书城公版The Origins of Contemporary France
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第753章

(Ibid.) The registers of the Committee of Public Safety contain a number of similar gratuities paid to provincial clubs and patriots, for instance, AF., II. 58, (Brumaire 8), fifty thousand francs to Laplanche, and, (Brumaire 9), fifty thousand francs to Couthon, "to maintain public spirit in Calvados, to revive public spirit in Lyons, to aid, as required, the less successful patriots who zealously devote their time to the service of their country."[37] Dauban, ibid., 171, (report of Vent?se 17), and 243, (report of Vent?se 25), on the civil-committees and revolutionary committees, who order meat served to them before serving it to the sick, and who likewise serve the good friends of their wives.? Ibid., 146. (Report of Vent?se 10.). . . Archives Nationales F.7, 2475. (Register of the deliberations of the revolutionary committee of the Piques sections, Brumaire 27, year II.) "The Committee orders that the two-horse cab belonging to Lemