�
f?r all their momentary militancy, have had experienc . slmIlar to that of a village woman who appeared to be the
l�ader of the rioters at Brie-Comte-Robert during the grain nots of Ins? When asked by the police to explain her dis orderly conduct, shc answered simply
qu'elle a ete entrainee . . . et convient que sa tete ,'cst montee comme celle des autres, et qu'elle ne savait plw ce qu'elle disait ni ce qu'elle faisait.l In such cases there are no leaders in the commonly accepted sense of the term and the distinction between militants or active elements, and rank-and-file participants disappears As
:
we have seen, this was not so in the later stages of the Revolu tion, when the clubs and societies had had time to train and
equip militants and leaders from the ranb of the sQJU-culottu themselves. But, in the early years at least, once we have
accounted for the efficacy of pamphlets and journals and the
spoken propaganda in public meeting-places, food-shops, and markets to generate revolutionary activity, there still remains an element of spontaneity that defies a more exact analysis.
, R. Cobb and C. Rudt!, 'Lea Joumm dc germinal ct de pTairial an III'' R.UUf h.islori'lUf, t9.l5, p. 219, n. 2. • We find Ihe earliellt signs in .he Champ dc Man movement of July 119 ' : among th ose arrellied in thc Sections for prOlellting al the brutality of the National Guard werc three WJinqutU's de la BIJJlil/e (Arch. Prt!f. Pol., Aa 85, foll. 8.l-86; .61, foJ. fI,lo; �06, foJ.. 37O-�). 1 Arch. Nat., Y "441 (interroga.oirc de la femmc Taflton,journaliere d'Ycrres).
OLU TION ARY CRO WD �30 THE ANATOMY OF THE REV fellows and, as such, drew tacular acts of violence, than their uard, or bystanders. In the attention of the police, National . mg part was ascnbed. to the Reveillon riots, for instance, a lead Bertin, a market-woman, one Marie-Jeanne Trumeau, jmlTrU reprieved) for having later gh who was sentenced to death (thou of 'Allons, vive Ie cries with bum incited the rioters to loot and among the sans inent Prom !" illon Tiers !!'tat!' and 'A la R�ve said witnesses, , were res barrii the culottes that burned down (alias Cadet), ont Dum and ant, assist s hant' Bataille a wine-merc h to Versailles, their chief a dock r.1 In the women's marc was the jmlme Lavarenne, spokesman, according to Maillard, porter, though she herself an illiterate sick-nurse and wife of a r compulsion) Among claimed to have been brought along unde nstration we have demo those taking part in the Champ de Mars ore remark rd-m Evra noted the remarkable cook, Constance ons than opini cal politi her of . able, it is true, for the maturity ry nots groce the g Durin .4 event for the part she played in the that several persons of February '793, the police recorded dissatisfaction and up g stirrin in part played a prominent coffee should be and es, candl , sugar which at fixing the price t of the commissioner sold. Among these, so ran a detailed repor of the Arsenal Section, was
G:
�
i connue . . . de la taille d'e�viron Une femme, assez bien, a nous n ans . . . vetue d'un d6h�bllle de trente cinq pieds un pouce, agee de mantdet de taffetas nOir et une un nt, coura dessin a toile fond bleu a fait tout ce qui montre d'or a chaine d'acier. . . . Cctte femme qui fixa Ie prix elle t u f ce . . . n seditio 1a etait en elle pour augmenter it.s dix-hu a sucre Ie et livre sols la douze a du savon several persons de After the events of Prairial, there were ity and the specially nounced to the Committee of General Secur d leading parts playe appointed Military Commission as having of the annie ers memb in the revolt; among these were former elected to been had least, at rivolutionnaire, of whom some,
' Arch. Nat., Z" 886. , Arch. Nat., Y 13gBl , ' 3454. 8.-82. nOS. a witnas , /'roc/dure ui",illt/f, • Arch. Prtf. Pol., Aa '4B, rol. 30. where thc r;oll! wcre , Arch. Prtf. Pol., Aa �, fol. �g6. ln the rue d<:$ Lombards, out for special mention and condemna. IUpposed to have Itarted, the poli<:e picked was latcr senten«d tion Agnb Bernard, a fish-wife of the Section dell Hallell; she abovc). 183 p. (see prison in yean to two . . . •
THE GENERATION OF REVOLUTIONARY ACTIVITY �31 lead their local units of the insurgent National Guard because of their known record of militancy in the Year II.' In such a c�, then, we are dealing with experienced cadres of Jace bmlSm, who have emerged as leaders in the course of the
revolutionary years; but this is a later phenomenon and we see little trace of it before the summer of 1791,1 In the earlier examples cited those reported as playing leading parts may
well h�v� ha no previous records as militants and probably only distlOgwshed themselves by thcir vigour or violence on
�
this particular occasion; we may even accept at its face value
the frequently voiced assertion that such 'leaders' were present
as much by accident as design, or were brought along by the penuasion or compulsion of neighbours or itinerant bands. In
fact, may not Marie-Jeanne Trumeau or thefemme Lavarenne
�
f?r all their momentary militancy, have had experienc . slmIlar to that of a village woman who appeared to be the
l�ader of the rioters at Brie-Comte-Robert during the grain nots of Ins? When asked by the police to explain her dis orderly conduct, shc answered simply
qu'elle a ete entrainee . . . et convient que sa tete ,'cst montee comme celle des autres, et qu'elle ne savait plw ce qu'elle disait ni ce qu'elle faisait.l In such cases there are no leaders in the commonly accepted sense of the term and the distinction between militants or active elements, and rank-and-file participants disappears As
:
we have seen, this was not so in the later stages of the Revolu tion, when the clubs and societies had had time to train and
equip militants and leaders from the ranb of the sQJU-culottu themselves. But, in the early years at least, once we have
accounted for the efficacy of pamphlets and journals and the
spoken propaganda in public meeting-places, food-shops, and markets to generate revolutionary activity, there still remains an element of spontaneity that defies a more exact analysis.
, R. Cobb and C. Rudt!, 'Lea Joumm dc germinal ct de pTairial an III'' R.UUf h.islori'lUf, t9.l5, p. 219, n. 2. • We find Ihe earliellt signs in .he Champ dc Man movement of July 119 ' : among th ose arrellied in thc Sections for prOlellting al the brutality of the National Guard werc three WJinqutU's de la BIJJlil/e (Arch. Prt!f. Pol., Aa 85, foll. 8.l-86; .61, foJ. fI,lo; �06, foJ.. 37O-�). 1 Arch. Nat., Y "441 (interroga.oirc de la femmc Taflton,journaliere d'Ycrres).
THE 'REVOLUTIONARY CROWD' IN H I STORY
variety ofimpulses, in which economic crisis, political upheaval, and the urge to satisfy immediate and particular grievances all
xv
played their part.
THE 'R E V O L U T I O N A R Y C R O W D' IN H I STORY
W
E
233
return to our central question-the nature of the
crowds that took part in the grea� events of the Revolu tion in Paris. From our analysu these crowds have
emerged as active agents in the revolutionary process, composed of social elements with their own distinctive iden ties.
�
interests, and aspirations. Yet these were n� t at vanance with, or isolated from, those of other SOCial groups. In fact we have seen that the Revolution was only able to advance-and, indeed, to break out-because the sans-cutoUts, from whom these elements were largely drawn, were able to assimilate and to identify themselves with the new political
ideas promoted by the liberal aristocracy and bourgeois£e. But, even when revolutionary crowds were impregnated with and stimulated by such ideas, they cannot for that reason be dis missed as mere passive instruments of middle-class leaders an� interests ; still less can they be presented as inchoate 'mobs' without any social identity or, at best, as drawn from criminal elements or the dregs or the city population. While these played a part, it was an altogether minor one and on no OCCa5ion corresponded to the unsympathetic picture of the all-prevailing canailk painted by Taine and other writers. Michelet's use of Ie ptuple corresponds, of course, far more closely to the racts: we have seen Bamave, for one, applying the term to those participants in revolutionary events who were neither of the aristocracy nor or the bourgeoisie. Yet it is too
indefinite; for while the rrunu peuple, or sans-culotte.s, taken. collec tively, formed the main body ofrioters and insurgents, the part played by their constituent elements-women, wage-earners, craftsmen, journeymcn, petty traders, or workshop masters varied widely from one occasion to another. This, of course, merely emphasizes the point that revolutionary crowds, far from being social abstractions, were composed of ordinary men and women with varying social needs, who responded to a
Are such conclusions only valid within the comparatively restricted context of the French Revolution, or have they a certain validity, as well, in the Ca5C of other 'revolutionary crowds', whom historians have been inclined, either for con venience or from lack of sympathy, to depict as 'mobs' or as social riff-raff?' It would, of course, be both presumptuous and misleading to generalize too freely and too confidently from the
cases examined in the course of the present study; yet, even if we admit that there are no exact historical parallels, there are certain features that are common both to these and to other popular movements arising in Britain and France during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. To that extent, at least, we may perhaps apply our conclusions to a wider field. We have already notcd the similarities berween certain 'economic' movements or the Revolution and those of the latter
years of the old regime in France-particularly that of t 775. Here we havc the same spontaneous reaction to the rising cost of Rour and bread ; rioting in markets and bakers' shops; the imposition of popular price-control, the terms of which were carried by word or mouth from market to market; the same almost unquestioning faith in the efficacy and benevolence of the royal authority; the role of rumour in stimulating activity ; the active participation of different groups of the menu ptuple of towns and villages, among whom criminal clements and down and-outs played an altogether insignificant part.z Several or these features, though by no means all, reappear in French
, Some!ima, of eourse, crowds are given Michekt', mort: sympathetic, if nOI more discriminating, label of 'the people' or 'the patriOtl'. Thil has generally ba:n the case n i British historians' dexriptions of the European and South Amerkan national movemenUo of the nineteenth centory in whkh erowds Were promoting causes with which the writers w("re manifatly in sympathy. Even, on oecasion. from a change of fashion or of official policy. a 'I""iteh' is made, in atimating a given mo\"emem, from one anitude to the other. Thul the 'bandits' of yaterday become the 'patriolS' or 'frt:edom Iight,!"r"I' of today. (For an amuling ilIwtration, sec: Mr. R. H. S. CrO:l!lman', account of the 'switch' from Mihail..... vitch to Tito in the Sc-cond World War in the Ntw Sialuma" aM Hario" of 15 Decembc:r 1956.) , See the conchuion. to my article on the grain riott of 1775 (cited, "III. alia, on p. 2"17, note J, above).
THE 'REVOLUTIONARY CROWD' IN H I STORY
variety ofimpulses, in which economic crisis, political upheaval, and the urge to satisfy immediate and particular grievances all
xv
played their part.
THE 'R E V O L U T I O N A R Y C R O W D' IN H I STORY
W
E
233
return to our central question-the nature of the
crowds that took part in the grea� events of the Revolu tion in Paris. From our analysu these crowds have
emerged as active agents in the revolutionary process, composed of social elements with their own distinctive iden ties.
�
interests, and aspirations. Yet these were n� t at vanance with, or isolated from, those of other SOCial groups. In fact we have seen that the Revolution was only able to advance-and, indeed, to break out-because the sans-cutoUts, from whom these elements were largely drawn, were able to assimilate and to identify themselves with the new political
ideas promoted by the liberal aristocracy and bourgeois£e. But, even when revolutionary crowds were impregnated with and stimulated by such ideas, they cannot for that reason be dis missed as mere passive instruments of middle-class leaders an� interests ; still less can they be presented as inchoate 'mobs' without any social identity or, at best, as drawn from criminal elements or the dregs or the city population. While these played a part, it was an altogether minor one and on no OCCa5ion corresponded to the unsympathetic picture of the all-prevailing canailk painted by Taine and other writers. Michelet's use of Ie ptuple corresponds, of course, far more closely to the racts: we have seen Bamave, for one, applying the term to those participants in revolutionary events who were neither of the aristocracy nor or the bourgeoisie. Yet it is too
indefinite; for while the rrunu peuple, or sans-culotte.s, taken. collec tively, formed the main body ofrioters and insurgents, the part played by their constituent elements-women, wage-earners, craftsmen, journeymcn, petty traders, or workshop masters varied widely from one occasion to another. This, of course, merely emphasizes the point that revolutionary crowds, far from being social abstractions, were composed of ordinary men and women with varying social needs, who responded to a
Are such conclusions only valid within the comparatively restricted context of the French Revolution, or have they a certain validity, as well, in the Ca5C of other 'revolutionary crowds', whom historians have been inclined, either for con venience or from lack of sympathy, to depict as 'mobs' or as social riff-raff?' It would, of course, be both presumptuous and misleading to generalize too freely and too confidently from the
cases examined in the course of the present study; yet, even if we admit that there are no exact historical parallels, there are certain features that are common both to these and to other popular movements arising in Britain and France during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. To that extent, at least, we may perhaps apply our conclusions to a wider field. We have already notcd the similarities berween certain 'economic' movements or the Revolution and those of the latter
years of the old regime in France-particularly that of t 775. Here we havc the same spontaneous reaction to the rising cost of Rour and bread ; rioting in markets and bakers' shops; the imposition of popular price-control, the terms of which were carried by word or mouth from market to market; the same almost unquestioning faith in the efficacy and benevolence of the royal authority; the role of rumour in stimulating activity ; the active participation of different groups of the menu ptuple of towns and villages, among whom criminal clements and down and-outs played an altogether insignificant part.z Several or these features, though by no means all, reappear in French
, Some!ima, of eourse, crowds are given Michekt', mort: sympathetic, if nOI more discriminating, label of 'the people' or 'the patriOtl'. Thil has generally ba:n the case n i British historians' dexriptions of the European and South Amerkan national movemenUo of the nineteenth centory in whkh erowds Were promoting causes with which the writers w("re manifatly in sympathy. Even, on oecasion. from a change of fashion or of official policy. a 'I""iteh' is made, in atimating a given mo\"emem, from one anitude to the other. Thul the 'bandits' of yaterday become the 'patriolS' or 'frt:edom Iight,!"r"I' of today. (For an amuling ilIwtration, sec: Mr. R. H. S. CrO:l!lman', account of the 'switch' from Mihail..... vitch to Tito in the Sc-cond World War in the Ntw Sialuma" aM Hario" of 15 Decembc:r 1956.) , See the conchuion. to my article on the grain riott of 1775 (cited, "III. alia, on p. 2"17, note J, above).
234
THE ANATOMY OF THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD
rural riots as latc as 1848.1 In the urban revolutions oClhe early nineteenth century, too, a large measure of continuity with that of 1789 still persists, though new features emerge with industrial advance and gradual social change. The external appearance of Paris and the geographical distribution of its population remained much the same in 1848 as sixty years before;2 the small workshop still predominated and, far from disappearing, was increasing its holdil while the main centres of the menu peuple were still the Faubourgs Saint·Antoine and Saint-Marcd and the districts north of the markets.4 As far as can be told from limited records, the composition of the participants in the 'trois gJorieuses' of July 830 was not very different from that of the captors of the Bastille,s Like their forbears of 10 August 1792 the ouvriers of 1830 left their workshops to take up arms and, far from encouraging looting, shot those who engaged in it out ofhand,6 In 1848, again, masters and journeymen marched together, and jointly manned the barricades and occupie the Chamber of Deputies in the February days.' De Tocquevllle's descriptions of the popular invasion of the parliamentary sessions of 24 February and 15 May of that year read like accounts of the great demonstrations in the National Convention in Germinal and Prairial of the Year III;8 and even in theJune revolution that followed, when bourgeois and ouurim found them selves ranged in armed conflict on opposing sides, we find the insurgents largely belonging to the familiar trades of those who stormed the Bastille and reduced the Tuileries: of J 1 ,6g3 persons
J
�
, Sec R. Gossez'J 'earle des troubles' n i E. Lab� (ed.), N� 14 III tris� 141" "lJNlRUm Ik I'ko,."mu/rtulf"in IIU milint tW m sikk (18f6-185r) (Paris, 19�6) ; G. Lefebv�, LD CrllNU p,,,, d� IJlIfJ. pp. 61-6�. • Sec C. �ignobol, LD RJuoIutitnt 14 18p] (Paris, I!JII I ), pp. 3+4-�. IIIt th 14 JIoPIIhUiMt Jlllrisinrnl Illl X/X· sikh (Paris, 1950), J L. Chevalier, LD Fl11fIiMt
d
P· 77· .. . L 18" '-" r, leUl '-. R ... ""'ulttm. ( • G. Vaulhier, 'La MiJtre des ouvnen en I831 ', .... {192�}, 607-17. . J Sec the very incomplete luIS or those killed and decorated a:t a result of their participation in the eventJ of 27-29Juiy 1830 in Par;' (Arch. PrU. Pol., Aa. ,6g70,420). • 'Une Leurc intdite lur 10 joum� de juiUet 1830', LD Rlwlution th 18pJ, vii (1910), 272-�. In 184B, too, de Toequevillc noted (without surpriJC, he added) the absence of looting (Titt R,colltdiotu of AItJ:;s dt Toc�uillt, ed. J. P. Mayer (London, 1948), p. 80). 7 A. CrtmieUK, 'La Fusillade du boulevard des Capudnes du 23 revrie. 1848', LD Rivolul;rm dt 18.,8, viii (1911), 99-1.:1:4; F. Dutacq, 'Un Rkit da journ� de I R,col/«lionJ, pp. 5 1-:;9, 13:;-4�· f�vrier 1848', ibid. ix (1912), 266-70.
THE 'REVOLUTIONARY CROWD' IN HISTORY
.:1:35
arrested and charged in this affair, there were 554 stonemasons, 510joiners, 416 shoemakers, 321 cabinet-makers, 28s locksmiths, 286 tailors, 283 painters, and 191 wine-merchants.I But the differences are equally, ifnot more, striking. Even in February the proportion of wage-earners among the insurgents was far greater than it was in 1789: de Tocqueville actually believed that the victors of the Revolution-up to May, at least-were the working classes and that its sole victims were the bourgeoisie,' This is an exaggeration; yet the fact remains that the wage earners and independent craftsmen, who played the principal part in the insurrections and journles of the period, were now organized in their own political clubs, marched under their own banners and leaders, and, far from responding to the ideas and slogans of the bourgeoisie, were deeply imbued with the new ideas of Socialism.l The Industrial Revolution of Louis Philippe's reign had brought in railways and the beginnings of mechanized industry: among the arrested irJSurgents ofJune, we note, alongside the joiners, cabinet-makers, and locksmiths of the traditional crafts and small workshops, the names of some eighty railwaymen and 257 micaniciens.4 As June 1848 marks the first great armed collision between ouvriers and bourgeoisie, so it marks the final eclipse of the Jons-culoUts and the emergence of the wage-earners as the new shock-troops of in surrection and the predominant element in revolutionary crowds. We find a similar process taking place in Britain, though it begins at an earlier date. Even more than in France the typical rural riot of the eighteenth century had its origins in the high price of corn, flour, or bread and expressed itself in various forms of direct action, ranging from personal assaults on mill owners, farmers, or magistrates, the destruction of fences, turn pikes, houses, or mills, the seizure of stocks of grain and stop page of food convoys, to great demonstrations of farm-workers, , Lis� gbtlraJe ." Drd" aJp!ul!Jitiqllt des iN;U/fJls drjwin I¥. Ar<:h. Nat., F>. 2585-6. • Ruo//tc/ions, pp. 78 If.
• �ignobos, op. cit., pp. 24-.:1:5, 57-58, 67-70, 89-106, T38-g; Sunnne Wauer_ mann, 'Le Club de Ra$pail en 1848', LD Rivoiulion d, 18�, v ( l goS-g), 589-605, 655-74, 74B--6�; R. Gossez , 'L'organisalion ouvricre a Paris $<)\1$ I" Se.:onde R�publlque', 18�. Rtl'Ut dts r(voiuliotu (onltmporai/ltS, xli (1949), 31-45. • p• .:1:585-6. See also G. Duveau, LD Vit OUlTiir, In FraNt ltIUI It StroM Em"i,. (Par;', 1946), pp. 42-..3.
234
THE ANATOMY OF THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD
rural riots as latc as 1848.1 In the urban revolutions oClhe early nineteenth century, too, a large measure of continuity with that of 1789 still persists, though new features emerge with industrial advance and gradual social change. The external appearance of Paris and the geographical distribution of its population remained much the same in 1848 as sixty years before;2 the small workshop still predominated and, far from disappearing, was increasing its holdil while the main centres of the menu peuple were still the Faubourgs Saint·Antoine and Saint-Marcd and the districts north of the markets.4 As far as can be told from limited records, the composition of the participants in the 'trois gJorieuses' of July 830 was not very different from that of the captors of the Bastille,s Like their forbears of 10 August 1792 the ouvriers of 1830 left their workshops to take up arms and, far from encouraging looting, shot those who engaged in it out ofhand,6 In 1848, again, masters and journeymen marched together, and jointly manned the barricades and occupie the Chamber of Deputies in the February days.' De Tocquevllle's descriptions of the popular invasion of the parliamentary sessions of 24 February and 15 May of that year read like accounts of the great demonstrations in the National Convention in Germinal and Prairial of the Year III;8 and even in theJune revolution that followed, when bourgeois and ouurim found them selves ranged in armed conflict on opposing sides, we find the insurgents largely belonging to the familiar trades of those who stormed the Bastille and reduced the Tuileries: of J 1 ,6g3 persons
J
�
, Sec R. Gossez'J 'earle des troubles' n i E. Lab� (ed.), N� 14 III tris� 141" "lJNlRUm Ik I'ko,."mu/rtulf"in IIU milint tW m sikk (18f6-185r) (Paris, 19�6) ; G. Lefebv�, LD CrllNU p,,,, d� IJlIfJ. pp. 61-6�. • Sec C. �ignobol, LD RJuoIutitnt 14 18p] (Paris, I!JII I ), pp. 3+4-�. IIIt th 14 JIoPIIhUiMt Jlllrisinrnl Illl X/X· sikh (Paris, 1950), J L. Chevalier, LD Fl11fIiMt
d
P· 77· .. . L 18" '-" r, leUl '-. R ... ""'ulttm. ( • G. Vaulhier, 'La MiJtre des ouvnen en I831 ', .... {192�}, 607-17. . J Sec the very incomplete luIS or those killed and decorated a:t a result of their participation in the eventJ of 27-29Juiy 1830 in Par;' (Arch. PrU. Pol., Aa. ,6g70,420). • 'Une Leurc intdite lur 10 joum� de juiUet 1830', LD Rlwlution th 18pJ, vii (1910), 272-�. In 184B, too, de Toequevillc noted (without surpriJC, he added) the absence of looting (Titt R,colltdiotu of AItJ:;s dt Toc�uillt, ed. J. P. Mayer (London, 1948), p. 80). 7 A. CrtmieUK, 'La Fusillade du boulevard des Capudnes du 23 revrie. 1848', LD Rivolul;rm dt 18.,8, viii (1911), 99-1.:1:4; F. Dutacq, 'Un Rkit da journ� de I R,col/«lionJ, pp. 5 1-:;9, 13:;-4�· f�vrier 1848', ibid. ix (1912), 266-70.
THE 'REVOLUTIONARY CROWD' IN HISTORY
.:1:35
arrested and charged in this affair, there were 554 stonemasons, 510joiners, 416 shoemakers, 321 cabinet-makers, 28s locksmiths, 286 tailors, 283 painters, and 191 wine-merchants.I But the differences are equally, ifnot more, striking. Even in February the proportion of wage-earners among the insurgents was far greater than it was in 1789: de Tocqueville actually believed that the victors of the Revolution-up to May, at least-were the working classes and that its sole victims were the bourgeoisie,' This is an exaggeration; yet the fact remains that the wage earners and independent craftsmen, who played the principal part in the insurrections and journles of the period, were now organized in their own political clubs, marched under their own banners and leaders, and, far from responding to the ideas and slogans of the bourgeoisie, were deeply imbued with the new ideas of Socialism.l The Industrial Revolution of Louis Philippe's reign had brought in railways and the beginnings of mechanized industry: among the arrested irJSurgents ofJune, we note, alongside the joiners, cabinet-makers, and locksmiths of the traditional crafts and small workshops, the names of some eighty railwaymen and 257 micaniciens.4 As June 1848 marks the first great armed collision between ouvriers and bourgeoisie, so it marks the final eclipse of the Jons-culoUts and the emergence of the wage-earners as the new shock-troops of in surrection and the predominant element in revolutionary crowds. We find a similar process taking place in Britain, though it begins at an earlier date. Even more than in France the typical rural riot of the eighteenth century had its origins in the high price of corn, flour, or bread and expressed itself in various forms of direct action, ranging from personal assaults on mill owners, farmers, or magistrates, the destruction of fences, turn pikes, houses, or mills, the seizure of stocks of grain and stop page of food convoys, to great demonstrations of farm-workers, , Lis� gbtlraJe ." Drd" aJp!ul!Jitiqllt des iN;U/fJls drjwin I¥. Ar<:h. Nat., F>. 2585-6. • Ruo//tc/ions, pp. 78 If.
• �ignobos, op. cit., pp. 24-.:1:5, 57-58, 67-70, 89-106, T38-g; Sunnne Wauer_ mann, 'Le Club de Ra$pail en 1848', LD Rivoiulion d, 18�, v ( l goS-g), 589-605, 655-74, 74B--6�; R. Gossez , 'L'organisalion ouvricre a Paris $<)\1$ I" Se.:onde R�publlque', 18�. Rtl'Ut dts r(voiuliotu (onltmporai/ltS, xli (1949), 31-45. • p• .:1:585-6. See also G. Duveau, LD Vit OUlTiir, In FraNt ltIUI It StroM Em"i,. (Par;', 1946), pp. 42-..3.
236 THE ANATOMY OF THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD miners and rural craftsmen in the local market towns. Such ' 0se engaged i� by activities are, of course, remioucent of
t?
�
French peasants and village tradesmen dunng t e same penod;
but none is more strikingly similar than the wIdespread resort to the taxation populaire, or popular price·control, examples of . which seem to have been even more abundant in the Enghsh countryside than in the French : for the year 1766 alone Dr. Wearmouth has recorded no less than twenty·two such instances from market towns and villages all over the country;1 and local records would no doubt reveal many more. It was only in the rural districts of England and Wales that this type of riot-with -pers ted �ell its emphasis on popular, or 'natural', justice into the nineteenth century, at a time when such maru festaUons had long been superseded in urban communities. Perhaps the
�
latest and certainly the most spectacular, example of It was seen n the Rebecca Riots which broke out in West Wales in 1839 and again in I842-ostensibly direct�d against toll-gates,
i
but actually expressing the accumulated gnevances �fthe Wel�h peasantry over tithe, 'alien' landowners, tyranmcal magts trates, church rates, high rents, and the New Poor �w,
�
ki ng n besides.' Here again, even at this late d�te, ther� are st . resemblances with certain of the French nots and JDsurrecuoru, both urban and rural, of the late eighteenth century-the appeal to tradition in both the propaganda and the costume of the rioters ·J the sporadic emergence of local leaders or 'Re
h
beccas" 4 t e visible expression of ,naturaljustice' in the destruc
;
tion of oll-gates and workhouses ; thejoint action offarmers and farm-labourers; and the spontaneous spreading of rioting, as though by contagion, from one area to another.s But new social forces were at work ; and it is certainly significant that 'Rebecca's'
, R. W. Wunnouth, .M�t1wJism and 1M Commoll Pwpk of 1M Eighlnfllh unJury (London, 1945), pp. 19-50, 51-76, 77-91 . • Da id Williams, Tiv IUlHcrQ RilM (Univ. ofWala PrCSII, 1955)· . J 'Rebecu'l' !euer'S rem inded the Welsh of their emla�ent by the �ngllJh 'som of HengUt' (ibid., p. 192) (cr. the Engsh il radiul tndiuon that Englishmen had been cnslav«t by the 'Norman yoke'}; and rioten commonly disguised them. Idva by blackening their face! « by draaing up aI women (th� last was a charge iruill:lently made agaiNt the Parniam who marched to Vertalll"" on 5 October
v
"Sg).
. 1 reports spcak of • Thae were mod often tenant farmers, though OCCallona 'gentlemen', publicans, and even labourers (ibid., p�. 19o, '95, �g8, 221 ' 250). . • Ibid., p. 212. Some of these featura appear In th� English agnC\lhural labouren' revolt of 18�()-1, the 11.11 movement ofits kind In rural England.
THE 'REVOLUTIONARY CROWD' I N HISTORY
iJ�7
nocturnal antics were called off and gave way to mass meetings and petitions to Parliament-not so much owing to successful government repression as to the farmers' change of heart when faced with their labourers' insistence on pressing their own
particular claims.' It was similar changes in the relations of social classes that transformed the nature of English urban riots. During the eighteenth century, despite the wide variety ofissues involvt:d , there is a certain continuity of pattern which, again, is reminis cent of the French. In market towns and all but the largest cities the prevailing form continued to be the food. riot. In London it rarely took this form, though the high price of food.
might be a contributory cause of disturbance.1 The constant repetition by historians ofsuch catch-phrases as Tory or Wilkite 'mobs' has of course tended to obscure the true nature of such disturbances and the fact that crowds taking part in them were
both socially identifiable and were impelled by specific grievances
and by motives other than those of loot or monetary gain. The East London riots ofJuly 1736 were largely the work ofjourney mt:n and labourers, who had been roused to violence against
the local Irish by the employment of Irish workt:rs at lower rates of wages;' yet otht:r factors, such as the Gin Act of that year and mt:mories of Walpole's threatened Excise, entered
into the picture. In the 'Wilkes and Liberty' riots of 1 768-g and the Gordon Riots of a dozen years later, those taking part were mainly journt:ymen, apprentices. servants, labourers, small crafumen, and petty traders. Though the immediate causes of
disturbance were very differt:nt in the two cases, both movt: mt:nts were movements ofsocial protest, in which the underlying conflict of poor against rich (though not yet of labour against
capital) is clearly visible beneath the surface. All these move, Ibid., pp. �43, 262.
. • Thill: WI.I probably.o in the anti-Irish and Gin Riou of 1736 and in the 'Wilkct
and Liberty' riots of March.May 1jii8, though probably not 10 in the Wilkct movements of 1763 <:K 176g, or in the Gordon Riots of 1780. {For these and other points �Iating 10 these movements lICe G. Rud�, '''Mother Gin" and the London Riots of 1736', Th GuildMlI Mual/any, no. 10, 1959; 'WiJl
236 THE ANATOMY OF THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD miners and rural craftsmen in the local market towns. Such ' 0se engaged i� by activities are, of course, remioucent of
t?
�
French peasants and village tradesmen dunng t e same penod;
but none is more strikingly similar than the wIdespread resort to the taxation populaire, or popular price·control, examples of . which seem to have been even more abundant in the Enghsh countryside than in the French : for the year 1766 alone Dr. Wearmouth has recorded no less than twenty·two such instances from market towns and villages all over the country;1 and local records would no doubt reveal many more. It was only in the rural districts of England and Wales that this type of riot-with -pers ted �ell its emphasis on popular, or 'natural', justice into the nineteenth century, at a time when such maru festaUons had long been superseded in urban communities. Perhaps the
�
latest and certainly the most spectacular, example of It was seen n the Rebecca Riots which broke out in West Wales in 1839 and again in I842-ostensibly direct�d against toll-gates,
i
but actually expressing the accumulated gnevances �fthe Wel�h peasantry over tithe, 'alien' landowners, tyranmcal magts trates, church rates, high rents, and the New Poor �w,
�
ki ng n besides.' Here again, even at this late d�te, ther� are st . resemblances with certain of the French nots and JDsurrecuoru, both urban and rural, of the late eighteenth century-the appeal to tradition in both the propaganda and the costume of the rioters ·J the sporadic emergence of local leaders or 'Re
h
beccas" 4 t e visible expression of ,naturaljustice' in the destruc
;
tion of oll-gates and workhouses ; thejoint action offarmers and farm-labourers; and the spontaneous spreading of rioting, as though by contagion, from one area to another.s But new social forces were at work ; and it is certainly significant that 'Rebecca's'
, R. W. Wunnouth, .M�t1wJism and 1M Commoll Pwpk of 1M Eighlnfllh unJury (London, 1945), pp. 19-50, 51-76, 77-91 . • Da id Williams, Tiv IUlHcrQ RilM (Univ. ofWala PrCSII, 1955)· . J 'Rebecu'l' !euer'S rem inded the Welsh of their emla�ent by the �ngllJh 'som of HengUt' (ibid., p. 192) (cr. the Engsh il radiul tndiuon that Englishmen had been cnslav«t by the 'Norman yoke'}; and rioten commonly disguised them. Idva by blackening their face! « by draaing up aI women (th� last was a charge iruill:lently made agaiNt the Parniam who marched to Vertalll"" on 5 October
v
"Sg).
. 1 reports spcak of • Thae were mod often tenant farmers, though OCCallona 'gentlemen', publicans, and even labourers (ibid., p�. 19o, '95, �g8, 221 ' 250). . • Ibid., p. 212. Some of these featura appear In th� English agnC\lhural labouren' revolt of 18�()-1, the 11.11 movement ofits kind In rural England.
THE 'REVOLUTIONARY CROWD' I N HISTORY
iJ�7
nocturnal antics were called off and gave way to mass meetings and petitions to Parliament-not so much owing to successful government repression as to the farmers' change of heart when faced with their labourers' insistence on pressing their own
particular claims.' It was similar changes in the relations of social classes that transformed the nature of English urban riots. During the eighteenth century, despite the wide variety ofissues involvt:d , there is a certain continuity of pattern which, again, is reminis cent of the French. In market towns and all but the largest cities the prevailing form continued to be the food. riot. In London it rarely took this form, though the high price of food.
might be a contributory cause of disturbance.1 The constant repetition by historians ofsuch catch-phrases as Tory or Wilkite 'mobs' has of course tended to obscure the true nature of such disturbances and the fact that crowds taking part in them were
both socially identifiable and were impelled by specific grievances
and by motives other than those of loot or monetary gain. The East London riots ofJuly 1736 were largely the work ofjourney mt:n and labourers, who had been roused to violence against
the local Irish by the employment of Irish workt:rs at lower rates of wages;' yet otht:r factors, such as the Gin Act of that year and mt:mories of Walpole's threatened Excise, entered
into the picture. In the 'Wilkes and Liberty' riots of 1 768-g and the Gordon Riots of a dozen years later, those taking part were mainly journt:ymen, apprentices. servants, labourers, small crafumen, and petty traders. Though the immediate causes of
disturbance were very differt:nt in the two cases, both movt: mt:nts were movements ofsocial protest, in which the underlying conflict of poor against rich (though not yet of labour against
capital) is clearly visible beneath the surface. All these move, Ibid., pp. �43, 262.
. • Thill: WI.I probably.o in the anti-Irish and Gin Riou of 1736 and in the 'Wilkct
and Liberty' riots of March.May 1jii8, though probably not 10 in the Wilkct movements of 1763 <:K 176g, or in the Gordon Riots of 1780. {For these and other points �Iating 10 these movements lICe G. Rud�, '''Mother Gin" and the London Riots of 1736', Th GuildMlI Mual/any, no. 10, 1959; 'WiJl
1138 THE ANATOMY OF THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD
ments are typical of French and English urban popular move
ments of the period, in which the
mltW
peupJe of wage-earners,
craftsmen, and small tradesmen, led by local captains, dispense
a rough and ready kind of natural justice by breaking windows, burning their enemies of the moment in effigy, or 'pulling down'
their dwelling-houses, pubs, or mills.' In the Gordon Riots this activity reached alarming proportions, settled claims for damage to private buildings and personal property alone amounting to over £70,000. This particular feature was due not so much
to the deeper social antagonisms as to the immediate panic
fear of the consequences of the believed increase in the numbers
and influence of the Roman Catholics: it was even rumoured
that Lord Mansfield, the Lord ChiefJustice, 'had made the king one' overnight ! An interesting by-product of all this was that the merchants and householders of the City of London,
facing a double threat-to their liberties from the Govern
ment's military measures and to their properties from the destructive zeal of 'the inferior set of people'-anticipated the
request
made nine years later by their counterparts
in
Paris for the institution of a milice hourgeoise to defend their
interests.' Such forms ofpopular demonstration did not long survive the
arrival of the new industrial age. With the growth of urban
population and the dawn of the factory system at the end of the century, trade unions became more frequent and more stable, and direct conflicts between wage-earners and employers a more
common feature of industrial and urban communities. From the 1780'S onwards strikes were beginning to eclipse food riots
and other movements of natural justice as the typical form of
social protest. At the same time, as we have seen, the wage earners were beginning to replace such social groupings as
'the urban poor', 'the inferior set of people', or the menu peuple- tcrms appropriate to an earlier age-as the main participants
in urban social movemcnts. In Britain this process was not attended by as much violence or as rapid a maturing ofpolitical
ideas as was witnessed in France in 1848; but the general
1 Thge features also appear in the 'Church and King' riots of '79O-ll in Birmingham and Manchater; but in these CMeil other demenu enter which require to be separately studied. • G. Rud�, ·r "tumulti di Gordon" (1 780)', MOl.'imtl!l� Op"(Ji� (Milan), 19:'0:'0. p. 8:'o�. Not lurprisingly the uque$t Willi coldly received and had 10 be droppW..
'" proc� started sooner and, by the advent of Chartism i the n . 1830 s, It was already completed. From these. few examples it would appear, then, that Q. new type of 'revolutionary crowd'-to use the term in its b� dest . pos.S1bl� sense-with new social objectives and new mO(i� of expressIOn was evolving in western Europe in the first p t of ar the mneteent " h century; wit " h the advance of capitalist i n " ..l t� " " -, It was to spread raptdly elsewhere. Thl! newer type of c� wd is prob�bly easier to identify than the older type that prevlt il d at the Ume of the French Revolution, and historians of tht l': ade . Uruon an� La�ur m�vement, in particular, have nOt been �ackward 10 USlOg av�la�le sources of inquiry to brit'lg t i to �gh�. Bu! bad old hab ts die hard, and the general histo rian is i IOchned 10 such matters to cover up his tracks by reso... .: "•• w " a convement and ready-to-hand vocabulary which, III gh hallowed by time, is none the less misleading and inadeo OUte. �ua The term ' rnabs'� "10 the sense of hired bands operatin. on behalf of external 1Oterests, doubtless has its place in the \v � g htm . " . of sooa " I histo,?,; but It · should be mvoked With dlscrel.J.ol), nd . a only when Jusl:l.fied by the particular occasion. In so far as ny a conclusion of general validity emerges from the present ttudy " " It IS, perhaps, that such occasions are rare and that "tai e's 'mob' should be seen as a term of convenience, or as \ Cifi k symbol of prejudice, rather than as a verifiable hQt()�C� THE 'REVOLUTIONARY CROWD' IN HISTORy
•
phenomenon.
1138 THE ANATOMY OF THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD
ments are typical of French and English urban popular move
ments of the period, in which the
mltW
peupJe of wage-earners,
craftsmen, and small tradesmen, led by local captains, dispense
a rough and ready kind of natural justice by breaking windows, burning their enemies of the moment in effigy, or 'pulling down'
their dwelling-houses, pubs, or mills.' In the Gordon Riots this activity reached alarming proportions, settled claims for damage to private buildings and personal property alone amounting to over £70,000. This particular feature was due not so much
to the deeper social antagonisms as to the immediate panic
fear of the consequences of the believed increase in the numbers
and influence of the Roman Catholics: it was even rumoured
that Lord Mansfield, the Lord ChiefJustice, 'had made the king one' overnight ! An interesting by-product of all this was that the merchants and householders of the City of London,
facing a double threat-to their liberties from the Govern
ment's military measures and to their properties from the destructive zeal of 'the inferior set of people'-anticipated the
request
made nine years later by their counterparts
in
Paris for the institution of a milice hourgeoise to defend their
interests.' Such forms ofpopular demonstration did not long survive the
arrival of the new industrial age. With the growth of urban
population and the dawn of the factory system at the end of the century, trade unions became more frequent and more stable, and direct conflicts between wage-earners and employers a more
common feature of industrial and urban communities. From the 1780'S onwards strikes were beginning to eclipse food riots
and other movements of natural justice as the typical form of
social protest. At the same time, as we have seen, the wage earners were beginning to replace such social groupings as
'the urban poor', 'the inferior set of people', or the menu peuple- tcrms appropriate to an earlier age-as the main participants
in urban social movemcnts. In Britain this process was not attended by as much violence or as rapid a maturing ofpolitical
ideas as was witnessed in France in 1848; but the general
1 Thge features also appear in the 'Church and King' riots of '79O-ll in Birmingham and Manchater; but in these CMeil other demenu enter which require to be separately studied. • G. Rud�, ·r "tumulti di Gordon" (1 780)', MOl.'imtl!l� Op"(Ji� (Milan), 19:'0:'0. p. 8:'o�. Not lurprisingly the uque$t Willi coldly received and had 10 be droppW..
'" proc� started sooner and, by the advent of Chartism i the n . 1830 s, It was already completed. From these. few examples it would appear, then, that Q. new type of 'revolutionary crowd'-to use the term in its b� dest . pos.S1bl� sense-with new social objectives and new mO(i� of expressIOn was evolving in western Europe in the first p t of ar the mneteent " h century; wit " h the advance of capitalist i n " ..l t� " " -, It was to spread raptdly elsewhere. Thl! newer type of c� wd is prob�bly easier to identify than the older type that prevlt il d at the Ume of the French Revolution, and historians of tht l': ade . Uruon an� La�ur m�vement, in particular, have nOt been �ackward 10 USlOg av�la�le sources of inquiry to brit'lg t i to �gh�. Bu! bad old hab ts die hard, and the general histo rian is i IOchned 10 such matters to cover up his tracks by reso... .: "•• w " a convement and ready-to-hand vocabulary which, III gh hallowed by time, is none the less misleading and inadeo OUte. �ua The term ' rnabs'� "10 the sense of hired bands operatin. on behalf of external 1Oterests, doubtless has its place in the \v � g htm . " . of sooa " I histo,?,; but It · should be mvoked With dlscrel.J.ol), nd . a only when Jusl:l.fied by the particular occasion. In so far as ny a conclusion of general validity emerges from the present ttudy " " It IS, perhaps, that such occasions are rare and that "tai e's 'mob' should be seen as a term of convenience, or as \ Cifi k symbol of prejudice, rather than as a verifiable hQt()�C� THE 'REVOLUTIONARY CROWD' IN HISTORy
•
phenomenon.
APPENDIX I Paris Sections of I7�5
(The first name given is that OfI790-1; later names are in brackets.) SAINT - DENJS �8. FAt)BOURO (Fbg.-du-Nord)
I . TUILERIES 2. CHAMPS ELvstES
3. ROULE (Republique) 4. PALAIS ROYAL (Butte des Moulins. Montagne) 5. PLACE VENoOME (Piques)
6. BIBLIOTHEQ.UE ( 1 792. Lepe. letier) 7. GRANGE BATEubE (Mirabeau. Mont Blanc)
8. LoUVRE (Museum).
9. ORATOIRE �ises)
(Gardes
Fran-
10. HALLE AU BLE I
I . POSTES (Contrat Social)
12. PLACE LoUIS XIV Guillaume Tell)
(Mail.
1 3- FONTAINE MONTMORENCY (Moliere et la Fontaine. Brutus.) 14. BoNNE NOUVELLE
IS. PONCEAU (Amis de la Patrie) 16. MAUCONsEIL (Bon Comeil) 17. MAllCHts Des INNOCENTS (Hailes. March6)
18. LoMBARDS 19. ARCili
20. FAUBOURG MONTMARTRE (Fbg. Mont-Marat)
2 1 . PQlSSONN1E:RE
22. BoNDY 23· TEMPLE 24. POPINCOURT l\.;fONTREUIL
QUINZE VINGT'S '7· GRAVILLIERS
29· BEAUBOURG (Reunion)
go. ENPANTS ROUGES (Marais. Hommr: Arme) 3 '· ROI DE SICILE (Droit! de I'Homme)
32. H6TEL DE VILLE (Maison Commune. Fidelite) 33. PLACE ROYALE Indivillibilite)
34· ARSENAL 35. ILE SAlNT-Lout5 nite)
(FCderes.
(Frater-
36. NOTRE DAME (Cite. Raison)
37· HENRI IV (Pont Neur. Re· volutionnaire) 38• INVALIDE$ 39· FONTAINE DE GRENELLE 40. QUATRE NATIONS (Unite)
41. THt.\TRE FRAN� (Marseille. Marat)
42. CROIX ROUGE (Bonnet Rouge. Bonnet dela Liberte. Ouest)
43· LUXEMBOURG (Mutius Scaevola)
4+ THERM£S DE JULIEN (Beaurepaire. Chalier. Regeneree. Thermes)
45· SA1NTE-GENEvl£VE thean Fran.-;ais)
(Pan-
46. OSSERVATOIRE 47. JARDIN DES PLANTES (SansCulottes)
48. GODELINS (Lazowski. Finis tere)
APPENDIX I Paris Sections of I7�5
(The first name given is that OfI790-1; later names are in brackets.) SAINT - DENJS �8. FAt)BOURO (Fbg.-du-Nord)
I . TUILERIES 2. CHAMPS ELvstES
3. ROULE (Republique) 4. PALAIS ROYAL (Butte des Moulins. Montagne) 5. PLACE VENoOME (Piques)
6. BIBLIOTHEQ.UE ( 1 792. Lepe. letier) 7. GRANGE BATEubE (Mirabeau. Mont Blanc)
8. LoUVRE (Museum).
9. ORATOIRE �ises)
(Gardes
Fran-
10. HALLE AU BLE I
I . POSTES (Contrat Social)
12. PLACE LoUIS XIV Guillaume Tell)
(Mail.
1 3- FONTAINE MONTMORENCY (Moliere et la Fontaine. Brutus.) 14. BoNNE NOUVELLE
IS. PONCEAU (Amis de la Patrie) 16. MAUCONsEIL (Bon Comeil) 17. MAllCHts Des INNOCENTS (Hailes. March6)
18. LoMBARDS 19. ARCili
20. FAUBOURG MONTMARTRE (Fbg. Mont-Marat)
2 1 . PQlSSONN1E:RE
22. BoNDY 23· TEMPLE 24. POPINCOURT l\.;fONTREUIL
QUINZE VINGT'S '7· GRAVILLIERS
29· BEAUBOURG (Reunion)
go. ENPANTS ROUGES (Marais. Hommr: Arme) 3 '· ROI DE SICILE (Droit! de I'Homme)
32. H6TEL DE VILLE (Maison Commune. Fidelite) 33. PLACE ROYALE Indivillibilite)
34· ARSENAL 35. ILE SAlNT-Lout5 nite)
(FCderes.
(Frater-
36. NOTRE DAME (Cite. Raison)
37· HENRI IV (Pont Neur. Re· volutionnaire) 38• INVALIDE$ 39· FONTAINE DE GRENELLE 40. QUATRE NATIONS (Unite)
41. THt.\TRE FRAN� (Marseille. Marat)
42. CROIX ROUGE (Bonnet Rouge. Bonnet dela Liberte. Ouest)
43· LUXEMBOURG (Mutius Scaevola)
4+ THERM£S DE JULIEN (Beaurepaire. Chalier. Regeneree. Thermes)
45· SA1NTE-GENEvl£VE thean Fran.-;ais)
(Pan-
46. OSSERVATOIRE 47. JARDIN DES PLANTES (SansCulottes)
48. GODELINS (Lazowski. Finis tere)
,,,
APPENDIX I I
APPENDIX I I The PopuilJtion
W..,...,.,..
I.
2, 3. 4. 5. 6.
,. 8. 9. 10.
II.
12. 13.
5«1;'"
Tuilcrics Champ' t.t� Roule Palais Royal PI� VcndOmc Biblioth�uc Grange Batclib-e Louvre Oraloire Halle au BI� POIta Louis XIV Fontaine Mont· =-=1'
'4. Bonne Nouvelle ' 5- Ponceau .6. Maucoruc:il
I,. 18.
Man:bb da Innocenti Lombanb
Ig. Arcit
_0."
�.
...
. .
'..497 1,334 . ,8, /,197 ' ,'" 1,677 .
."
..
'" ""
2,369 5,268 ',866 1.705 '",, ' . .
1I1. Poissonni�rc
',242 1,517
1I3.
1,1I73 1,3sa 1,33° 1,831
20. Faub. Monlmarlre
Bondy Temple 1I+ Popioeourl liS' Moolreuil 1I6. Quinze Viogts 27. G,.."illicn 28. Faub. Saint.Omis 1Ig.. s.:aubourg 30. Enfants Rouges ]1. Roi de Sicile 32. Hiltel de Ville 33. Place Royale 34. Ancnal . 35, tie Saini-Louis 36, NOire Dame ]7. Henri IV . ]8. In"alidel n.
.
.
;,6gg
3,217 �,9]� 1,015 1,028 .
.
/,172 8.. '" ..
45' ,6,
NII. llf mP"7'"
;' .
.
.... 9'
..
.'
55 .,
77
..
" "
'9 ..8
'<"
'"
••
no
.. ,8 97 ..
99
8; 8; '
.'" '" '" ."
..
6, 75 '"
,8
54 "
cili.{.11U i.
'AtliI¥' '79"
Po;.d4liM dmsi� Popu/4Iiott: ill
,,...
1,6s. 8)3 .,:l8g '.395 1 ,030 1,5" 8,. 2,0'23 ',,.., , ,870 ' ,'" ',394
1�,600 8,� 12,850 ,, 14,000 12,gB, 11,570 11,800 6,612
1,08, 1,60, 1,60, 1,,08 1,072 ',,... 1,753 68, 834 1 0439
12.472 9.950 13,645 1 1 ,000 '4,722 12,550 12,000 13,800 11I,000 13,315 1I5,000 13,747 15,000 12,5� 11,000 13,f40 11,015 80974 10,500 1 1 ,230 1,f,5°° 2 1,000 5,257 1 1 ,780 ],581 1 1,000
',660 -,068
1,·n8 1,9sa 3,3°5 1 ,330 2,285 1,7f4 1,81 i 1,729 1,883 1,407 1,0]2 1,657 88, 1,1 00
7,DI I
9,.... '3,000
,,,,'
'5,1¥! 8,� 11.377 16,719 13�8 9.930 10,920 22,6g1 12,567 1 1 ,640 12,567 9,,.... 9>424 ' ..... 16,648 '3,8·8 13.146 '4.811 1 1,600 10,104 8,435 ".....
1 1,g88 10,933 13,479 18,283 24,774 11,630 16,320 10,4th 12,321 12,2]1 11,836 10,264 4,862 1 1 ,402 5,126 10,401
Ut ,b:
;Md,.
"',IX»
Sq. INIJ ,. "
" "
, 75
'" "
'59
444
'94 33' ,66
"; ,,,, ,'"
,88
55' .,8
,so " " "
;8 ., "
"
,'. ., '" ." ,,,
''4 '"
8,
". '"
'97 "
Sa"",'
Fonl. de Grcnelle Qualrc Nations Th,utre F,..n� Croix Rouge Luxembourg +-I. The.-mes de Juli<'n 45. Sainte-Genevib>:: 46. ObiervalOire 47. Jardin del Plantes .f8. Gobelins 39.
40. 41. 42. 43.
TOlals
Wagf-unorrS iff 179"
_On,
EmpJ..�tl ,as 2,310 2,207 ' ,'" 1,061 1,'39 2,'36 1,'33 1,6g5 ."
-,
No. oj "
' .. '"
8;
,,8 " '"
55 66 ,8
],776 62,743 (41 Sections)
'Ik,w,,'
ntiuv
'79"
i.
" goo ',000
2,100 1,551 2,100 "� 2,762 - ,,... 2,178 1,200
P...-. Jncsity PopuWiort: ill
,,...
10,878 21,516 16,600 17,600 '7,000 140490 112,645 19.907 16,000 12,741
,,,,'
12,55-4 21,&>1 14,.fOG 16,7'" 17,633 12,394 24,977 '3,193 15,185 1 1 ,775
.---
82,270 6]5,504 636,772
,800 :
iM4bs.
ll i
"' ,''1. _Ins' 86
" . •
'75 .,
" " , ,,, "
...
"
..
I Names of Sc:ctiolll as in 1790"'1. (For later changes Ice Appendix I.) • J.'rom F. Braesch, 'Un Euai de natillique de la population ou"ri�re de Paris ven
1791', La Rlv. ftO"f. lxiii (July-Dee. 1912), 289-321. For a dilCws;on of the gaps ll i M, B,..esch'l ligures see my Parisia" Wagf-EarlllTs, i. 46-5 1 . 1 From E. Charavay, Alumbll� oIode,au.u Paris (3 VOII., pam., ,8g0-S), vol. ii, pp. \/-vii. • From N, Kamev, La Dnui/l .u /4 population .us dill""II" udWtu til Paris /JtftdtuIt In JU""'�lion, pp. 14-15. I Arch. Nat., F' 3688\ doss. 1 (Jaouary 179S). , Kareiev, loe. cit.
,,,
APPENDIX I I
APPENDIX I I The PopuilJtion
W..,...,.,..
I.
2, 3. 4. 5. 6.
,. 8. 9. 10.
II.
12. 13.
5«1;'"
Tuilcrics Champ' t.t� Roule Palais Royal PI� VcndOmc Biblioth�uc Grange Batclib-e Louvre Oraloire Halle au BI� POIta Louis XIV Fontaine Mont· =-=1'
'4. Bonne Nouvelle ' 5- Ponceau .6. Maucoruc:il
I,. 18.
Man:bb da Innocenti Lombanb
Ig. Arcit
_0."
�.
...
. .
'..497 1,334 . ,8, /,197 ' ,'" 1,677 .
."
..
'" ""
2,369 5,268 ',866 1.705 '",, ' . .
1I1. Poissonni�rc
',242 1,517
1I3.
1,1I73 1,3sa 1,33° 1,831
20. Faub. Monlmarlre
Bondy Temple 1I+ Popioeourl liS' Moolreuil 1I6. Quinze Viogts 27. G,.."illicn 28. Faub. Saint.Omis 1Ig.. s.:aubourg 30. Enfants Rouges ]1. Roi de Sicile 32. Hiltel de Ville 33. Place Royale 34. Ancnal . 35, tie Saini-Louis 36, NOire Dame ]7. Henri IV . ]8. In"alidel n.
.
.
;,6gg
3,217 �,9]� 1,015 1,028 .
.
/,172 8.. '" ..
45' ,6,
NII. llf mP"7'"
;' .
.
.... 9'
..
.'
55 .,
77
..
" "
'9 ..8
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'"
••
no
.. ,8 97 ..
99
8; 8; '
.'" '" '" ."
..
6, 75 '"
,8
54 "
cili.{.11U i.
'AtliI¥' '79"
Po;.d4liM dmsi� Popu/4Iiott: ill
,,...
1,6s. 8)3 .,:l8g '.395 1 ,030 1,5" 8,. 2,0'23 ',,.., , ,870 ' ,'" ',394
1�,600 8,� 12,850 ,, 14,000 12,gB, 11,570 11,800 6,612
1,08, 1,60, 1,60, 1,,08 1,072 ',,... 1,753 68, 834 1 0439
12.472 9.950 13,645 1 1 ,000 '4,722 12,550 12,000 13,800 11I,000 13,315 1I5,000 13,747 15,000 12,5� 11,000 13,f40 11,015 80974 10,500 1 1 ,230 1,f,5°° 2 1,000 5,257 1 1 ,780 ],581 1 1,000
',660 -,068
1,·n8 1,9sa 3,3°5 1 ,330 2,285 1,7f4 1,81 i 1,729 1,883 1,407 1,0]2 1,657 88, 1,1 00
7,DI I
9,.... '3,000
,,,,'
'5,1¥! 8,� 11.377 16,719 13�8 9.930 10,920 22,6g1 12,567 1 1 ,640 12,567 9,,.... 9>424 ' ..... 16,648 '3,8·8 13.146 '4.811 1 1,600 10,104 8,435 ".....
1 1,g88 10,933 13,479 18,283 24,774 11,630 16,320 10,4th 12,321 12,2]1 11,836 10,264 4,862 1 1 ,402 5,126 10,401
Ut ,b:
;Md,.
"',IX»
Sq. INIJ ,. "
" "
, 75
'" "
'59
444
'94 33' ,66
"; ,,,, ,'"
,88
55' .,8
,so " " "
;8 ., "
"
,'. ., '" ." ,,,
''4 '"
8,
". '"
'97 "
Sa"",'
Fonl. de Grcnelle Qualrc Nations Th,utre F,..n� Croix Rouge Luxembourg +-I. The.-mes de Juli<'n 45. Sainte-Genevib>:: 46. ObiervalOire 47. Jardin del Plantes .f8. Gobelins 39.
40. 41. 42. 43.
TOlals
Wagf-unorrS iff 179"
_On,
EmpJ..�tl ,as 2,310 2,207 ' ,'" 1,061 1,'39 2,'36 1,'33 1,6g5 ."
-,
No. oj "
' .. '"
8;
,,8 " '"
55 66 ,8
],776 62,743 (41 Sections)
'Ik,w,,'
ntiuv
'79"
i.
" goo ',000
2,100 1,551 2,100 "� 2,762 - ,,... 2,178 1,200
P...-. Jncsity PopuWiort: ill
,,...
10,878 21,516 16,600 17,600 '7,000 140490 112,645 19.907 16,000 12,741
,,,,'
12,55-4 21,&>1 14,.fOG 16,7'" 17,633 12,394 24,977 '3,193 15,185 1 1 ,775
.---
82,270 6]5,504 636,772
,800 :
iM4bs.
ll i
"' ,''1. _Ins' 86
" . •
'75 .,
" " , ,,, "
...
"
..
I Names of Sc:ctiolll as in 1790"'1. (For later changes Ice Appendix I.) • J.'rom F. Braesch, 'Un Euai de natillique de la population ou"ri�re de Paris ven
1791', La Rlv. ftO"f. lxiii (July-Dee. 1912), 289-321. For a dilCws;on of the gaps ll i M, B,..esch'l ligures see my Parisia" Wagf-EarlllTs, i. 46-5 1 . 1 From E. Charavay, Alumbll� oIode,au.u Paris (3 VOII., pam., ,8g0-S), vol. ii, pp. \/-vii. • From N, Kamev, La Dnui/l .u /4 population .us dill""II" udWtu til Paris /JtftdtuIt In JU""'�lion, pp. 14-15. I Arch. Nat., F' 3688\ doss. 1 (Jaouary 179S). , Kareiev, loe. cit.
,.J
APPENDIX III 40. Quatre Nations ·s"".... .
Paris Sections and Insurgents tif q87-95
(Numben arrated, killed, wounded, or participants injoumkf)
',J
C�) ,,110 C,)
RlotiJ.
0 $<,,;_
' Tuilerie. -
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or.
:tao
�
Champs tl a Roule Palai, Royal Vend6mc Bibliolhtque Gr;o.nge Batclihe Louvre Oraloire Halle au Dlt PaStes Louis XIV . Fontaine Mont. mo�ncy . Bonne Nouvelle Ponen.... Maueonseil Mareht da Innocenti LombardJ Arcis . Faubourg �'fontmarlre Poi nnit Bondy Temple
sso n.:
2._ Popincourt :I
.
,•.
'7·
.
" " . ,' " .
33· 34. 3 . 3 • 3�.
�
:I
.
39·
Montreuil . Quin�c Vingu Gravillien Faubourg 51. Denis 8caubourg . En(antll Rouges Rai de Sidle lillie! de Ville Place Royale Arsenal . tie Saint.Loui. Notre L>ame Henri IV Invalida Funtaine de Grcndle .
.
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Names orSectionl are as in '790-1. For later changes see Appendix 1. ,
,
'oJ
,
,
,
,
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.
. .
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.. .. ..
,
.
.
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Th<'itre Fr.an�a.i•. Crou. Rouge Luxembourg ThermQ deJulien .. Sainl�eviM. .. Obscrv;l.Ioir<: . 47- Jardin des Plantes 48. Gobclins Outside Paril
4" 42. 43. 44.
�.
•
j
Total.
APPENDIX I I I
(2) ,18!J bl
Rlml·
, till< Rio's B. ,,.,� (.04..,.1) a.',,) ...
,
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For later changes Ice Ap�ndix I.
Sourcu: (' Arch. Nat., Y '3014, 9491, 99B9, 1 1 206, 11517, t53Q9A. 1875', 18795; X') S98g. (2 " " Y 1049[, 10!:>30, t I O�3, 13582, 15019. 15101, ,8795, (3 " " T 5 '4(": Noms d.s t""�qutUl'S d. 11I Bill/iii.. . (of An:h PTer. Pol., Aa (liS cartons), Ab 324; Arch. Nat., W 294, T 214. [For detalb seep. 91, n. 5-1 (s) AT<::h Nat., F" 32!ig-74; F' #26. (6) Arch. PrU. Pol., Aa 9, t I (arrestation.) ; Ab 3�5, 3�1; AM. hill. •Iv. frll1lf. no. 130, p. 33. (1) Arch. Nat., BB' 80, doss. 7, I I . Figura for Sections nos. 311, 39, 40, 45 aT<: esti mates b:aKd on incomplete return•. (8) Arch Nat., W 55+-5, F> (variow); Arch. PrU. Pol., Aa (varioua). (9)
"
.. W 556-8·
,.J
APPENDIX III 40. Quatre Nations ·s"".... .
Paris Sections and Insurgents tif q87-95
(Numben arrated, killed, wounded, or participants injoumkf)
',J
C�) ,,110 C,)
RlotiJ.
0 $<,,;_
' Tuilerie. -
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ro.
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22. 2].
or.
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Champs tl a Roule Palai, Royal Vend6mc Bibliolhtque Gr;o.nge Batclihe Louvre Oraloire Halle au Dlt PaStes Louis XIV . Fontaine Mont. mo�ncy . Bonne Nouvelle Ponen.... Maueonseil Mareht da Innocenti LombardJ Arcis . Faubourg �'fontmarlre Poi nnit Bondy Temple
sso n.:
2._ Popincourt :I
.
,•.
'7·
.
" " . ,' " .
33· 34. 3 . 3 • 3�.
�
:I
.
39·
Montreuil . Quin�c Vingu Gravillien Faubourg 51. Denis 8caubourg . En(antll Rouges Rai de Sidle lillie! de Ville Place Royale Arsenal . tie Saint.Loui. Notre L>ame Henri IV Invalida Funtaine de Grcndle .
.
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Names orSectionl are as in '790-1. For later changes see Appendix 1. ,
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Total.
APPENDIX I I I
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For later changes Ice Ap�ndix I.
Sourcu: (' Arch. Nat., Y '3014, 9491, 99B9, 1 1 206, 11517, t53Q9A. 1875', 18795; X') S98g. (2 " " Y 1049[, 10!:>30, t I O�3, 13582, 15019. 15101, ,8795, (3 " " T 5 '4(": Noms d.s t""�qutUl'S d. 11I Bill/iii.. . (of An:h PTer. Pol., Aa (liS cartons), Ab 324; Arch. Nat., W 294, T 214. [For detalb seep. 91, n. 5-1 (s) AT<::h Nat., F" 32!ig-74; F' #26. (6) Arch. PrU. Pol., Aa 9, t I (arrestation.) ; Ab 3�5, 3�1; AM. hill. •Iv. frll1lf. no. 130, p. 33. (1) Arch. Nat., BB' 80, doss. 7, I I . Figura for Sections nos. 311, 39, 40, 45 aT<: esti mates b:aKd on incomplete return•. (8) Arch Nat., W 55+-5, F> (variow); Arch. PrU. Pol., Aa (varioua). (9)
"
.. W 556-8·
,.J
APPENDIX IV
."
APPI!.ND IX 1V
y,"".
!'i�!
Paris Trades and Insurgents oj IJ87--95 (Figures in brack�1J denote probable wage_earnel'J) ,.J
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T,_,
......
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Bu'ch.n : ....�
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APPENDIX IV
."
APPI!.ND IX 1V
y,"".
!'i�!
Paris Trades and Insurgents oj IJ87--95 (Figures in brack�1J denote probable wage_earnel'J) ,.J
RIM/· " ,,",
T,_,
......
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Bu'ch.n : ....�
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1'1' N.,., Z" 8861 Y ,06f� 4 Arch N.\., Z· ,.&p,; Y '4'40,
s-,,"
()
APPENDIX IV
("
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APPENDIX V
.
Parisian Insurgents and Rioters of 1775-95 Age, leX, literacy, ongu"
' I')
,
.. ..
(., No.
..
, . iotsof'775 -C ::� ._ _ 139 I. ComR
b'
(0'
"'-
,to. _ _
:·'-"·"'-:'·: I_'·"'-I '· � 102 I'_"'"" 18 �W"'_"'· I 30
•
�B(") tlI6(4' 10(.) ,
(.,
....lkl. Wq._ U..._
previous convie:Uoru, .!te:.
..
2. Riots of 1787-8 . 3. R�vCllon Riots . 4. BIUT;;m
,o6tv; An::h. 5&_ et Loire, B 70). Sou.- eo. noo. (,)-(.), bl-{,o)
5. Saint·Lazare affair
6. Bastille 7. Champ de Mars 9. Gro«ry Riots or 1792-3 .
8. 10 August t792 .
II.
10. Prainal Year III
55 68 77
28 52 26
? 8 ?
37 662
'49 ".
33
..
248 u3 58 tB6
,.
" ,6
'4
I I
$mur:n:
3'
14
,,>
(%1
33
'5
60
?
9
23 29 ?
62 ?
'3 ?
'3
,
,. 3'
80
3
"
7
" ,6
"
"
Vendbniaire
Year IV
b'
"'P....... _......... �...
,
..
B�) r.;;".',,!:..,. 1 .... �_t u.
--!!L..� 37' 80
31
_
66 ?
6, 7°
10 ?
"
"
'7
.,
7°
,�
For Com Riots of 1775 see G . Rud�, 'La Taulion popula.ire de mai dam la region parisienne', A"". hUt. rllI.filUlf., 1956, p. 239(Other sour<:es as for Ap(>Cfldix,," Ill-IV.]
1775 & Pari. et
, In the case of those relidf;Jlt n i Paris it _ ¢ per cmt.
1
0'
b
(. ,
P ...... .. .
,....
..... ......
LardU-. ... medicine)
."'..
.. ..
..
w,
.......
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•• .. ..
Ann "
•
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•
poIi«. N.,..,..al C'd: (0) 0fS«t0r,. N.CO.• ou.....
''''''
..
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(.,
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.,.., .. 10 Appo<>d... Ill. '
Arc". .
"
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4 (.)
.
.
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"
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b.) n t")
1'1' N.,., Z" 8861 Y ,06f� 4 Arch N.\., Z· ,.&p,; Y '4'40,
s-,,"
()
APPENDIX IV
("
w·
,....
4-
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.. ..
,
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.
APPENDIX V
.
Parisian Insurgents and Rioters of 1775-95 Age, leX, literacy, ongu"
' I')
,
.. ..
(., No.
..
, . iotsof'775 -C ::� ._ _ 139 I. ComR
b'
(0'
"'-
,to. _ _
:·'-"·"'-:'·: I_'·"'-I '· � 102 I'_"'"" 18 �W"'_"'· I 30
•
�B(") tlI6(4' 10(.) ,
(.,
....lkl. Wq._ U..._
previous convie:Uoru, .!te:.
..
2. Riots of 1787-8 . 3. R�vCllon Riots . 4. BIUT;;m
,o6tv; An::h. 5&_ et Loire, B 70). Sou.- eo. noo. (,)-(.), bl-{,o)
5. Saint·Lazare affair
6. Bastille 7. Champ de Mars 9. Gro«ry Riots or 1792-3 .
8. 10 August t792 .
II.
10. Prainal Year III
55 68 77
28 52 26
? 8 ?
37 662
'49 ".
33
..
248 u3 58 tB6
,.
" ,6
'4
I I
$mur:n:
3'
14
,,>
(%1
33
'5
60
?
9
23 29 ?
62 ?
'3 ?
'3
,
,. 3'
80
3
"
7
" ,6
"
"
Vendbniaire
Year IV
b'
"'P....... _......... �...
,
..
B�) r.;;".',,!:..,. 1 .... �_t u.
--!!L..� 37' 80
31
_
66 ?
6, 7°
10 ?
"
"
'7
.,
7°
,�
For Com Riots of 1775 see G . Rud�, 'La Taulion popula.ire de mai dam la region parisienne', A"". hUt. rllI.filUlf., 1956, p. 239(Other sour<:es as for Ap(>Cfldix,," Ill-IV.]
1775 & Pari. et
, In the case of those relidf;Jlt n i Paris it _ ¢ per cmt.
1
0'
APPENDIX VI
A P PENDIX VII
The Revolutionary Cakndar'
Pn'ces and Wages in Paris, IJ89-93
I� H I� ��� I i
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•
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.
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� 1. ,
' "
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.. .. oO
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. .. " . . .. .. " . . .. .. .. ., .. ., " .
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•
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n 11
. .. . .. , .. . ., . .. ' " , ,, ' " . ., .... " ,. " " ., • .. • ., , ., • " , ., , ., , .. , .. , .. .. .. " .. " .. .. ., .. " ., ., ., .. . , ,. .,
. " . .. , .. . .. , .. ' " , .. . .. . "
1 1 �tt H� !H
•
. . , . , '
. "
. .,
' oO
., " ., ., .. " .. .. .. .. .. "
•
, , , ,
•
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30 '3 3'
., ., .,
••
.. .. .. .. .. .. .. "
.. .1 . , .1 .. . , .. ,. .1 ,.
•
"
. ., • ., , " . .. , .. ---
p. ' "
t o 28 10 .8 10 " .g " 2g " I, I, ., " • " •• • .. • '4 . ., • ., , ,
30
., " .. " ..
. " .. , .. .. . . ., ' " , ..
, ., ., , ., , " , .. I " • .. .. .. " .. " .. . , oO .. " . , ., . , .. . , ,.
.8 '7 'V
• •
,. "
, •
, , ,
• ,
.. "
" .,
••
[Reproduced
TADLE I ,
from The £CoMmie History Rnriew, PP· 248-55]
vol. vi,
1954>
no.
3.
Percentage of ineome spent on bread by PariJian workers in 17/Jg
...
"-"" Labour... in �'. f.o.clOo'y
Builckt', labourer Journeyman muon loum
Sculp..... ..<>Id.milh
� ,. .
'£I"';"
_I,
..." -
' .� ..
.. ."
�.
•• •
•00 •
�.
.
� - ..... .. �
A" .. .. ,. "
,. .
,..
A' ,#I .. A, .,ri .. .--
,. ..
AI " ..
H
.. ..
,. " ..
.. " ,.
.. ,.
.. ..,
.. ..
'W",.. Ii""" hue. wtJ.. oIhuwiM: "ated. _ r ....... 1.. BioIla,. I..I Jriz .. 'n- (P..... .886). pp. '4-71. Narly aU thae, fat. lad:. oroth.. �. _ ..... I,..,. Whal ma. .... . there • r.... " eg l ."' ...... �. tha.
• I.. com"". i .... 'riJecli",' urn""" .u.:.w....u hao b«t> Inade fat.
(Hardy. J--l. ";il. 4s8-9).
&,0.1jvJljfow t. si.... Ilhoill.... Bib. NaL U"
lidn... •
,6,8.
..
.,
n.., R<M>Iu.ionuy (or lI.opublka.a) Calcodt.. w.. in offio:ia1 ux bet_ n �'<mbcr IXl3 C .., V...&!mi."" oI,hc Yc"," 11) '0 the end ",,� (0 tlh Ni.(l,c "rob. v••• XIV). In lea!»..... ('7&6• •500. '....). " ,II V...,o..: wnuponded 10 09 rcbtuuy "nd the Uk. day "'1M R<""bG<.o.n Ye.< __ 'found' by .eldin, .. ,iJuh .joout ....uIouid.' .. (or 'jour """,pUmen'a",,') 10 the 6..., •
.!Iowa above.
TABLE !2.
Hypotluticai budgds oj Parisian workus JUfII! 1791
BtJt.1 O{. hiU.,·, w-... ( _ ,.. .. ; ',I""... .-- " ..)
4 110. br..d R_,
J- .,.,
BJolance ror oil, vq._ tabl.., dOlhl"". 8oc.
TOT"�
joo ,�
14l ..
4 Ib. bt.o.d
,.
�. I Ii.... wiDe
•1 . ,.
'i lb. meat
Balance
111
B"" "',�"'",-, t.oU.'.Ilt. U•• (_"' ''' ''1 '" .ai.' .-- " ..) joo .,.,
I. ,.
4 1b. bRad '41 .. I Ii,", wioc I Ih. meat
,. ,. ..
, ..
BaI""..
., .
.. .,.
., .
JUfII! 17f19 and
R_.
,. .
:1-,,,,
4 Ib. bRad Roo.
i Ih. meat
I ll.... ......
Bala"""
" ,.
I•
,.
••
,. .
APPENDIX VI
A P PENDIX VII
The Revolutionary Cakndar'
Pn'ces and Wages in Paris, IJ89-93
I� H I� ��� I i
R� . .. . " , .. . " , ,, , ., , ., ' " ". .. • " • " , ., • .. , ., , " , ., , ., • .. .. .. " " " .. . . .. .. .. ., .. . , .. · , " ., .. ., .... ,. . .
. ..
..
. .,
. . " , ,, , ,,
p' ' "
•
•
� . .. · ..
' " . .. , .. , .. ' "
• ••
30 10 " " • " • ".
, ..
.g
" ., .. " ., ., ., ••
.. " .. ..
•
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..
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n 11
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. " . .. , .. . .. , .. ' " , .. . .. . "
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p. ' "
t o 28 10 .8 10 " .g " 2g " I, I, ., " • " •• • .. • '4 . ., • ., , ,
30
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.8 '7 'V
• •
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, •
, , ,
• ,
.. "
" .,
••
[Reproduced
TADLE I ,
from The £CoMmie History Rnriew, PP· 248-55]
vol. vi,
1954>
no.
3.
Percentage of ineome spent on bread by PariJian workers in 17/Jg
...
"-"" Labour... in �'. f.o.clOo'y
Builckt', labourer Journeyman muon loum
Sculp..... ..<>Id.milh
� ,. .
'£I"';"
_I,
..." -
' .� ..
.. ."
�.
•• •
•00 •
�.
.
� - ..... .. �
A" .. .. ,. "
,. .
,..
A' ,#I .. A, .,ri .. .--
,. ..
AI " ..
H
.. ..
,. " ..
.. " ,.
.. ,.
.. ..,
.. ..
'W",.. Ii""" hue. wtJ.. oIhuwiM: "ated. _ r ....... 1.. BioIla,. I..I Jriz .. 'n- (P..... .886). pp. '4-71. Narly aU thae, fat. lad:. oroth.. �. _ ..... I,..,. Whal ma. .... . there • r.... " eg l ."' ...... �. tha.
• I.. com"". i .... 'riJecli",' urn""" .u.:.w....u hao b«t> Inade fat.
(Hardy. J--l. ";il. 4s8-9).
&,0.1jvJljfow t. si.... Ilhoill.... Bib. NaL U"
lidn... •
,6,8.
..
.,
n.., R<M>Iu.ionuy (or lI.opublka.a) Calcodt.. w.. in offio:ia1 ux bet_ n �'<mbcr IXl3 C .., V...&!mi."" oI,hc Yc"," 11) '0 the end ",,� (0 tlh Ni.(l,c "rob. v••• XIV). In lea!»..... ('7&6• •500. '....). " ,II V...,o..: wnuponded 10 09 rcbtuuy "nd the Uk. day "'1M R<""bG<.o.n Ye.< __ 'found' by .eldin, .. ,iJuh .joout ....uIouid.' .. (or 'jour """,pUmen'a",,') 10 the 6..., •
.!Iowa above.
TABLE !2.
Hypotluticai budgds oj Parisian workus JUfII! 1791
BtJt.1 O{. hiU.,·, w-... ( _ ,.. .. ; ',I""... .-- " ..)
4 110. br..d R_,
J- .,.,
BJolance ror oil, vq._ tabl.., dOlhl"". 8oc.
TOT"�
joo ,�
14l ..
4 Ib. bt.o.d
,.
�. I Ii.... wiDe
•1 . ,.
'i lb. meat
Balance
111
B"" "',�"'",-, t.oU.'.Ilt. U•• (_"' ''' ''1 '" .ai.' .-- " ..) joo .,.,
I. ,.
4 1b. bRad '41 .. I Ii,", wioc I Ih. meat
,. ,. ..
, ..
BaI""..
., .
.. .,.
., .
JUfII! 17f19 and
R_.
,. .
:1-,,,,
4 Ib. bRad Roo.
i Ih. meat
I ll.... ......
Bala"""
" ,.
I•
,.
••
,. .
-5-
TABLE
APPENDIX vn
3. Hypollutical budgets of Parisian workns in JUtll June 1793
B.,q., 0/ • 1-",,-,. -JIndn I.J_'1!JIJ I_J_ '1n (_ ... ..; './"..... (_S" I. " "..n.' '-Pl.) j_:IO"')
4 lb. bnad Ren"
I lb. mea. r
Ii,,,, win.
.. ,. .. . . ..
"
8oJanc< !'or ""Iet.bl.., . .. oil, dOlhinr. "'- c. TOTA�
,0.
4 II>. brud R�.
j ib. ",ea,
,I I;,res win.
Bal."".
. .. ,. . ,. "
• •• "
.
1790 and
B..dt<' of. i..,..,. ....A, . ....'" I. J- ."., I.J_ ';" (_ so L; ',1,,';'" (_"01.; '"",;0.' ...._ " .. ) __ ,0 1.)
. ... ......
R�. , �". wiDe l ib. mu.
B.t.nc
"
.
4 II>. br....
,.
.t Ii..... wi..., , II>. meo'
•
&,-
,. .. .
•
�.
R�.
". ••
,..
••• .8 •. •• 18
, ·Elfcc';�.' casni_ ... her. bued "" ,he ....mpl;.,., . .... . ,-day worw.. wHk. Many ....'hc old F_, 0.0,.. had, by dlil ,i..... hem .bandoned, bu. "'" lI.�tioDartCale<>dot, ...hid. -..id....bly ... ... da,.. per y . .... had _ ,... been inttodo>Ir m � 10 the rUe olOlher price..
Bcon. Hist. JUD., vol. vi, '954. no. 3. pp. 257--64_ In view of their For budgets and tables of wages and prices for ' 793-5, see
greater lack of detail and the need for more textual explanation they are not included here.
G L O S S A R y. of food). Armh r/ooluJioflllairt. A citizen army, reputedly composed of trustworthy ltJIU-adouu, raised in various centre in the autumn of 1793, primarily
At:aJ/NUIIJT. A hoarder (most frequently wed oC a real, or believed, hoarder
for the purpose of compelling agrarian produccn to release their Itocb
the 'Hebe:rtists' in the .pring of 1794. A1Signal. Revolulionarypaper.money,in general we after the summer of I 791 .
for Paris and other cities. Discredited and disbanded afler the faU of
Auul de la
Palm. A civic altar, dedicated 10 the Nation and erected in the
Btmihu. The customs posta lurrounding the City of Paris, erected by the Fannen GcnenJ shonly before the Revolution. BourgcoisW. Here used as a generic term more or less synonymous with eentre of the Champ de Man (Jet below).
urban middle c1a.sset-banken, stockbroken, merchants, large manu·
facturen, and profesaional men ofevery kind. Buvtur tU sang. A term of abuse applied toJatobins in general and to Robes· pierrists in particular after Thennidor DC the Year II. Variatioru on
Cllhm i rk dollanus. The lists oC grievances drawn up by specially convened this theme are: 'septembriseur' and 'terroriste'.
meetings of citizens and villagen, and of representatives of the three
Estates, in preparation for the meeting of the Stales General in 1789· rk MaTI. Originally the chief military parade-ground of the city,
CAamp
lying on the Left Bank (where the Eiffel Tower Itanm today). Used during the Revolution as the main centre of civic festivals and pagean·
try (e.g. Festivals of the Federation on 14 July and Festival of the
Supreme Being), abo as a popular centre for the draCling of petilioru (e.g. those of 16-17 July 1791 and 6 August 17911). Comill civil. The political or administrative committee of the Section (lee below).
Comill ,Iuolillion" nai (originally
amnII rk stD"Willanu and,
after Thennidor,
comilld'ammdimm m l). The local committee attached to the Section and charged with duties relating to police and internal Stturity. CommiSSlu'reJOUX ouopartmenls. Officers appointed by the Sections to ensure thc local operation of the iaWl of the Maximum (see below) and to investi.
C�mmil/u oJ Gtnrral &c..riI.1. One DC the two main Committees of Rovern. ment in which the power of theJacobin dictatorship was vested in the
gate charges of hoarding food and drink.
Year II. Spec;ifically charged with responsibi.lity for police and internal Stturity.
, This Glossary clai..., no more than to gin very rough-and·nady definitions or explanations of certain temu USl':d n i the text that might caUSl': confwion or misullCientanding, For fuller and mOre exact definitions the reader is referred 10 Marion's Dictionnai.. du institwwlIJ d� 10 FrIJIIU aU>' XVII< et XVIII- sikks and to Boun;n and Challamel'. Dic,wlI1I/Jin tU /a Rlwlutionfra"faise.
-5-
TABLE
APPENDIX vn
3. Hypollutical budgets of Parisian workns in JUtll June 1793
B.,q., 0/ • 1-",,-,. -JIndn I.J_'1!JIJ I_J_ '1n (_ ... ..; './"..... (_S" I. " "..n.' '-Pl.) j_:IO"')
4 lb. bnad Ren"
I lb. mea. r
Ii,,,, win.
.. ,. .. . . ..
"
8oJanc< !'or ""Iet.bl.., . .. oil, dOlhinr. "'- c. TOTA�
,0.
4 II>. brud R�.
j ib. ",ea,
,I I;,res win.
Bal."".
. .. ,. . ,. "
• •• "
.
1790 and
B..dt<' of. i..,..,. ....A, . ....'" I. J- ."., I.J_ ';" (_ so L; ',1,,';'" (_"01.; '"",;0.' ...._ " .. ) __ ,0 1.)
. ... ......
R�. , �". wiDe l ib. mu.
B.t.nc
"
.
4 II>. br....
,.
.t Ii..... wi..., , II>. meo'
•
&,-
,. .. .
•
�.
R�.
". ••
,..
••• .8 •. •• 18
, ·Elfcc';�.' casni_ ... her. bued "" ,he ....mpl;.,., . .... . ,-day worw.. wHk. Many ....'hc old F_, 0.0,.. had, by dlil ,i..... hem .bandoned, bu. "'" lI.�tioDartCale<>dot, ...hid. -..id....bly ... ... da,.. per y . .... had _ ,... been inttodo>Ir m � 10 the rUe olOlher price..
Bcon. Hist. JUD., vol. vi, '954. no. 3. pp. 257--64_ In view of their For budgets and tables of wages and prices for ' 793-5, see
greater lack of detail and the need for more textual explanation they are not included here.
G L O S S A R y. of food). Armh r/ooluJioflllairt. A citizen army, reputedly composed of trustworthy ltJIU-adouu, raised in various centre in the autumn of 1793, primarily
At:aJ/NUIIJT. A hoarder (most frequently wed oC a real, or believed, hoarder
for the purpose of compelling agrarian produccn to release their Itocb
the 'Hebe:rtists' in the .pring of 1794. A1Signal. Revolulionarypaper.money,in general we after the summer of I 791 .
for Paris and other cities. Discredited and disbanded afler the faU of
Auul de la
Palm. A civic altar, dedicated 10 the Nation and erected in the
Btmihu. The customs posta lurrounding the City of Paris, erected by the Fannen GcnenJ shonly before the Revolution. BourgcoisW. Here used as a generic term more or less synonymous with eentre of the Champ de Man (Jet below).
urban middle c1a.sset-banken, stockbroken, merchants, large manu·
facturen, and profesaional men ofevery kind. Buvtur tU sang. A term of abuse applied toJatobins in general and to Robes· pierrists in particular after Thennidor DC the Year II. Variatioru on
Cllhm i rk dollanus. The lists oC grievances drawn up by specially convened this theme are: 'septembriseur' and 'terroriste'.
meetings of citizens and villagen, and of representatives of the three
Estates, in preparation for the meeting of the Stales General in 1789· rk MaTI. Originally the chief military parade-ground of the city,
CAamp
lying on the Left Bank (where the Eiffel Tower Itanm today). Used during the Revolution as the main centre of civic festivals and pagean·
try (e.g. Festivals of the Federation on 14 July and Festival of the
Supreme Being), abo as a popular centre for the draCling of petilioru (e.g. those of 16-17 July 1791 and 6 August 17911). Comill civil. The political or administrative committee of the Section (lee below).
Comill ,Iuolillion" nai (originally
amnII rk stD"Willanu and,
after Thennidor,
comilld'ammdimm m l). The local committee attached to the Section and charged with duties relating to police and internal Stturity. CommiSSlu'reJOUX ouopartmenls. Officers appointed by the Sections to ensure thc local operation of the iaWl of the Maximum (see below) and to investi.
C�mmil/u oJ Gtnrral &c..riI.1. One DC the two main Committees of Rovern. ment in which the power of theJacobin dictatorship was vested in the
gate charges of hoarding food and drink.
Year II. Spec;ifically charged with responsibi.lity for police and internal Stturity.
, This Glossary clai..., no more than to gin very rough-and·nady definitions or explanations of certain temu USl':d n i the text that might caUSl': confwion or misullCientanding, For fuller and mOre exact definitions the reader is referred 10 Marion's Dictionnai.. du institwwlIJ d� 10 FrIJIIU aU>' XVII< et XVIII- sikks and to Boun;n and Challamel'. Dic,wlI1I/Jin tU /a Rlwlutionfra"faise.
's<
CAmmillu if Public Sqftty.
GLOSSARY
The more important of the two leading Govem_ ment Committees of the Year n. Generally responsible for the conduct of both internal and external affairs, its powers OVffiapped with those of the Committee of General Security in pol ice and judicial matten. Commu.w. This title, fraught with tradition and revolutionary implications, wu given to the Paris local government that emerged after the fall of the Ba,tille. It disappearul. shortly after ThermidOl' and reappeared (briefty) in 1f48 and 1871. Onnplot tlrU/QcTtlliqw. The name popularly a3Cribed to attempts made by the Court Party (see below) to overawe Paris by a show of anru and to dispene the newly fonned. National Assembly in the summer of 1789. Used lui»equendy in relation to other genuine, or believed, plots of counter-revolut ionariet.
majority that emerged in the National (and Constiluent) Assembly after the 'parti angJais' (who favoured the Absolute Veto anda Second Cham ber) had been defeated and broken up in the October 'days'. Their leaders in the Assembly were Barnave, Duport, and the Lameths and, in the Paris administration, Bailly and Lafayette. (See abo Ftuillanu.) COT/kliers Club. The more 'plebeian' of the two great Parisian Clubs or the Revolution. It lay in the ThUlre Fran� Section on the Left Bank, charged a lower lubseription than the Jacobin Club, and generally adopted more advanced policies (e.g. in July 1791 and the !pring of 1794). lIS best-known leaden were Danton, Marat, Hebert, and
CAn.sti/ulifJ1tal Monarchj,lls. A term here somewhat loosely applied to the new
Ronsin.
COUllkr'rlllO/uliotuuy. Here wed n i a relative, rather than in an absolute, ..ense to denote an opponent of the Revolution at any one of ilS stages. Courl Pos(y. A tenn here applied, in particular, to the group led by the Comte d'Artois in the lunutter of 17B9; more generally, applied to those enjoying the confidence of the king and queen, and their supporters in the press and the Assembly, at all stages up to August 1792. DictuM. The I(I-day periods into which the Republican 3o-day month was divided. Dislricts. In April 178g, Parill was divided into 60 Districu for electoral purposa. With theJuly revolution, however, they virtually asswned the powers of local government organs. They survived as such until May June 1790. when they were replaced by the Sections (see below). &rllgls. The extreme revolutionary group, led byJacques Rowe, Theophile Leclerc, and Jean Varlet, who, while condemned by Cordelien and Jacobins alike, yet had considerable n i fluence on the JII1IS-aM11ls in the spring, sununer, and autumn of 1793. FaubOZlTgs. Originally lying oUlSide the walls of the old City, thefaubaurgJ (literally, 'suburbs') had, by 1785, all become enclosed within the City boundaries. Here the tenn is applied both to these former 'suburbs' in general and to the m�t famous among them-the Faubourg Saint_ Antoine and the Faubourg Saint-Marcel-in particular. The term is sometimes used (incorrectly) by hi1torians to denote 'working-class distriCIS'.
GLOSSARY
'55
Fldnls. The armed unilS from the provinces that came to Paris to attend the Festival of the Federation on 14July 1792. Here appied, l in particular, to the men of Maneilles, Brest, &c., that took part in the assault on the Tuileries. FtuiJlams. Name given to the group of royali11 deputies and journalislS who broke with the Jacobins to fonn their own Club n i protest agailUt the campaign to depose the king or suspend him from office after the Flight to Varennes in June 1791. Garrk Nlllrmllk i (or milia bouTg�). Citizens' army. or militia, originally niscd. by the Paris Di1lriclS n i July 178g. Gardu Frlmfllius. The main body of royal lrOOPS stationed in the capital on the eve ofthe Revolution. Whi l e loyal 10 the Government in the Reveil· Ion riots ofApril l 78g, they began to be won over by the revolutionaries in June and generally sided with the people in the July insurrection. GmJ sans lll¥Il. Vagrants or persolU without a fixed abode. GiroruJins. Name originally given to a group of Left-wing deputies in the Legislative Assembly, who supported Brisaot's policy of a 'revolutionary war' in the autumn and winter of 1791 and many ofwhom (like Brissot) came from the Gironde region. Later applied to a wider group sharing a more or less common political and social programme in opposition to that of the main body ofJacobins. ]tulUJSt dllTi e. Bands of anti-Jacobin youths organi:(ed by the journali1t Fr\!;ron after the overthrow of Robespierre. In Vendemiaire of the Year IV they supported the royali1t uprising against the Convention. (See abo I1IUSttJdins.) ]oumh (orjOUTnit r/llOlulionnlJilt). A day of revolutionary struggle in which crowds (generally compo!ed of S4V\S...aJ(jIIls) participate. Marllis (or PfllW). Name given 10 the Centre group in the Convention orthe Year I I which, by withdrawing iu support from Robespierre on 9th Thennidor, made it possible for his enemies to isolate and arrest him. Mllrimwn. There were two laWi of thc Muimwn: that of May 1793 im posing a limit on the price of grain only; and that of September 1793 extcnding price-control 10 ncarly all articles of prime necessily, including labour (marimum des Ill/airu). Mmeur. A leader (often wed in a derogatory sense). Mnw pmpIt. The common people: wage-earnen and small property owners. (See also Jt/IU-ru/Ollts.) MOW/tam. Name given to the Jacobin deputies Jed by Robe$pierre and Danton, who sat in the upper seals of the National Convention when it assembled in September t792. It was from their ranb that the Revolu tionary Governmc:nt of the Year II WQ fonned after the expuillion of the Girondins. MuntufillS. Tenn applied by the slI1IS-Molus to bour,tois citi:(ens and middle· dus youth in the period after Thennidor. It suggests foppi1hness and fine dothes. Nobksu de robe. Wealthy magistrates of the old r�gime who, by purchase or inHeritance of office, had acquired the status of nobility. Non-domicilils. Pcrsons living in hoteill, lodgings, or furni1hed rooms {fhambres
's<
CAmmillu if Public Sqftty.
GLOSSARY
The more important of the two leading Govem_ ment Committees of the Year n. Generally responsible for the conduct of both internal and external affairs, its powers OVffiapped with those of the Committee of General Security in pol ice and judicial matten. Commu.w. This title, fraught with tradition and revolutionary implications, wu given to the Paris local government that emerged after the fall of the Ba,tille. It disappearul. shortly after ThermidOl' and reappeared (briefty) in 1f48 and 1871. Onnplot tlrU/QcTtlliqw. The name popularly a3Cribed to attempts made by the Court Party (see below) to overawe Paris by a show of anru and to dispene the newly fonned. National Assembly in the summer of 1789. Used lui»equendy in relation to other genuine, or believed, plots of counter-revolut ionariet.
majority that emerged in the National (and Constiluent) Assembly after the 'parti angJais' (who favoured the Absolute Veto anda Second Cham ber) had been defeated and broken up in the October 'days'. Their leaders in the Assembly were Barnave, Duport, and the Lameths and, in the Paris administration, Bailly and Lafayette. (See abo Ftuillanu.) COT/kliers Club. The more 'plebeian' of the two great Parisian Clubs or the Revolution. It lay in the ThUlre Fran� Section on the Left Bank, charged a lower lubseription than the Jacobin Club, and generally adopted more advanced policies (e.g. in July 1791 and the !pring of 1794). lIS best-known leaden were Danton, Marat, Hebert, and
CAn.sti/ulifJ1tal Monarchj,lls. A term here somewhat loosely applied to the new
Ronsin.
COUllkr'rlllO/uliotuuy. Here wed n i a relative, rather than in an absolute, ..ense to denote an opponent of the Revolution at any one of ilS stages. Courl Pos(y. A tenn here applied, in particular, to the group led by the Comte d'Artois in the lunutter of 17B9; more generally, applied to those enjoying the confidence of the king and queen, and their supporters in the press and the Assembly, at all stages up to August 1792. DictuM. The I(I-day periods into which the Republican 3o-day month was divided. Dislricts. In April 178g, Parill was divided into 60 Districu for electoral purposa. With theJuly revolution, however, they virtually asswned the powers of local government organs. They survived as such until May June 1790. when they were replaced by the Sections (see below). &rllgls. The extreme revolutionary group, led byJacques Rowe, Theophile Leclerc, and Jean Varlet, who, while condemned by Cordelien and Jacobins alike, yet had considerable n i fluence on the JII1IS-aM11ls in the spring, sununer, and autumn of 1793. FaubOZlTgs. Originally lying oUlSide the walls of the old City, thefaubaurgJ (literally, 'suburbs') had, by 1785, all become enclosed within the City boundaries. Here the tenn is applied both to these former 'suburbs' in general and to the m�t famous among them-the Faubourg Saint_ Antoine and the Faubourg Saint-Marcel-in particular. The term is sometimes used (incorrectly) by hi1torians to denote 'working-class distriCIS'.
GLOSSARY
'55
Fldnls. The armed unilS from the provinces that came to Paris to attend the Festival of the Federation on 14July 1792. Here appied, l in particular, to the men of Maneilles, Brest, &c., that took part in the assault on the Tuileries. FtuiJlams. Name given to the group of royali11 deputies and journalislS who broke with the Jacobins to fonn their own Club n i protest agailUt the campaign to depose the king or suspend him from office after the Flight to Varennes in June 1791. Garrk Nlllrmllk i (or milia bouTg�). Citizens' army. or militia, originally niscd. by the Paris Di1lriclS n i July 178g. Gardu Frlmfllius. The main body of royal lrOOPS stationed in the capital on the eve ofthe Revolution. Whi l e loyal 10 the Government in the Reveil· Ion riots ofApril l 78g, they began to be won over by the revolutionaries in June and generally sided with the people in the July insurrection. GmJ sans lll¥Il. Vagrants or persolU without a fixed abode. GiroruJins. Name originally given to a group of Left-wing deputies in the Legislative Assembly, who supported Brisaot's policy of a 'revolutionary war' in the autumn and winter of 1791 and many ofwhom (like Brissot) came from the Gironde region. Later applied to a wider group sharing a more or less common political and social programme in opposition to that of the main body ofJacobins. ]tulUJSt dllTi e. Bands of anti-Jacobin youths organi:(ed by the journali1t Fr\!;ron after the overthrow of Robespierre. In Vendemiaire of the Year IV they supported the royali1t uprising against the Convention. (See abo I1IUSttJdins.) ]oumh (orjOUTnit r/llOlulionnlJilt). A day of revolutionary struggle in which crowds (generally compo!ed of S4V\S...aJ(jIIls) participate. Marllis (or PfllW). Name given 10 the Centre group in the Convention orthe Year I I which, by withdrawing iu support from Robespierre on 9th Thennidor, made it possible for his enemies to isolate and arrest him. Mllrimwn. There were two laWi of thc Muimwn: that of May 1793 im posing a limit on the price of grain only; and that of September 1793 extcnding price-control 10 ncarly all articles of prime necessily, including labour (marimum des Ill/airu). Mmeur. A leader (often wed in a derogatory sense). Mnw pmpIt. The common people: wage-earnen and small property owners. (See also Jt/IU-ru/Ollts.) MOW/tam. Name given to the Jacobin deputies Jed by Robe$pierre and Danton, who sat in the upper seals of the National Convention when it assembled in September t792. It was from their ranb that the Revolu tionary Governmc:nt of the Year II WQ fonned after the expuillion of the Girondins. MuntufillS. Tenn applied by the slI1IS-Molus to bour,tois citi:(ens and middle· dus youth in the period after Thennidor. It suggests foppi1hness and fine dothes. Nobksu de robe. Wealthy magistrates of the old r�gime who, by purchase or inHeritance of office, had acquired the status of nobility. Non-domicilils. Pcrsons living in hoteill, lodgings, or furni1hed rooms {fhambres
,,6
lanliu)
GLOSSARY
CLOSSARY
and, as such, genera1Jy omilted (rom the population censuses of the period and excluded from the franchUe until June '793. OuvrinJ. Term applied n i the eighteenth cenlUry to all town-dwcllcn who worked with their hands, whether as small manufacturen, independent craftsmen, or wage-camen. PM/4 tk famw. The policy, popularly imputed to various governments under Louis XV and Louis XVI, of deliberately withholding IIOcl" of grain from the markel in order to force up prices and create famine. PQiSJartk. Literally, fish·wife. By extension applied to market-women in general. i'T11J41 W mlUc1umds. The senior magistrate: of the royal government of the: City of Paris prior to the Revolution. The last holder of the office, Jacques de Fle.elles, was lynched by an angry crowd after the sur render of me Bastille: on '4 July 178g. Prods..vnhoJ. The: fonnal lttOrd of the cross-examinti a on of a prisoner by the 'IImmisS4irt ell poliu. Not to be confused with a rtl/JP6rt tU poIiu, which might be a 'utuation' report or a record of the Itate of public opinion. Rluoil4 rw/Jiliai". The revolt of the nObility and Parhmmtl of 1787-8, which lerved as a 'curtain-rai$c:r' to the Revolution of 178g. SllIlS-&U!oll4l. Here used in its purely JOeiafsense as an omnibus term to indude the small property-owners and wage-eamen of town and countryside: in its Parisian context, the .mall .hopkeepen, petty traden, cralU men, journeymen, labouren, vagrants, and city poor. Contemporarics tended to limit its application to the more politically active among the.e classes or 10 extend it to the 'popular' leaden, from whatever social class they might be drawn. Historians have frequently used the term in this political sense. S6c/itms. The -tB units into which Paris became divided fOl' elcctoral (and general political) purposes, in succession to the 60 Districts, by the municipal law or May-june 1790. Sotiilbjraternt!us. Namegivento thcearJy radical clubs and $OCietics thatwere
formed in 1790 and 1791 as associates or affiliates of the Cordelien Club. S«iJtJs popuLDiru. General term applied to the local du� and societies after the lumrn,er of 1791. Many were affiliated to the jacobin Club but, owing to their tendency (in Paris, at least) to promote advanced view. and independent policies, were frowned on by the Revolutionary Government of the Year II. Many (particularly the purdy Stclitmal societies set up after 9 September 1793) were dosed down after the fall of Hl!bert; more were closed after Thermidor; a few survived until the early months of 1795. TIUiUUm jXJpuJairr. The compulsion of bakers and grocen, &c., to sell thcir wares at lower prices by the intervention of riotous crowds (examples here given: May 1775, january-February 1792, February 1793). Terror. The term is used here not so much to describe a method as to define a period-the period September 1793 to july 1794. when the jacobin government imposed its authority by varying means of compuuion military, judicial, and economic.
'57
and August (sec Appendix VI). Here used more frequently to refer the two days in ThermidOf (9th and loth) of the Year l[ which law the overthrow of Robcspierre and his closest aM()Ciates. Tlzird Es/a14 ( Tiers EIal). Literally, the representatives ofthe non_'privileged' of the three Estates (or Orders) summoned to attend the meeting of the States General. More generally it is here wed to denote all JOeial c1lWes other than the aristocracy, upper clergy, or privileged magis trates-i.e. menu peupu u well :u bourglOisie. Vai nqururs tU la Baslilk. The title given to those 8oo-goo pecsoru who were able to establish their claim to have participated actively in the capture of the Bastille.
Tlrmnid(JT. The month in the RevolutiOnary Calendar COVering parts ofjuly to
,,6
lanliu)
GLOSSARY
CLOSSARY
and, as such, genera1Jy omilted (rom the population censuses of the period and excluded from the franchUe until June '793. OuvrinJ. Term applied n i the eighteenth cenlUry to all town-dwcllcn who worked with their hands, whether as small manufacturen, independent craftsmen, or wage-camen. PM/4 tk famw. The policy, popularly imputed to various governments under Louis XV and Louis XVI, of deliberately withholding IIOcl" of grain from the markel in order to force up prices and create famine. PQiSJartk. Literally, fish·wife. By extension applied to market-women in general. i'T11J41 W mlUc1umds. The senior magistrate: of the royal government of the: City of Paris prior to the Revolution. The last holder of the office, Jacques de Fle.elles, was lynched by an angry crowd after the sur render of me Bastille: on '4 July 178g. Prods..vnhoJ. The: fonnal lttOrd of the cross-examinti a on of a prisoner by the 'IImmisS4irt ell poliu. Not to be confused with a rtl/JP6rt tU poIiu, which might be a 'utuation' report or a record of the Itate of public opinion. Rluoil4 rw/Jiliai". The revolt of the nObility and Parhmmtl of 1787-8, which lerved as a 'curtain-rai$c:r' to the Revolution of 178g. SllIlS-&U!oll4l. Here used in its purely JOeiafsense as an omnibus term to indude the small property-owners and wage-eamen of town and countryside: in its Parisian context, the .mall .hopkeepen, petty traden, cralU men, journeymen, labouren, vagrants, and city poor. Contemporarics tended to limit its application to the more politically active among the.e classes or 10 extend it to the 'popular' leaden, from whatever social class they might be drawn. Historians have frequently used the term in this political sense. S6c/itms. The -tB units into which Paris became divided fOl' elcctoral (and general political) purposes, in succession to the 60 Districts, by the municipal law or May-june 1790. Sotiilbjraternt!us. Namegivento thcearJy radical clubs and $OCietics thatwere
formed in 1790 and 1791 as associates or affiliates of the Cordelien Club. S«iJtJs popuLDiru. General term applied to the local du� and societies after the lumrn,er of 1791. Many were affiliated to the jacobin Club but, owing to their tendency (in Paris, at least) to promote advanced view. and independent policies, were frowned on by the Revolutionary Government of the Year II. Many (particularly the purdy Stclitmal societies set up after 9 September 1793) were dosed down after the fall of Hl!bert; more were closed after Thermidor; a few survived until the early months of 1795. TIUiUUm jXJpuJairr. The compulsion of bakers and grocen, &c., to sell thcir wares at lower prices by the intervention of riotous crowds (examples here given: May 1775, january-February 1792, February 1793). Terror. The term is used here not so much to describe a method as to define a period-the period September 1793 to july 1794. when the jacobin government imposed its authority by varying means of compuuion military, judicial, and economic.
'57
and August (sec Appendix VI). Here used more frequently to refer the two days in ThermidOf (9th and loth) of the Year l[ which law the overthrow of Robcspierre and his closest aM()Ciates. Tlzird Es/a14 ( Tiers EIal). Literally, the representatives ofthe non_'privileged' of the three Estates (or Orders) summoned to attend the meeting of the States General. More generally it is here wed to denote all JOeial c1lWes other than the aristocracy, upper clergy, or privileged magis trates-i.e. menu peupu u well :u bourglOisie. Vai nqururs tU la Baslilk. The title given to those 8oo-goo pecsoru who were able to establish their claim to have participated actively in the capture of the Bastille.
Tlrmnid(JT. The month in the RevolutiOnary Calendar COVering parts ofjuly to
-
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
BIBLIOGRAPHI CAL NOTE A PULL record of toUrcc-materials ux:d in the preparation of this volume
appean in the footnotes, either directly or by reference to other published work. Here it u not proposed to recapitulate the titles of the numerous secondary worQ that have been consulted, and whose repetition would be needlealy wearisome for author and reader alike. What follows is • summary of primary $OUfCC$ only-both manuscript and printed; but, of the laUer, only those documenu are cited which are not easily accessible: in the: form of memors i , correspondence, or published collections-suc:h as those edited by Aulard, C. Bloch. Caron, Chan.vay. Chass.io, Lacroix, Monin, Toumeux, and Tuc:tey. ARCHIVEI NATIONALES
Series AA "
.. " ..
..
"
" .. " ..
.. .. ..
..
"
"
AF
Mfmusmpt Somas
(Section legislative: ct judiciaire). nos. 46-47. (Section administrative. Secretairerie d'tlal), 50, .57 . II-, 294. 2gB; IV. 1470.
nos. II. 47-¥\.
(jwlice) : BBJ 73, 76, So, 222; BB'� 702; BBlO '7. 79, 87: (Proc�.vc:rbaux des Asscmbl6es nationale), nos. '.1,7. 3[, 35. 7 1 , 7.5. 134, 167. 1 84, 203, 221, 238, 246-7. 251. 0 (Comit� des Assemblees). nos. III, IV. VI, XXIXb. XLIII. F" III (Esprit public. tlections), Seine '3, 27. F" (Police generale). nos. 2476, 2491. 2513, 2523. 3299. 3688. 328,. 4387. +1-1 1-4776 (65 bundles used), 6504. F"- (Registres). nos. 2497. 2505. 2507. 2517, 2520, 2585-6. F" (Commerce et Industrie). nos. '430. '544, 1546-7. F" (B!limenu Civils). nos. 1 1 37-8. FIJ (Hospices el Secours). nos. 3267-74-. 3564. H (Gtntralil�. Bureau de la Ville). nos. '453, 2 ' 2 1 . KK (Monumenu hQtoriquc:s. Registres). nos. 641. 147. 0' (Mai50n du Roi), nos. SOOt '°36. 2°53, 2°57. (Section domaniale. Stquestre), nos. 214. 5'4. T W (Section judidaire. Tribunal Revolutionnaire). nos. 12-13, 24. 76, 78, 8,. '70, '74, 294, 3 ' 9, 343. 357. 444, 54&-8, 556-8· Y (Archives du Chltdet de Paru). Chaml", crimine/u : nos. gB28105gB (some 25 bundles usal); !Ugislres: 10626. ,0634. 10648-50; Archives d,s ctmlmwaires au GMltlll : nos. '07go16022 (some '50 bundles used for '775, '787-90) ; Prlv6U dI /'!It-d,_FrClllu : nos. ,8748-70. 18794-6. z (Juridic:tions speciales et ordinaires), nos. 1-/640, 886; 2/469 I .
BB
'59
police. '7go-An IX), nos. 9-266 ($Orne 80 bundles used for 17go-Year IV). Series Ab (Rcgistres d'ecrou des prisons). nc.. 132 (Condergerie). 319 (Sainte-Pelagic). 324-7 (Force), 356 (misc.). Series V.D.- (Sections '7go-An IV). nOl. 645. 650, 826, 1012, 16:15. 1656.
AaCtI'VD DE
LA.
S£lNE
,66'-2. ,681.
AaCHIVU DE SEWE-IIT·MAIlNE
Series B Uustice). nos. 2247, 2387. 2695. 3698· AaCHIVU DE SUNE'ET-OISE
Series B. VlTJDilles: Prevote de I'HOtd du Roi. Procb, 1775; Greffe, '78g;
Proc&l.ures, 178g; Tribunal crimind de mai I793. SI. G.mwi!l.m U;w: Prtvale Royale. Pi«es du Greffe. '775.
BUJLlOTtltQ.UE NAnoNAu
Fonds fran�. nos. 6680-7 : Hardy, M,s /oisirs, oujoumaJ d'illintmmts Ills qu'ils paroitnntnt d rna '01lllOUSOllU (8 vols., I 764-8g) ; 1 1697 (Bailly Lafayette correspondenee, 178g-g1). Nouvelles acquisitioru frant;:aise3, nos. 2654, 2666, 266g, 2670, 2673, 2678, 2716,28". 3241.
C
AIlCtllVES DE LA PlltPEcrullE DE POLICE
Series Aa
(Sections de Paris.
Proces-verbaux des commissaires de
u,nltmporary Prinlld S()IJ1'UJ Pamphleu, pctilions, lisu of cititens, Sectional rcporlll, &c., have been consulted in series Lb 39-41 in the Bibli olhiqw Nalionau and in series F. F.R., and R (Croker Collection) in the Brilith MlUlIUII. Some use has been made of the Revolutionary Press, particularly of: L'Ami du fJtIJPle. u Babilltutf, u ]fJIlf7Ial ,u 14 RilPOlulioll. MlTewf national d ilrCIIIl.lT Us Rivol/lli(ms ,u FuUlu d dI BrManl, and Us RJwllltions,u Paris. The following contemporary (or ncu-contcmporary) accounu of events have also been freely consulted (but have yidded comparatively little) · Buch� et Roux, Huloi" parumml
-
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
BIBLIOGRAPHI CAL NOTE A PULL record of toUrcc-materials ux:d in the preparation of this volume
appean in the footnotes, either directly or by reference to other published work. Here it u not proposed to recapitulate the titles of the numerous secondary worQ that have been consulted, and whose repetition would be needlealy wearisome for author and reader alike. What follows is • summary of primary $OUfCC$ only-both manuscript and printed; but, of the laUer, only those documenu are cited which are not easily accessible: in the: form of memors i , correspondence, or published collections-suc:h as those edited by Aulard, C. Bloch. Caron, Chan.vay. Chass.io, Lacroix, Monin, Toumeux, and Tuc:tey. ARCHIVEI NATIONALES
Series AA "
.. " ..
..
"
" .. " ..
.. .. ..
..
"
"
AF
Mfmusmpt Somas
(Section legislative: ct judiciaire). nos. 46-47. (Section administrative. Secretairerie d'tlal), 50, .57 . II-, 294. 2gB; IV. 1470.
nos. II. 47-¥\.
(jwlice) : BBJ 73, 76, So, 222; BB'� 702; BBlO '7. 79, 87: (Proc�.vc:rbaux des Asscmbl6es nationale), nos. '.1,7. 3[, 35. 7 1 , 7.5. 134, 167. 1 84, 203, 221, 238, 246-7. 251. 0 (Comit� des Assemblees). nos. III, IV. VI, XXIXb. XLIII. F" III (Esprit public. tlections), Seine '3, 27. F" (Police generale). nos. 2476, 2491. 2513, 2523. 3299. 3688. 328,. 4387. +1-1 1-4776 (65 bundles used), 6504. F"- (Registres). nos. 2497. 2505. 2507. 2517, 2520, 2585-6. F" (Commerce et Industrie). nos. '430. '544, 1546-7. F" (B!limenu Civils). nos. 1 1 37-8. FIJ (Hospices el Secours). nos. 3267-74-. 3564. H (Gtntralil�. Bureau de la Ville). nos. '453, 2 ' 2 1 . KK (Monumenu hQtoriquc:s. Registres). nos. 641. 147. 0' (Mai50n du Roi), nos. SOOt '°36. 2°53, 2°57. (Section domaniale. Stquestre), nos. 214. 5'4. T W (Section judidaire. Tribunal Revolutionnaire). nos. 12-13, 24. 76, 78, 8,. '70, '74, 294, 3 ' 9, 343. 357. 444, 54&-8, 556-8· Y (Archives du Chltdet de Paru). Chaml", crimine/u : nos. gB28105gB (some 25 bundles usal); !Ugislres: 10626. ,0634. 10648-50; Archives d,s ctmlmwaires au GMltlll : nos. '07go16022 (some '50 bundles used for '775, '787-90) ; Prlv6U dI /'!It-d,_FrClllu : nos. ,8748-70. 18794-6. z (Juridic:tions speciales et ordinaires), nos. 1-/640, 886; 2/469 I .
BB
'59
police. '7go-An IX), nos. 9-266 ($Orne 80 bundles used for 17go-Year IV). Series Ab (Rcgistres d'ecrou des prisons). nc.. 132 (Condergerie). 319 (Sainte-Pelagic). 324-7 (Force), 356 (misc.). Series V.D.- (Sections '7go-An IV). nOl. 645. 650, 826, 1012, 16:15. 1656.
AaCtI'VD DE
LA.
S£lNE
,66'-2. ,681.
AaCHIVU DE SEWE-IIT·MAIlNE
Series B Uustice). nos. 2247, 2387. 2695. 3698· AaCHIVU DE SUNE'ET-OISE
Series B. VlTJDilles: Prevote de I'HOtd du Roi. Procb, 1775; Greffe, '78g;
Proc&l.ures, 178g; Tribunal crimind de mai I793. SI. G.mwi!l.m U;w: Prtvale Royale. Pi«es du Greffe. '775.
BUJLlOTtltQ.UE NAnoNAu
Fonds fran�. nos. 6680-7 : Hardy, M,s /oisirs, oujoumaJ d'illintmmts Ills qu'ils paroitnntnt d rna '01lllOUSOllU (8 vols., I 764-8g) ; 1 1697 (Bailly Lafayette correspondenee, 178g-g1). Nouvelles acquisitioru frant;:aise3, nos. 2654, 2666, 266g, 2670, 2673, 2678, 2716,28". 3241.
C
AIlCtllVES DE LA PlltPEcrullE DE POLICE
Series Aa
(Sections de Paris.
Proces-verbaux des commissaires de
u,nltmporary Prinlld S()IJ1'UJ Pamphleu, pctilions, lisu of cititens, Sectional rcporlll, &c., have been consulted in series Lb 39-41 in the Bibli olhiqw Nalionau and in series F. F.R., and R (Croker Collection) in the Brilith MlUlIUII. Some use has been made of the Revolutionary Press, particularly of: L'Ami du fJtIJPle. u Babilltutf, u ]fJIlf7Ial ,u 14 RilPOlulioll. MlTewf national d ilrCIIIl.lT Us Rivol/lli(ms ,u FuUlu d dI BrManl, and Us RJwllltions,u Paris. The following contemporary (or ncu-contcmporary) accounu of events have also been freely consulted (but have yidded comparatively little) · Buch� et Roux, Huloi" parumml
INDEX Alexandre, Chula-Alc:xis, 99 and n. 3,
Amar, Andn!, 150. 101, 103·
ArgelUOn, Marquis d'. lIlI�3.
Aristocracy, Il1-14> 117, 34, 45. 61. 73, 17S and n. 1, 180. Aritloeratic revolt, 1tt ,1wlU Mbililli,t. Arm ,/Nlll1ilnwsirt, IlI7, 13l1, 154, 156, lIOO. lI30. Artoia, Comte d', 13, 47,59. Assi,MU. 17 n. 4, gfi and n. I, IllS. 130. 1311. 1-«. 1611. 193. 1104, lI07. Alllitn M ,1uuUJ. 19. 64. 811-3, 181, 188, 1911, :HI4. 11113· Audouin, Pierre-Jean (journalist), 87,
IIll1.
Augeart, Farmer General, 611. Auger and Monnery (dyers), 97, 101. Aulard. Alphonse. 3, 4, �" 8.
Babeuf, Gracchus, 147. Bailly, jean.Sylvain, 59, 61. 69, 711, 74, 78. 8l1, ag, 94, 19'2. Balire de Vieuuc, Bertrand, 118, 128 n. I, 1311, 136, 140. 1 50. Barnave, Pierre.Joseph. 511 and n. 2, 611, 63, ']0, 72, 1110, 1113, 1132. Barru, Paul.jean, 1 7Z-3. 173 n. 2, 175· B/JITihu (customs polo"'). 10-11, 14, 16, liS, 48. 49 n. 1. 64> 82, 1103, 2170 I« aUt. Revolut ionary 'days': B/I"
ribu.
II, 3. 10. I I, I II n. 7. 14. IS, 19 n. 8, 26 and n. II, 117. 35, 53 If., 64, 73, 81, 811, 83, 104. 108, lilli, 176; I« IJlu Revolutkm�· 'days' ; &ulilh. Bc:aurepaire, Chevalier de, (4, 11113 n. II. Bernard, ab�, 70. 71. Bc:rlhier de Sauvigny, 56, 1103, !t27· Bo:senval, Marquis de, 191�, 194· Billaud.Yarenne, jean.Nicolas, 1118. .",. Biron, Man!chal de, 311. Blanc, Louis, 3. 4. BoiSiSYJd'Anglas, Fran�ois-Antoine, 149. Bonaparle. Napol�n, 173 and n. II, 177, Igfi n. II.
Bastille, I,
Bord. GUitave, 57 n. 5, 1117-18. BoUJobolle, Pierre, 155 n. I. Bourdnn, Uonard, 150. &.u,His, Mr,toisW, 9, III, 14, 24, 27, 118, SO, 33. 34, ,57, 61, 62, 63, 50, 83.
86. 90, 117, 138. 143, 1s8-9. 160. 163. 166,1']0, 17,5--6, 177. 178, 180-1, 1st. 186, 1100, 1105, 11l1li, 11119, 1132, 1135· BfllC:K:h. F., 17. Brienne. Lomtnie de, 2S--::Z9. 30, 31. BriMOt de Warville,Jacqua-Pierre, 95, 1'9, 178 n. I, 19B. Brunswick, !hike of, 103, log, 112. Buchez and Roux, go. Buirelle-Yerri�rCl, 81, 91. Burke, Edmund, I. II, 4, 11115. BU1.ot, Fran�oia-NicolaJ, 1110. Cahen, L., III. C4hitrs th doli/lTlUS, 112 n. 1 , 46, 54, 70. Calonne, C.-A. de, I I , 28, 30. Calvet, Henri, 1114. Carlyle, Thorn.., II, 4. CarnOI, ware, IIiB n. I . Caron, Pierre, 8, III, 190, 2117.
CMmhns ,omia, IIC'C: non.Jtmtuiliis.
Denil), 67, lag, (mayor',
lieutenant, Saint1122. Chilekt, !hIc duo 36. Chaumelle, Anuagorat, 1116, 1106. Cobb, Richard C., 1114 n. 7. CoIbert, j.-B.,16. CoIlo! d'Herboia,jean·Marie, 1118, 136, ',0. CoI�,j., 3B. Cornmard (merchant-grocer). gfi, 97· Committee otCeneral Stt1,u-ily. 7, 137. 1411 n. I, 143, '45, 147. 161 n. I, 194. 1130.
Child
Committee of Public Safety, 5, 1118, 134. '36, '37, '43, 145. 161 n. 2. Commune, Pari! Commune, 8, 17. 70, 78, 84, ag, 94 n. 4. 99, 103, 105, "4: and the grocery riolS of 1793, 117-18; and the Enragb, II�O, 1114, 1�6; and Ihe sall1-t1tiD1lu, 130-1, 13! n. II; and H�berl, 132-3 ; and the 17141'i1ll�1II titS sa/aifts, 134--6; 2nd 9-
gB,
INDEX Alexandre, Chula-Alc:xis, 99 and n. 3,
Amar, Andn!, 150. 101, 103·
ArgelUOn, Marquis d'. lIlI�3.
Aristocracy, Il1-14> 117, 34, 45. 61. 73, 17S and n. 1, 180. Aritloeratic revolt, 1tt ,1wlU Mbililli,t. Arm ,/Nlll1ilnwsirt, IlI7, 13l1, 154, 156, lIOO. lI30. Artoia, Comte d', 13, 47,59. Assi,MU. 17 n. 4, gfi and n. I, IllS. 130. 1311. 1-«. 1611. 193. 1104, lI07. Alllitn M ,1uuUJ. 19. 64. 811-3, 181, 188, 1911, :HI4. 11113· Audouin, Pierre-Jean (journalist), 87,
IIll1.
Augeart, Farmer General, 611. Auger and Monnery (dyers), 97, 101. Aulard. Alphonse. 3, 4, �" 8.
Babeuf, Gracchus, 147. Bailly, jean.Sylvain, 59, 61. 69, 711, 74, 78. 8l1, ag, 94, 19'2. Balire de Vieuuc, Bertrand, 118, 128 n. I, 1311, 136, 140. 1 50. Barnave, Pierre.Joseph. 511 and n. 2, 611, 63, ']0, 72, 1110, 1113, 1132. Barru, Paul.jean, 1 7Z-3. 173 n. 2, 175· B/JITihu (customs polo"'). 10-11, 14, 16, liS, 48. 49 n. 1. 64> 82, 1103, 2170 I« aUt. Revolut ionary 'days': B/I"
ribu.
II, 3. 10. I I, I II n. 7. 14. IS, 19 n. 8, 26 and n. II, 117. 35, 53 If., 64, 73, 81, 811, 83, 104. 108, lilli, 176; I« IJlu Revolutkm�· 'days' ; &ulilh. Bc:aurepaire, Chevalier de, (4, 11113 n. II. Bernard, ab�, 70. 71. Bc:rlhier de Sauvigny, 56, 1103, !t27· Bo:senval, Marquis de, 191�, 194· Billaud.Yarenne, jean.Nicolas, 1118. .",. Biron, Man!chal de, 311. Blanc, Louis, 3. 4. BoiSiSYJd'Anglas, Fran�ois-Antoine, 149. Bonaparle. Napol�n, 173 and n. II, 177, Igfi n. II.
Bastille, I,
Bord. GUitave, 57 n. 5, 1117-18. BoUJobolle, Pierre, 155 n. I. Bourdnn, Uonard, 150. &.u,His, Mr,toisW, 9, III, 14, 24, 27, 118, SO, 33. 34, ,57, 61, 62, 63, 50, 83.
86. 90, 117, 138. 143, 1s8-9. 160. 163. 166,1']0, 17,5--6, 177. 178, 180-1, 1st. 186, 1100, 1105, 11l1li, 11119, 1132, 1135· BfllC:K:h. F., 17. Brienne. Lomtnie de, 2S--::Z9. 30, 31. BriMOt de Warville,Jacqua-Pierre, 95, 1'9, 178 n. I, 19B. Brunswick, !hike of, 103, log, 112. Buchez and Roux, go. Buirelle-Yerri�rCl, 81, 91. Burke, Edmund, I. II, 4, 11115. BU1.ot, Fran�oia-NicolaJ, 1110. Cahen, L., III. C4hitrs th doli/lTlUS, 112 n. 1 , 46, 54, 70. Calonne, C.-A. de, I I , 28, 30. Calvet, Henri, 1114. Carlyle, Thorn.., II, 4. CarnOI, ware, IIiB n. I . Caron, Pierre, 8, III, 190, 2117.
CMmhns ,omia, IIC'C: non.Jtmtuiliis.
Denil), 67, lag, (mayor',
lieutenant, Saint1122. Chilekt, !hIc duo 36. Chaumelle, Anuagorat, 1116, 1106. Cobb, Richard C., 1114 n. 7. CoIbert, j.-B.,16. CoIlo! d'Herboia,jean·Marie, 1118, 136, ',0. CoI�,j., 3B. Cornmard (merchant-grocer). gfi, 97· Committee otCeneral Stt1,u-ily. 7, 137. 1411 n. I, 143, '45, 147. 161 n. I, 194. 1130.
Child
Committee of Public Safety, 5, 1118, 134. '36, '37, '43, 145. 161 n. 2. Commune, Pari! Commune, 8, 17. 70, 78, 84, ag, 94 n. 4. 99, 103, 105, "4: and the grocery riolS of 1793, 117-18; and the Enragb, II�O, 1114, 1�6; and Ihe sall1-t1tiD1lu, 130-1, 13! n. II; and H�berl, 132-3 ; and the 17141'i1ll�1II titS sa/aifts, 134--6; 2nd 9-
gB,
,50
INDEX
Commune, Paris Commune, Comt. 10 Tbermidor, l�n-4 ' ; abolished,
Csmp/¢ Mit1otr4llifw. ,,6,
'43; 1�6 and D. II, 19o, 'lI04. 1106, 'lI14. !jg. 11113
Col1ltitutional monarchitta, 6 1
n.II, u6.
and
fr.,
78.
Conti, Prince de, 47. Corddien Club, Cordc:lien, 711, 80; and 80, 197.201.
the agitation of'pring-summa '791, 83-88; and the Champ de Man petition, 88-8g, 9', 93. 120, 1116, 11I8, 1811, 197. '99. 'lI04. IIIII, 21,. Couthon, Geof(CS. 128. Daniean, General, 172, Danton, Georga.jacquCII, 6g, 72, 113, 119, 178 n. l•
Decrees
of the 'Two-Thirdi', 161-l1, 163, 165�, 167, 168-g, 170, 171De Launay, Matquis, 54 fr., 221, 224, 226. Democrats, 80-88, 91, 93, 100, 212, 2�2, 228. Delmouliru, Camille, oj.8, 69, 70, 72, 83,87, 106, 176 n. I, 212, 216. Dubois, Chevalitt, 32. DuboiJ, Geo_I, 154. Dumouriea:, CharICi-Fran�oU, 98, 1 ' 9 . Duport, Adrien, 6g, 70. Duqueanoy, EmCIII.Dominique, 155 n. I.
Duroy, Jean.Miehd, 155 n. I. Dussaulx, Aeademieian, 55 n. 1 , 62, 70. En.-ap, "9-111 , 205.
Fabre d'tglantine. I I I . Fanners General, I I .
Faubourp, 12, '4-17, 24-li15, 30-31, 47, 67, 91, 101, 151, 157, 166, 170, 200, 20'l, 215, 217. 220, 224 n. I. -Saint-Antoine, 10, 15-18, 2�, 31, 3339,54, 56, 58-59, 67, 73, 76, 77 n. I, 76, 81, 83, 88; aod the Champ de Man affair, 9�'il3i and the grocery riotJ of 1792, 96-97; and 20 june '792, 99, [ 0 1 ; and the overthrow of the monarchy, 103�; log, "4, 123, 138; and Germinal.Prairial, 146-55, '58, 164, 167, 168; and iruurrection, or 1787'i15, 185�, 192, 203, 206, 218, 222, 226,234,
INDEX
- SainI-Denis, 10, 16, 96.
- Saint_Germain, 10, 32 n. 2, 33. - Saint.Ho�. 13. 58.
- Saint.JacqUC$, 10, 16, '7. ItS, 149. - Saint-Laurent, 16. - Saint-Mum, 10, 16-18, 35..,6, 38.
5B, 8 1 n. 3; and the Champ de Man affair, 93-94; and the grocery nou
101, 10:1; and the overthrow of the monarchy, 106, log, 115, 1!l3.
of 17911,
g6-g8; and 20 June '792,
99.
'33; and 9"""1 0 Thermidor, 138-9; and G<:nninal.Prairial, '47-9, 1511, '55. 158, and inruntttions of I78795. 185-6, 19B, .:too, 11M. - Saint-Martin, 10, 16,81 n. 3. - Saint-Victor, 10, 16. Ftraud, Jean, 153. '54, Fla.sdla, Jacques de, 53, 56, U I . 227· Fh::uriol.Lescot,j.·B., '37, '40. Fkury, Cardinal, 23. Foullon de Dou�, 56, 203, 2�7. Fournier (L'Am�ricain), Claude, 57 n. 3, .)8 n. 8, 73, 76, 77, 9�, 93, 1000, 104 n. I, 118 n. I, 2�9. Fran�ou (baker), 78. Friron, Lo�·Marie, 147.
Gard.es Fran�, 25, 29, 32, 36, 49, GtfIS SIIItI' 1WtU, Ue Vagrants. 51, 55.
Gironde, Girondins, 95, ga, 99, 1 0'l, I I I , 113, 11g, 120-2, 199,206. Goujon,jean.Marie, 155 n. I. Grande Peur, 223. Guadet, Ma.guerite.tlie, 120. Gubin, Daniel, 126, 134. Gunsmiths, 50-51• Hanriot, Fran�ois, 122, '33, 136, 137, 139, 140, 178 n. 1, 213' Hardy, �ba.!lien (diarist), 8, 2', 24 ff.,
29 ff., 43 If., 52 ff., 50, 65 fr., 75, 181, 192, 194-5, 20'l-3, 2,6, 223.
H�bert, jacquCl-Rm� (Lc Ph� Ducheane), 120, 126, 132, 133, 135,
178 n. 1, 205,206, 210, 2" , 222. Henriot (powder-manufaelurer), 35 ft, 192,201, 220. Henri IV, 1 3 , 3 1 , 32, 196, 225. Hblel df:l Invalidel, 53, 55, 56 n. I, 133, 221.
Hbtd de Ville, '5, 47-0j.8, 5 1 , 53, 54, 55,
56, 60,65, 67, 69, 71, 73, 74,78, 93, 105, 1 18, 133, 135, 138, 204 n. 2, 221Hulin, Picrre-Augusin, l 55.
tionary Crowds, Riou, &.C.
InsurgentJ, iruurreetloru, u, Revolu. jacobin Club, jacobiru, 5, 80, 81, 83,
85, 88, 98, 1 000, I I I , 113, "4; and the grocery riots of 1793, 1 ' 7-18; and the Enrages, 1 ' 9""20; &nd the revolution ofMay-June 1793, 121-l1; and the insurrection
of
Seplember
128, 137; and the Thermidoriam, 137, 142-3, 146-7; and Germinal·Prairial, '49, 153, 156, 158, 160; and Vendrniaire, ,64�, 16g, 176, 192, 194, 1 99""20[, 207, 222, 228,231. jaura, Jean, 5, [4, 38, 57, 58, 80 n. I. JroNsse dorie,jtunts gtllS, 147, '49, '54, 158, 161, [6g, 175; 5Ce also Mwca4jns. 1793,
126-7,
0,.
]fIIlrnltS, Jee R.... oluliooary . 'days', Riolt, Labrouue, C.-E., 5, 20 n. 3, 21, 201.
L1ocombe, Claire (Rose), 122 n. 3, 229. Lafayetlc, Marquis de, SO, 61, 62 and
11·3, 64, 68, 71, 72, ag, 91, 92, 10'l, 181.
74, 76, 77, 81, 197. 204 n. 3.
Lambae. Prince de, 48.
La Tour du Pin, 72. Lebon, Guslave. 219, 220, 221. Lefebvre, Grorgcs, 4 n. 2, oj-li, 200, 219 Lamoignon, G.-F. de, 30, 3', 196, 20'l.
and n. 2. Lefevre, ablX, 53. Legendre, Louis, '78 n. I.
Rober•• 128 n. I. Lodgers, lodging houses,
Lindet, Loi
I CC
MIl-
Le Chapclier, 85, 135.
Louis XIV, 13, 16.
Louis XVI, 35, ']0, 77, 87, 86, 95, 98, 100; his overthrow, 101-5, 108, 1'3, Louis XV, 12, 23, 45.
181, 182, 19B, 225.
Lou�alot, t.(journalist ,58,69,87,223. Madelin, Louis, 3 n. 2.
73. 74, 75, 178 n. 1, 204, 221, 2�9, 230• Mallei du Pan, 34, 45. Malouet, PiCI'T'e.Vi<;lor, 71. Mara., jean.Paul, 6g, 71, 78, 85. 87, 1 10, 113, 1 18, 119, 133, 10j.6, 147, 167, 178 n. 1 . 201,212, 223-4. Mari�.Anloinelle, 47, 77. Mathia. Albert, 5. 7, 62, 6g, 118. Maximum laws (priCCII), "9, 127. 129, 131-2, 145�, 205, w6, 207; (waga) 127, 129, 134, 135 and n. 3, 136 and n. 3, '39. 140-1, 14' n. ', 14S. 207. Menou, JaequCII, General, '54, 172. Mnw. pn;pU, I I . 1 5 , 2 2 . 3 1 , 33. 44, SO. 61, 63,66,67. 71, 78,80 n. ', 8S, 88, 9', 93'i1S, 1'4, 119, 121, 129, '+I, 'SO, 19o, 196, '97 and fi. 3, 232-'; see also SIIfU-tUwl/4ls.
Mercier, Stbulien, 13, 16, 26. M�ricourl, Th�roigne de, 229.
Merlin (de ThionviUe), Antoine- Chris.
Mi<;helel,Jula, I, 3,4. 59, 232, 233 n. , . Milite blnlrgttliu, ttt Nalional Guard.
tophe, 149.
Mitabeau,
ComiC
de,
47,
62,
76
192.
Monin, H., 13. Monljoie (journalist), 41, 1 9 1 , 194. Morlimer·Ternaux, M., 5, 191.
MlIJtlllins, 146, 147, 155, 216; ICC abo ]�su do,'" jfiuKs lefU. Mural,joaehim, 173.
Nationa.l Guard, 48, 52, 57, 59, 61. 65, 71, 7'; and the march to Venaillo, ,6-77 and n. I, 81. 82; and the Champ de Mars alfair, 82, 84, 86,
ag...,.p
97; and 20 June 1792, g&and the overthrow of the monarchy, 102-7, 1 1 1 , 1 1 3 ; and the 101;
Lt"rts dt tfIClul, 30, 81.
domitiliis.
Maillard, Stanisl .., S7 and n, 3 , 6.t n. 2,
riots of 1793, IIS-16; and 9""10 Thennidor, '37-8, 143, '49 ; and Prairial, '52-5, 166, 173-4. 182""3, 197, 204 n. 3, 205�, 2[3, 230-1. Necker, Jacques, I [ and n. 5, 12, 28, 3[, 34, 37, 46, 47-¥', 196, 216, 220-1.
grocery
I I , 12 and n. I, 18 36, 149, 168 and n5. s and 6.
Nob/m" nobility, Stt Aristocracy.
No�·df)1flitiliis,
n. 7,
,50
INDEX
Commune, Paris Commune, Comt. 10 Tbermidor, l�n-4 ' ; abolished,
Csmp/¢ Mit1otr4llifw. ,,6,
'43; 1�6 and D. II, 19o, 'lI04. 1106, 'lI14. !jg. 11113
Col1ltitutional monarchitta, 6 1
n.II, u6.
and
fr.,
78.
Conti, Prince de, 47. Corddien Club, Cordc:lien, 711, 80; and 80, 197.201.
the agitation of'pring-summa '791, 83-88; and the Champ de Man petition, 88-8g, 9', 93. 120, 1116, 11I8, 1811, 197. '99. 'lI04. IIIII, 21,. Couthon, Geof(CS. 128. Daniean, General, 172, Danton, Georga.jacquCII, 6g, 72, 113, 119, 178 n. l•
Decrees
of the 'Two-Thirdi', 161-l1, 163, 165�, 167, 168-g, 170, 171De Launay, Matquis, 54 fr., 221, 224, 226. Democrats, 80-88, 91, 93, 100, 212, 2�2, 228. Delmouliru, Camille, oj.8, 69, 70, 72, 83,87, 106, 176 n. I, 212, 216. Dubois, Chevalitt, 32. DuboiJ, Geo_I, 154. Dumouriea:, CharICi-Fran�oU, 98, 1 ' 9 . Duport, Adrien, 6g, 70. Duqueanoy, EmCIII.Dominique, 155 n. I.
Duroy, Jean.Miehd, 155 n. I. Dussaulx, Aeademieian, 55 n. 1 , 62, 70. En.-ap, "9-111 , 205.
Fabre d'tglantine. I I I . Fanners General, I I .
Faubourp, 12, '4-17, 24-li15, 30-31, 47, 67, 91, 101, 151, 157, 166, 170, 200, 20'l, 215, 217. 220, 224 n. I. -Saint-Antoine, 10, 15-18, 2�, 31, 3339,54, 56, 58-59, 67, 73, 76, 77 n. I, 76, 81, 83, 88; aod the Champ de Man affair, 9�'il3i and the grocery riotJ of 1792, 96-97; and 20 june '792, 99, [ 0 1 ; and the overthrow of the monarchy, 103�; log, "4, 123, 138; and Germinal.Prairial, 146-55, '58, 164, 167, 168; and iruurrection, or 1787'i15, 185�, 192, 203, 206, 218, 222, 226,234,
INDEX
- SainI-Denis, 10, 16, 96.
- Saint_Germain, 10, 32 n. 2, 33. - Saint.Ho�. 13. 58.
- Saint.JacqUC$, 10, 16, '7. ItS, 149. - Saint-Laurent, 16. - Saint-Mum, 10, 16-18, 35..,6, 38.
5B, 8 1 n. 3; and the Champ de Man affair, 93-94; and the grocery nou
101, 10:1; and the overthrow of the monarchy, 106, log, 115, 1!l3.
of 17911,
g6-g8; and 20 June '792,
99.
'33; and 9"""1 0 Thermidor, 138-9; and G<:nninal.Prairial, '47-9, 1511, '55. 158, and inruntttions of I78795. 185-6, 19B, .:too, 11M. - Saint-Martin, 10, 16,81 n. 3. - Saint-Victor, 10, 16. Ftraud, Jean, 153. '54, Fla.sdla, Jacques de, 53, 56, U I . 227· Fh::uriol.Lescot,j.·B., '37, '40. Fkury, Cardinal, 23. Foullon de Dou�, 56, 203, 2�7. Fournier (L'Am�ricain), Claude, 57 n. 3, .)8 n. 8, 73, 76, 77, 9�, 93, 1000, 104 n. I, 118 n. I, 2�9. Fran�ou (baker), 78. Friron, Lo�·Marie, 147.
Gard.es Fran�, 25, 29, 32, 36, 49, GtfIS SIIItI' 1WtU, Ue Vagrants. 51, 55.
Gironde, Girondins, 95, ga, 99, 1 0'l, I I I , 113, 11g, 120-2, 199,206. Goujon,jean.Marie, 155 n. I. Grande Peur, 223. Guadet, Ma.guerite.tlie, 120. Gubin, Daniel, 126, 134. Gunsmiths, 50-51• Hanriot, Fran�ois, 122, '33, 136, 137, 139, 140, 178 n. 1, 213' Hardy, �ba.!lien (diarist), 8, 2', 24 ff.,
29 ff., 43 If., 52 ff., 50, 65 fr., 75, 181, 192, 194-5, 20'l-3, 2,6, 223.
H�bert, jacquCl-Rm� (Lc Ph� Ducheane), 120, 126, 132, 133, 135,
178 n. 1, 205,206, 210, 2" , 222. Henriot (powder-manufaelurer), 35 ft, 192,201, 220. Henri IV, 1 3 , 3 1 , 32, 196, 225. Hblel df:l Invalidel, 53, 55, 56 n. I, 133, 221.
Hbtd de Ville, '5, 47-0j.8, 5 1 , 53, 54, 55,
56, 60,65, 67, 69, 71, 73, 74,78, 93, 105, 1 18, 133, 135, 138, 204 n. 2, 221Hulin, Picrre-Augusin, l 55.
tionary Crowds, Riou, &.C.
InsurgentJ, iruurreetloru, u, Revolu. jacobin Club, jacobiru, 5, 80, 81, 83,
85, 88, 98, 1 000, I I I , 113, "4; and the grocery riots of 1793, 1 ' 7-18; and the Enrages, 1 ' 9""20; &nd the revolution ofMay-June 1793, 121-l1; and the insurrection
of
Seplember
128, 137; and the Thermidoriam, 137, 142-3, 146-7; and Germinal·Prairial, '49, 153, 156, 158, 160; and Vendrniaire, ,64�, 16g, 176, 192, 194, 1 99""20[, 207, 222, 228,231. jaura, Jean, 5, [4, 38, 57, 58, 80 n. I. JroNsse dorie,jtunts gtllS, 147, '49, '54, 158, 161, [6g, 175; 5Ce also Mwca4jns. 1793,
126-7,
0,.
]fIIlrnltS, Jee R.... oluliooary . 'days', Riolt, Labrouue, C.-E., 5, 20 n. 3, 21, 201.
L1ocombe, Claire (Rose), 122 n. 3, 229. Lafayetlc, Marquis de, SO, 61, 62 and
11·3, 64, 68, 71, 72, ag, 91, 92, 10'l, 181.
74, 76, 77, 81, 197. 204 n. 3.
Lambae. Prince de, 48.
La Tour du Pin, 72. Lebon, Guslave. 219, 220, 221. Lefebvre, Grorgcs, 4 n. 2, oj-li, 200, 219 Lamoignon, G.-F. de, 30, 3', 196, 20'l.
and n. 2. Lefevre, ablX, 53. Legendre, Louis, '78 n. I.
Rober•• 128 n. I. Lodgers, lodging houses,
Lindet, Loi
I CC
MIl-
Le Chapclier, 85, 135.
Louis XIV, 13, 16.
Louis XVI, 35, ']0, 77, 87, 86, 95, 98, 100; his overthrow, 101-5, 108, 1'3, Louis XV, 12, 23, 45.
181, 182, 19B, 225.
Lou�alot, t.(journalist ,58,69,87,223. Madelin, Louis, 3 n. 2.
73. 74, 75, 178 n. 1, 204, 221, 2�9, 230• Mallei du Pan, 34, 45. Malouet, PiCI'T'e.Vi<;lor, 71. Mara., jean.Paul, 6g, 71, 78, 85. 87, 1 10, 113, 1 18, 119, 133, 10j.6, 147, 167, 178 n. 1 . 201,212, 223-4. Mari�.Anloinelle, 47, 77. Mathia. Albert, 5. 7, 62, 6g, 118. Maximum laws (priCCII), "9, 127. 129, 131-2, 145�, 205, w6, 207; (waga) 127, 129, 134, 135 and n. 3, 136 and n. 3, '39. 140-1, 14' n. ', 14S. 207. Menou, JaequCII, General, '54, 172. Mnw. pn;pU, I I . 1 5 , 2 2 . 3 1 , 33. 44, SO. 61, 63,66,67. 71, 78,80 n. ', 8S, 88, 9', 93'i1S, 1'4, 119, 121, 129, '+I, 'SO, 19o, 196, '97 and fi. 3, 232-'; see also SIIfU-tUwl/4ls.
Mercier, Stbulien, 13, 16, 26. M�ricourl, Th�roigne de, 229.
Merlin (de ThionviUe), Antoine- Chris.
Mi<;helel,Jula, I, 3,4. 59, 232, 233 n. , . Milite blnlrgttliu, ttt Nalional Guard.
tophe, 149.
Mitabeau,
ComiC
de,
47,
62,
76
192.
Monin, H., 13. Monljoie (journalist), 41, 1 9 1 , 194. Morlimer·Ternaux, M., 5, 191.
MlIJtlllins, 146, 147, 155, 216; ICC abo ]�su do,'" jfiuKs lefU. Mural,joaehim, 173.
Nationa.l Guard, 48, 52, 57, 59, 61. 65, 71, 7'; and the march to Venaillo, ,6-77 and n. I, 81. 82; and the Champ de Mars alfair, 82, 84, 86,
ag...,.p
97; and 20 June 1792, g&and the overthrow of the monarchy, 102-7, 1 1 1 , 1 1 3 ; and the 101;
Lt"rts dt tfIClul, 30, 81.
domitiliis.
Maillard, Stanisl .., S7 and n, 3 , 6.t n. 2,
riots of 1793, IIS-16; and 9""10 Thennidor, '37-8, 143, '49 ; and Prairial, '52-5, 166, 173-4. 182""3, 197, 204 n. 3, 205�, 2[3, 230-1. Necker, Jacques, I [ and n. 5, 12, 28, 3[, 34, 37, 46, 47-¥', 196, 216, 220-1.
grocery
I I , 12 and n. I, 18 36, 149, 168 and n5. s and 6.
Nob/m" nobility, Stt Aristocracy.
No�·df)1flitiliis,
n. 7,
INDEX
Olivia (pored&in.manufacturer), 40, 41 n. 3. 43, 'l17· Orleans, Philip Duke of, '4, 30, 47, 48, 49, &.I, 44, 69, 101 and n. I, 'l1.5,
OWN'/, definition of, 18 and n. .5; 31,
35, 39,56, 81, 86.91, 124, 130, 148, 150, 15[, 165, 166, 1,1, 21[, 2[3, 234·
Pocfl dtflUllitu, il3, 46, 68, 222.
2, 13, [4, 15, 47, ,.s, 50, 51, 63, 65, 69-72, go, lofS, 164, 169 and n. 3, 173. 194. 197. 200, 215, 229 and n. I. Pllrltmml. 20. 23, 27. 29 fr 32. 33. 196. 202,2'l5· Pl.I"OChel, ablX. 90-91. Palail Royal,
.•
Paroy, Marquis dc, ;ti. Payan, Claude-Fran<;oi.. 135. P�lion de Villeneuve, JerOme,
98, 99, 100, lOll, 103. 104, 109. Piehegru, General, 150. Police, 6-7, 8, 21, 25-26, 35-38, 41, 6162,86-87, go, g2. 94, g6-g7, 103. 1 18, '42 n. I. 155. Polignac, Comlcuc de. 30. Popular (Fraternal) Societies, 83. 85. 87. 9', I'll. 147. 213. 1114 and n. 7. 1115-16. Population of Paris. I I and n. 5, 12, ,'. Prices, of bread, Rour, wheat, 21-22. 23 and ns. I and 6, 24, 25 n, 2, 31. 33, 37, 411, 43, 45, 46, 63, 67-68, 74, 78,60-8" 94, 118 and n. 4, 125 n. 3, 143-4, 157, 1611, ,63, 176, ,80, 2011, 203; of meat, 125, 13', 143-4, 162, 176; ofgroeerics, g6, 118. 114, 125; in general, 110 n. 3. 125, 129 and n, 2, 131, 146. 157, 168. 170. 176, Prieur (de la COte d'Or), 128 n. I. Prieur (de la Marne), 1116 n. I. Prisons, Abbaye, log-10, I I I , 215; Bico!tu, 23, 51 n. 3, 110; Chlleiet, 14, 110; Concicrgerie, 61, 98, 110; H61c1 de la Force. 30, 4il, 51 n. 3, go, 91, 93, 94, 110, 173, ISg, 195, 197; Sal�tritre, 110; Sainte-Pelagic, 110; Temple, 14. Restif de la Butonne, 211. Rtvcillon (wallpaper·manufacturer),
34 fr.• 68, I!p, 201, 202, 1120. RivlHfI .... il i ai n, 9, 117 fr., 196, 111:\. Revolutionary Commiltces,
124, 130-
Revolutionary Crowm. behaviour of.
1, 143, 156, lgo.
29-30, 31-311, 35-37. 40, 49. 50, 67, 73-77. ag, 100, '04-5, Iog-IO, 11517, 122, 1116, 149, 1511-5, 173, 1119117, 1129-31; composition of, 119-30, 32-33, 39,49, 50, 56-59, 67, 6g n. " 73, 90-92. 98, 100-1, 105--6, I I ' , 117, 122-5, 126. 157--6, 175-6, 1,8go; motivcs of, ofG-44, 49, 54, 78, 108-g, 1 14, 156-7, 191-209. Revolutionary 'Oays'-&rriJrtl, II, 48-49: 51. 44. 69, 180, 192, 1103, 22 I ; &istilk. I, II, 3, 26, 117, 53-59. 180, '91. 2(11, 2011-3, II [6; CluJmp d, Milts, 80--61. a,., 86, 87, 88--94, '47, 182. I!p, 197, 204. 2oS. 224; Grrminfll, 147, 149-50. '57. 199; G'rKn] rillls (17,92) , g6-g8, 183. 1105--6; Grow;! ,ioll ('793), "4-,8, 171, 183, 191-2, 1106, 230; MfI:rJUIU 1793. 113 n. I , 122-5, 137, 200, 1108; lUlU 17,92, g.!I-101. 1119-'20; Oclo/H, 17/Jg, I, 2, 3. 61-63, 65--66, 73-77. 151, 161-2, 191-2, 195. 201, 221, 11116, 227; Prfli,isJ,7. 152"'9, ,6., 165. 170, 174 and n. 6, 183-4, '93, 194, 199; Rmilhm ri/lls. 35-44, 17g-80, 191-2, 193, 199; $/Iinl-U!.(IIr•• 49-50, 51, 181, 192, 193. 203; Stpkm"' MIIJ IOCUI, log-l2, 166, 173, 196. 225. 1I�7; StpwnlM, 1793. 8, 1�6-7, 206; TMrmidor, I, III, Ilia, 137-41, 160 n. I. 161, 204 n. 2, 1107, 1115, 11118; TllilrNS (A�gusf 1],92), " 3. 7, 44, 101, 104--6. 176, .82-3, 191, 195, 198. 1106. lIoS, 1117, 1119 and n. 4, 224; V."JImiIJin, 7, 9, 158, 160-1, 208, 2114 and n. 5, 226; Itt tW. Rio.... Revolutionary Press, L'Ami dll pnpk, 6g. 78, 85, 146, lIa ; Lr B4hilhml, 83--64. go. 91, I!p, 1123. U J�II'rllJl t4 /tJ Rim/will", 94; us RlwiuliMu t4 Pllris. 69. 8" 8g n. 5. Mlrlll.rr nflliDMl
Ilrflrllrr. 85; L'O'IIIn.r dll peupI., 87, 212. u Pb. DUCM11II, 1110, 210, 2 1 1 ; u PIIbliciJu, il12. Rio.... over bn:ad, 1111, 113, 24, 43, 73-74. ,a, 118-19, 1�6n.4. 148-g, 152, '!P. d
INDEX
lI06; cum riots of 1775, 23-25, 28, 41,
g6. 1 1 7
n. 3, 159; of 1787. lI9-:}o, 179; of 1788, 31-33, "79, 196, �; miJecllancous, ofS. 66, 67, 68. 69, 81, 125-6, 236-,; srI tdfD Revolutionary 'Days'. Robert, Fran<;ois, 85, 88. Robert, Louise, 85, 212, Robespierre. Augustin (the Younger),
1110.
I, ,6, 83,85, 88, 95. 1011, I I I , 113, 128, '30, 134, 136; and 9-10 Thermidar, 137-41, 141 n. I ; 142, 145, ISO, 160, 161, 114, 167. '78 n. I, 183, 201, 1106, 2(17. �1I5 n. 2, 2118. RocdCl'a', Pierre-Louis, 104, 196 n. 2. Roland de la Platiere, 119. Roland. Madame. 88, Rornme, Gilbert, 155 n, I, Konsin, General, 1154. Rouignol, jean, General. 178 n. I. Roufr, Marcel, 6, 111, Rouueau. jean.jacques, 1111, 11115 n. 11. Roux, jacques, 1 18, 1 19, 126, 178n. I. Roy, ablX, 41Robespierrc. Maximilien,
Saint·Andrt, jeanbon, '118 n. I . Saint-F�lix, Mwquinet de, 178 n .
180, 2119·
I,
70. Saint-Huruge, Marquis de, 70. 178 n. I, 1116, �1I9. Saint-just, Louis.Antoine, 12a, 137, 1125 n. 11. Sainte-Claire Deville. Paul, 8, 121 n. [, 131, 138. SIIIU"uJolfls, 8, 9; definition of, '11 and n. 5, 1111, 33, 80 and n. I , '00, ,06. 113, 114. 1110; and the revolution of May-June '793. 1112--5, 127--6; and Ihe Paris admini.tration of 1793-4, '30-1 ; and protcsts against the food Saint·Ctnie,
policy of the Revolutionary Govern ment, 131-3; and 9-10 Thcrmidor, 137-41; an� GcrminaJ-Prairial, t423, 146, 156 n. I, 157--6, 159 and n. I ; and Vr:ndbniaire, 160-1, 163-5, 168 n. I, 170, 176-7, 178 n. I ; and their role in revolutionary crowds, 178 fr., 'M, 205"'9; degree of litaacy, 21 1-12; &e. - Adricn, Michel (labourer), 78, 193;
",
Advcnel, jean (melal·worker), 78; Audu, Louis-Reine, 105; A. Auga (T�tcigne), 42; Batail1e (wine-mer. chant'. journeyman), 1130; Denoil, E. (port.worker), 108; Bernard, Agnb (fish_wife), 183, 1130 n. 5; Billon, Nicolas (mill-worker), 78, 193; Blin, Fran�oil (market-porter), 7a; But�, Henri(jeweller), 107; Chagnot,joseph (marble--dealer), 218; Charpentia, Marie-Anne (Iaund.ea). 58; Chau_ vet, Louis (wata-<:arrier), 107; Chauvin, Louis (master loclumith), 108; Che&on. ttienne (cobbler), 154; DcIonne, Guillaume (wheel wright), 153; Dtnot (cook), 56 n. I, 57 n. 3; Dumont, Pierre (gauze worker), 107; Dumont (docka), 1130; Dusson, Charles (edge-tool maker), sS; tvrard, Constance (cook), 86-87, 19o, '97. 11 1 11, 230; Farcy, Edm� (journeyman gold smith), 77 n. I ; Gervai., Eugo!ne (cook), 65 and n. 5; Gilbert, J. (blanket-maker), 371 Gorny, jean Marie (brewa'i j'man), sS. Guen-e (ranner), 1114-5. 217; Hometle, Pierre (journeyman cabinet.maker), 107, 217; joly. Charles (wallpaper. worker), 139; Lanbrint(joumeyman).
139. Lavuennc, fmurw (sick-nune) 230-1 ; I.e Blanc. J. (journeyman
harness-maker), 40; I.e Roy, Louis (j'man goldsmith), 107; Lhtritier. j&-6me (journeyman cabinetmaker), 76 and n. I. 77 n. I ; LobjoiJ, Antoine (mMter glazier), 107; Mary, jean-Baptiste (scrivener), 37; Pepin, Jean-NicolM (tallow-porler), 51, 193. 218; Pergaud,jOlCph (mililary pen lioner), 71; Pinch� (button·maker), 94; Pourat. A. (porter), 37; Primery, A.-E. (fancy-ware worka), 88 n. 6, 92; Rose, Pierre (gunpowda worka), 139, n.lI; Salabert, Bernard (mill.worker), 75; Sirier, C. (paper. worka), 41, 42; Trumeau. Marie Jeanne (market-woman), 37, 39,
230.
Santerre, Antoine-Joseph, 57. 58, 81, 93, 99, 103, 104 n. I, log,. 1 15. 178n. I, 21 7. Schmidt, A., 8.
INDEX
Olivia (pored&in.manufacturer), 40, 41 n. 3. 43, 'l17· Orleans, Philip Duke of, '4, 30, 47, 48, 49, &.I, 44, 69, 101 and n. I, 'l1.5,
OWN'/, definition of, 18 and n. .5; 31,
35, 39,56, 81, 86.91, 124, 130, 148, 150, 15[, 165, 166, 1,1, 21[, 2[3, 234·
Pocfl dtflUllitu, il3, 46, 68, 222.
2, 13, [4, 15, 47, ,.s, 50, 51, 63, 65, 69-72, go, lofS, 164, 169 and n. 3, 173. 194. 197. 200, 215, 229 and n. I. Pllrltmml. 20. 23, 27. 29 fr 32. 33. 196. 202,2'l5· Pl.I"OChel, ablX. 90-91. Palail Royal,
.•
Paroy, Marquis dc, ;ti. Payan, Claude-Fran<;oi.. 135. P�lion de Villeneuve, JerOme,
98, 99, 100, lOll, 103. 104, 109. Piehegru, General, 150. Police, 6-7, 8, 21, 25-26, 35-38, 41, 6162,86-87, go, g2. 94, g6-g7, 103. 1 18, '42 n. I. 155. Polignac, Comlcuc de. 30. Popular (Fraternal) Societies, 83. 85. 87. 9', I'll. 147. 213. 1114 and n. 7. 1115-16. Population of Paris. I I and n. 5, 12, ,'. Prices, of bread, Rour, wheat, 21-22. 23 and ns. I and 6, 24, 25 n, 2, 31. 33, 37, 411, 43, 45, 46, 63, 67-68, 74, 78,60-8" 94, 118 and n. 4, 125 n. 3, 143-4, 157, 1611, ,63, 176, ,80, 2011, 203; of meat, 125, 13', 143-4, 162, 176; ofgroeerics, g6, 118. 114, 125; in general, 110 n. 3. 125, 129 and n, 2, 131, 146. 157, 168. 170. 176, Prieur (de la COte d'Or), 128 n. I. Prieur (de la Marne), 1116 n. I. Prisons, Abbaye, log-10, I I I , 215; Bico!tu, 23, 51 n. 3, 110; Chlleiet, 14, 110; Concicrgerie, 61, 98, 110; H61c1 de la Force. 30, 4il, 51 n. 3, go, 91, 93, 94, 110, 173, ISg, 195, 197; Sal�tritre, 110; Sainte-Pelagic, 110; Temple, 14. Restif de la Butonne, 211. Rtvcillon (wallpaper·manufacturer),
34 fr.• 68, I!p, 201, 202, 1120. RivlHfI .... il i ai n, 9, 117 fr., 196, 111:\. Revolutionary Commiltces,
124, 130-
Revolutionary Crowm. behaviour of.
1, 143, 156, lgo.
29-30, 31-311, 35-37. 40, 49. 50, 67, 73-77. ag, 100, '04-5, Iog-IO, 11517, 122, 1116, 149, 1511-5, 173, 1119117, 1129-31; composition of, 119-30, 32-33, 39,49, 50, 56-59, 67, 6g n. " 73, 90-92. 98, 100-1, 105--6, I I ' , 117, 122-5, 126. 157--6, 175-6, 1,8go; motivcs of, ofG-44, 49, 54, 78, 108-g, 1 14, 156-7, 191-209. Revolutionary 'Oays'-&rriJrtl, II, 48-49: 51. 44. 69, 180, 192, 1103, 22 I ; &istilk. I, II, 3, 26, 117, 53-59. 180, '91. 2(11, 2011-3, II [6; CluJmp d, Milts, 80--61. a,., 86, 87, 88--94, '47, 182. I!p, 197, 204. 2oS. 224; Grrminfll, 147, 149-50. '57. 199; G'rKn] rillls (17,92) , g6-g8, 183. 1105--6; Grow;! ,ioll ('793), "4-,8, 171, 183, 191-2, 1106, 230; MfI:rJUIU 1793. 113 n. I , 122-5, 137, 200, 1108; lUlU 17,92, g.!I-101. 1119-'20; Oclo/H, 17/Jg, I, 2, 3. 61-63, 65--66, 73-77. 151, 161-2, 191-2, 195. 201, 221, 11116, 227; Prfli,isJ,7. 152"'9, ,6., 165. 170, 174 and n. 6, 183-4, '93, 194, 199; Rmilhm ri/lls. 35-44, 17g-80, 191-2, 193, 199; $/Iinl-U!.(IIr•• 49-50, 51, 181, 192, 193. 203; Stpkm"' MIIJ IOCUI, log-l2, 166, 173, 196. 225. 1I�7; StpwnlM, 1793. 8, 1�6-7, 206; TMrmidor, I, III, Ilia, 137-41, 160 n. I. 161, 204 n. 2, 1107, 1115, 11118; TllilrNS (A�gusf 1],92), " 3. 7, 44, 101, 104--6. 176, .82-3, 191, 195, 198. 1106. lIoS, 1117, 1119 and n. 4, 224; V."JImiIJin, 7, 9, 158, 160-1, 208, 2114 and n. 5, 226; Itt tW. Rio.... Revolutionary Press, L'Ami dll pnpk, 6g. 78, 85, 146, lIa ; Lr B4hilhml, 83--64. go. 91, I!p, 1123. U J�II'rllJl t4 /tJ Rim/will", 94; us RlwiuliMu t4 Pllris. 69. 8" 8g n. 5. Mlrlll.rr nflliDMl
Ilrflrllrr. 85; L'O'IIIn.r dll peupI., 87, 212. u Pb. DUCM11II, 1110, 210, 2 1 1 ; u PIIbliciJu, il12. Rio.... over bn:ad, 1111, 113, 24, 43, 73-74. ,a, 118-19, 1�6n.4. 148-g, 152, '!P. d
INDEX
lI06; cum riots of 1775, 23-25, 28, 41,
g6. 1 1 7
n. 3, 159; of 1787. lI9-:}o, 179; of 1788, 31-33, "79, 196, �; miJecllancous, ofS. 66, 67, 68. 69, 81, 125-6, 236-,; srI tdfD Revolutionary 'Days'. Robert, Fran<;ois, 85, 88. Robert, Louise, 85, 212, Robespierre. Augustin (the Younger),
1110.
I, ,6, 83,85, 88, 95. 1011, I I I , 113, 128, '30, 134, 136; and 9-10 Thermidar, 137-41, 141 n. I ; 142, 145, ISO, 160, 161, 114, 167. '78 n. I, 183, 201, 1106, 2(17. �1I5 n. 2, 2118. RocdCl'a', Pierre-Louis, 104, 196 n. 2. Roland de la Platiere, 119. Roland. Madame. 88, Rornme, Gilbert, 155 n, I, Konsin, General, 1154. Rouignol, jean, General. 178 n. I. Roufr, Marcel, 6, 111, Rouueau. jean.jacques, 1111, 11115 n. 11. Roux, jacques, 1 18, 1 19, 126, 178n. I. Roy, ablX, 41Robespierrc. Maximilien,
Saint·Andrt, jeanbon, '118 n. I . Saint-F�lix, Mwquinet de, 178 n .
180, 2119·
I,
70. Saint-Huruge, Marquis de, 70. 178 n. I, 1116, �1I9. Saint-just, Louis.Antoine, 12a, 137, 1125 n. 11. Sainte-Claire Deville. Paul, 8, 121 n. [, 131, 138. SIIIU"uJolfls, 8, 9; definition of, '11 and n. 5, 1111, 33, 80 and n. I , '00, ,06. 113, 114. 1110; and the revolution of May-June '793. 1112--5, 127--6; and Ihe Paris admini.tration of 1793-4, '30-1 ; and protcsts against the food Saint·Ctnie,
policy of the Revolutionary Govern ment, 131-3; and 9-10 Thcrmidor, 137-41; an� GcrminaJ-Prairial, t423, 146, 156 n. I, 157--6, 159 and n. I ; and Vr:ndbniaire, 160-1, 163-5, 168 n. I, 170, 176-7, 178 n. I ; and their role in revolutionary crowds, 178 fr., 'M, 205"'9; degree of litaacy, 21 1-12; &e. - Adricn, Michel (labourer), 78, 193;
",
Advcnel, jean (melal·worker), 78; Audu, Louis-Reine, 105; A. Auga (T�tcigne), 42; Batail1e (wine-mer. chant'. journeyman), 1130; Denoil, E. (port.worker), 108; Bernard, Agnb (fish_wife), 183, 1130 n. 5; Billon, Nicolas (mill-worker), 78, 193; Blin, Fran�oil (market-porter), 7a; But�, Henri(jeweller), 107; Chagnot,joseph (marble--dealer), 218; Charpentia, Marie-Anne (Iaund.ea). 58; Chau_ vet, Louis (wata-<:arrier), 107; Chauvin, Louis (master loclumith), 108; Che&on. ttienne (cobbler), 154; DcIonne, Guillaume (wheel wright), 153; Dtnot (cook), 56 n. I, 57 n. 3; Dumont, Pierre (gauze worker), 107; Dumont (docka), 1130; Dusson, Charles (edge-tool maker), sS; tvrard, Constance (cook), 86-87, 19o, '97. 11 1 11, 230; Farcy, Edm� (journeyman gold smith), 77 n. I ; Gervai., Eugo!ne (cook), 65 and n. 5; Gilbert, J. (blanket-maker), 371 Gorny, jean Marie (brewa'i j'man), sS. Guen-e (ranner), 1114-5. 217; Hometle, Pierre (journeyman cabinet.maker), 107, 217; joly. Charles (wallpaper. worker), 139; Lanbrint(joumeyman).
139. Lavuennc, fmurw (sick-nune) 230-1 ; I.e Blanc. J. (journeyman
harness-maker), 40; I.e Roy, Louis (j'man goldsmith), 107; Lhtritier. j&-6me (journeyman cabinetmaker), 76 and n. I. 77 n. I ; LobjoiJ, Antoine (mMter glazier), 107; Mary, jean-Baptiste (scrivener), 37; Pepin, Jean-NicolM (tallow-porler), 51, 193. 218; Pergaud,jOlCph (mililary pen lioner), 71; Pinch� (button·maker), 94; Pourat. A. (porter), 37; Primery, A.-E. (fancy-ware worka), 88 n. 6, 92; Rose, Pierre (gunpowda worka), 139, n.lI; Salabert, Bernard (mill.worker), 75; Sirier, C. (paper. worka), 41, 42; Trumeau. Marie Jeanne (market-woman), 37, 39,
230.
Santerre, Antoine-Joseph, 57. 58, 81, 93, 99, 103, 104 n. I, log,. 1 15. 178n. I, 21 7. Schmidt, A., 8.
,66
INDEX
Appendix 1)-A,tiI, 93, 1 � 1 1 � 13� 1� '» 1 � 1 � 1� 172 and n. t. 175. 186 and n. • ; AfUMl, 115, 15', '52, 1511. 168 n. 4. .6g n. 3. 186 n. I, 230; BttndHllI',. 18 n. II, g6, '39. 168 n. 4• •6g n. 3 . Bill/io/Jt4w. 105, 163. 166 n . 2, 157 n. 3; and Vendtrniaire, ,67. 168 and n. 4. IGg and n. 2, 170. '711, '73. '74andn'4. 175; /kmdy, lIS. l68n. 4. •86 n. 1 ; &mu N_lk, .8 n. 11, 123 n. 3. '41, 168 n. 4; Ouunps ilJSlts. 138, .68 n. 4. '7', IU4; Crou. RlIIIlt, 1113. '38, '50-I, 166 n. 2, .68 n. 4. '72 n. • ; E"j41l4&lIlfl, I'5, '39n· 3. 'tS. 168 n. 4; Fltuboll', }'fllll/marl,., 1113. '.50, '58, .86 n. J ; FIlIibtJIUI S"jlli-Dntis, 18 n. 2, .,.s. 152, 158; Fon/llffu de emu/It, 86, 107, " 5. ,68 n. 4• • Gg n. 3. 212; FOII/fli'U MMlmoWlC,Y• •66 n. II, ,68 n. 4, •69 n. II, '10 n. 4. 17�); Gobi/ins, 97, ga, 99. ,06, 1 10, [23. '38, 139, 15l1, '55; Granl' BIIUli;,t, 1'5, ,68 n. 4, .Gg n. 5; Crllvillitrs. 18 n. II. 93. 96. log. I loS. 117. 118. 1113. 147, l,.a, 149, I-SO. loSl, loSli. loS3 and n. I, loSoS. loS8. 1711 n. I. 173 n. I. 186 n. I ; H6uI tU ViiI.. I loS. 138. loSli. loS3. IsS. 16g and n. I . Halk au BU, 1110. 1114n.6. IsS. 168 n.
SecliollJ, Paris Section.
186 n. I ; PohU R�.JGl, IloS. lofS. 'oS]. 163. 166 n. II, 167. 168, 16g. 1711, 173, 174, l7oS; Phsu L.MJ X/V, 93. 16g and n. I. 171, 1711; PIDu RIIJoU. 106, 115, 1 16, lotS. 168 n. 4; PI.u VmdOmt, 1]8, 11iJ, 166 n. II, 168 n, 4, 194-; PaUsmrniirt, 18 n. II, log. 1,5.4, IsS, 168 n. 4, 170 n. 4; PiIM_. 18 n. II, 93, log, " 5, lofS, l.sa. 168 n. 4, 16g n. I, 1711; P�I, 107, "4, 1113, 149. loSlI, loS3, 1,5.4. l.sa, lfig, 173 n. I ; POSUI, 150, 170 n. 4. Q}linu Vmlls, 93. 106, 107. 108, IloS, "7, 1113; 138. 149, loSl , 'oS3. ,.sa; and Vmtibniaire. 167. 16g, 173; 194; QiUUfI Nil/ioN, 93, 1114-, 138. 139, 168 and n. 4-. 1711; /lDi tU Siliu, 115. 1114 n. 6. I¥I, 14-9. 151. loSlI, loS�h 158, 168 n. 4-, 16g n. I , 173; RDt
Sieya, Emmanud·jO$eph, abbt, 34, SiUcry. Ma.TquU: de, 37. Soboul, Alber!, 8. '30-1. Sombreuil, Ma.Tquis de, 53. Soubrany. Picm: Amable de,
4-3, 178 n. l.
Slata General,
155 n. I. 117. 118, 119, 30, 31, 33,
#-47. 59· 110--21, 114, 14. 104 n. II, 143, 135-6, ,63; u, alw Wa.get Moye
Strika,
_u.
I, II. 4, 4-11, 711, 105. 106, 186, IBg. 191-11, 199. 1119, 11110, 11111, 11311, 1139·
Taine, Hippolyle,
Tuatitm �'" 114, 96, 115-17, 1 1 7
Talmon, j. L., IIl1oSn.
II.
n . 3 , 118, IlIoS-6. 133. 1"/6, 11116, 1136. TCITllY, abbe, 113 and n. I. Third Eslate (Tiers tta!). II, 118, 34-. 35, 39, 43. 45. 4-6, 4-7, 70, So, 196, IlDO-I,1I10. Thiroux de Croane, 35, 36, 37, 38. 39, 11011. Thompson,j. M., 106.
,6,
INDEX Thuriol de la Rorihe, jacques-Alexis, Tinto, Baron,
54·
Tocquc:ville,
1135·
70.
Alai. de. 1134 and n. 6,
Tucley.
Alexandre. 6. Tui\erics, 3, 75. 100, 10]-4, 108, 11111 and n. 3. '4-5-7. 149, 1511-4. 165. 1711-].11115. Turgol, Anne_Robert, 113, 114, 118. ]0, 111111.
Varlet. jean, "9. 1113 n. I. Vergniaud. Piern:-V - ietumien,
1110. 126. V"",�,,,irts U to /JaJlilu, 64. 73, 74, 11111.
Vi nc:enl. Fran(Ois-NioolQ,
'oS, 17, 18, 19-110, 1111 n. 1, 311. 39 and n. II, 40. 44. SII, 57oS8, 811, &of. 80S. 91, 104 n.II, 106. 10'], 117. 1114. 1116, 131. 133, 134-7; and 9-10 Thennidor, 139-41. 146. loSl, ,.sa, 163, 171; upart ofrevolutinnary crowd., 17g-80. l&of-S, 180S n. I 1I0I-ll, 1I16-17, 1I3oS· Wage!. 110--21, 34, 35, 40, ofII. 64, 68, 8.t, IlIoS, 1119 and n. II, 134. 136 n. 3. 14-1 n. I, 14oS. 163, 1101-11 ; su alSII Muimum laWi (waga). Waga Movements. 39. 6of-65, &of-8oS, '34--6, 145-6; Stt alSII Slrika. Walpok. Sir Robert, 115, 1137. Wall.jama, 15. Wea.rtnouth. R. W., 1136. Wilk(;l,john, lIoS, 1137 and n. II. Wage_Eamcn.
•
17, 19. 33, 34-· SO, 51, 511. l4, 711, 811-8.t. 811 n. II; and their part in revolu tionary crowds, 187-8, 11113, 11114- and n. I.
Unemployed, unemployment,
173. 19 and n. 8, 50, 5', 511, 59; and their part in revolu tionary crowdJ, 186-7. Vainqwurl d. III BllStille, 7, 56 If., 64-. ,81, 188, lgo. Var<:nn"", 87-88, 95, 197, 1123. Vachot, GeneraJ,
Vagrancy, vagrants,
Young, Arthur,
45, 4-6, IgS n. 6, 1110.
,66
INDEX
Appendix 1)-A,tiI, 93, 1 � 1 1 � 13� 1� '» 1 � 1 � 1� 172 and n. t. 175. 186 and n. • ; AfUMl, 115, 15', '52, 1511. 168 n. 4. .6g n. 3. 186 n. I, 230; BttndHllI',. 18 n. II, g6, '39. 168 n. 4• •6g n. 3 . Bill/io/Jt4w. 105, 163. 166 n . 2, 157 n. 3; and Vendtrniaire, ,67. 168 and n. 4. IGg and n. 2, 170. '711, '73. '74andn'4. 175; /kmdy, lIS. l68n. 4. •86 n. 1 ; &mu N_lk, .8 n. 11, 123 n. 3. '41, 168 n. 4; Ouunps ilJSlts. 138, .68 n. 4. '7', IU4; Crou. RlIIIlt, 1113. '38, '50-I, 166 n. 2, .68 n. 4. '72 n. • ; E"j41l4&lIlfl, I'5, '39n· 3. 'tS. 168 n. 4; Fltuboll', }'fllll/marl,., 1113. '.50, '58, .86 n. J ; FIlIibtJIUI S"jlli-Dntis, 18 n. 2, .,.s. 152, 158; Fon/llffu de emu/It, 86, 107, " 5. ,68 n. 4• • Gg n. 3. 212; FOII/fli'U MMlmoWlC,Y• •66 n. II, ,68 n. 4, •69 n. II, '10 n. 4. 17�); Gobi/ins, 97, ga, 99. ,06, 1 10, [23. '38, 139, 15l1, '55; Granl' BIIUli;,t, 1'5, ,68 n. 4, .Gg n. 5; Crllvillitrs. 18 n. II. 93. 96. log. I loS. 117. 118. 1113. 147, l,.a, 149, I-SO. loSl, loSli. loS3 and n. I, loSoS. loS8. 1711 n. I. 173 n. I. 186 n. I ; H6uI tU ViiI.. I loS. 138. loSli. loS3. IsS. 16g and n. I . Halk au BU, 1110. 1114n.6. IsS. 168 n.
SecliollJ, Paris Section.
186 n. I ; PohU R�.JGl, IloS. lofS. 'oS]. 163. 166 n. II, 167. 168, 16g. 1711, 173, 174, l7oS; Phsu L.MJ X/V, 93. 16g and n. I. 171, 1711; PIDu RIIJoU. 106, 115, 1 16, lotS. 168 n. 4; PI.u VmdOmt, 1]8, 11iJ, 166 n. II, 168 n, 4, 194-; PaUsmrniirt, 18 n. II, log. 1,5.4, IsS, 168 n. 4, 170 n. 4; PiIM_. 18 n. II, 93, log, " 5, lofS, l.sa. 168 n. 4, 16g n. I, 1711; P�I, 107, "4, 1113, 149. loSlI, loS3, 1,5.4. l.sa, lfig, 173 n. I ; POSUI, 150, 170 n. 4. Q}linu Vmlls, 93. 106, 107. 108, IloS, "7, 1113; 138. 149, loSl , 'oS3. ,.sa; and Vmtibniaire. 167. 16g, 173; 194; QiUUfI Nil/ioN, 93, 1114-, 138. 139, 168 and n. 4-. 1711; /lDi tU Siliu, 115. 1114 n. 6. I¥I, 14-9. 151. loSlI, loS�h 158, 168 n. 4-, 16g n. I , 173; RDt
Sieya, Emmanud·jO$eph, abbt, 34, SiUcry. Ma.TquU: de, 37. Soboul, Alber!, 8. '30-1. Sombreuil, Ma.Tquis de, 53. Soubrany. Picm: Amable de,
4-3, 178 n. l.
Slata General,
155 n. I. 117. 118, 119, 30, 31, 33,
#-47. 59· 110--21, 114, 14. 104 n. II, 143, 135-6, ,63; u, alw Wa.get Moye
Strika,
_u.
I, II. 4, 4-11, 711, 105. 106, 186, IBg. 191-11, 199. 1119, 11110, 11111, 11311, 1139·
Taine, Hippolyle,
Tuatitm �'" 114, 96, 115-17, 1 1 7
Talmon, j. L., IIl1oSn.
II.
n . 3 , 118, IlIoS-6. 133. 1"/6, 11116, 1136. TCITllY, abbe, 113 and n. I. Third Eslate (Tiers tta!). II, 118, 34-. 35, 39, 43. 45. 4-6, 4-7, 70, So, 196, IlDO-I,1I10. Thiroux de Croane, 35, 36, 37, 38. 39, 11011. Thompson,j. M., 106.
,6,
INDEX Thuriol de la Rorihe, jacques-Alexis, Tinto, Baron,
54·
Tocquc:ville,
1135·
70.
Alai. de. 1134 and n. 6,
Tucley.
Alexandre. 6. Tui\erics, 3, 75. 100, 10]-4, 108, 11111 and n. 3. '4-5-7. 149, 1511-4. 165. 1711-].11115. Turgol, Anne_Robert, 113, 114, 118. ]0, 111111.
Varlet. jean, "9. 1113 n. I. Vergniaud. Piern:-V - ietumien,
1110. 126. V"",�,,,irts U to /JaJlilu, 64. 73, 74, 11111.
Vi nc:enl. Fran(Ois-NioolQ,
'oS, 17, 18, 19-110, 1111 n. 1, 311. 39 and n. II, 40. 44. SII, 57oS8, 811, &of. 80S. 91, 104 n.II, 106. 10'], 117. 1114. 1116, 131. 133, 134-7; and 9-10 Thennidor, 139-41. 146. loSl, ,.sa, 163, 171; upart ofrevolutinnary crowd., 17g-80. l&of-S, 180S n. I 1I0I-ll, 1I16-17, 1I3oS· Wage!. 110--21, 34, 35, 40, ofII. 64, 68, 8.t, IlIoS, 1119 and n. II, 134. 136 n. 3. 14-1 n. I, 14oS. 163, 1101-11 ; su alSII Muimum laWi (waga). Waga Movements. 39. 6of-65, &of-8oS, '34--6, 145-6; Stt alSII Slrika. Walpok. Sir Robert, 115, 1137. Wall.jama, 15. Wea.rtnouth. R. W., 1136. Wilk(;l,john, lIoS, 1137 and n. II. Wage_Eamcn.
•
17, 19. 33, 34-· SO, 51, 511. l4, 711, 811-8.t. 811 n. II; and their part in revolu tionary crowds, 187-8, 11113, 11114- and n. I.
Unemployed, unemployment,
173. 19 and n. 8, 50, 5', 511, 59; and their part in revolu tionary crowdJ, 186-7. Vainqwurl d. III BllStille, 7, 56 If., 64-. ,81, 188, lgo. Var<:nn"", 87-88, 95, 197, 1123. Vachot, GeneraJ,
Vagrancy, vagrants,
Young, Arthur,
45, 4-6, IgS n. 6, 1110.
�.
,
4' Tut.i.TRE PRANQAIS 42 CROIX ROUGE
25 MONTREUIL 26 QUINZE VINGTS
�-
IIIIUtl'G'.
aItVOI.UTION".v
. ... .1 5
IN
neTIONS
..v�
/
4B OOBELlN5
32 H6TEL DE VILLE
,6 MAUOONSEIL
__ _
47 JARDIN OES PLANTE!
31 ROI DE SICILE
I 5 PONCl!.AU
1
46 ODS.£R.VATOIRE
go ENI"ANn ROUOES
1 4 BONNE NOUVELLE
, --�
44 TIIERM£! DE JULIEN 45 !AINTI!:·OENI!.VI2vE
29 BEAUBOURO
1 3 FONTAINE MONnlORENCY
43 LUXEMBOURG
27 CRAVILLIERS
PLACE LOUlS
28 FAUB, SAINT-DENIS
I2 XIV
I I POSTES
HALLE AU BU�
9 ORATOIRl!. 10
39 FONTAINE DE GRENELLE 40 QUATRE NATIONS
23 TEMPLE 24 POPlNCOURT
7 CRANCE BATELltRE 8 LOUVRE
38 INVALIOES
rv
37 HENRI
22 BONDY
6 BIBUOTHtQUE
36 NOTRE DAME
21 POISSONNliltE
20 rAUB. MONTMARTRE
,usI!.NAL
34
19 ARClS
35 lu SAIN'T-LOUiS
33 P�CE ROYALE
,8 LOMDARDS
'7 MARcHI; DES INNOCI'.NTS
5 PLACE VENOllME
4- PALAJS ROYAL
3 ROIJLE
I TUllZRlES
2 CHAWPS tLmM
PARIS SECTIONS
�.
,
4' Tut.i.TRE PRANQAIS 42 CROIX ROUGE
25 MONTREUIL 26 QUINZE VINGTS
�-
IIIIUtl'G'.
aItVOI.UTION".v
. ... .1 5
IN
neTIONS
..v�
/
4B OOBELlN5
32 H6TEL DE VILLE
,6 MAUOONSEIL
__ _
47 JARDIN OES PLANTE!
31 ROI DE SICILE
I 5 PONCl!.AU
1
46 ODS.£R.VATOIRE
go ENI"ANn ROUOES
1 4 BONNE NOUVELLE
, --�
44 TIIERM£! DE JULIEN 45 !AINTI!:·OENI!.VI2vE
29 BEAUBOURO
1 3 FONTAINE MONnlORENCY
43 LUXEMBOURG
27 CRAVILLIERS
PLACE LOUlS
28 FAUB, SAINT-DENIS
I2 XIV
I I POSTES
HALLE AU BU�
9 ORATOIRl!. 10
39 FONTAINE DE GRENELLE 40 QUATRE NATIONS
23 TEMPLE 24 POPlNCOURT
7 CRANCE BATELltRE 8 LOUVRE
38 INVALIOES
rv
37 HENRI
22 BONDY
6 BIBUOTHtQUE
36 NOTRE DAME
21 POISSONNliltE
20 rAUB. MONTMARTRE
,usI!.NAL
34
19 ARClS
35 lu SAIN'T-LOUiS
33 P�CE ROYALE
,8 LOMDARDS
'7 MARcHI; DES INNOCI'.NTS
5 PLACE VENOllME
4- PALAJS ROYAL
3 ROIJLE
I TUllZRlES
2 CHAWPS tLmM
PARIS SECTIONS
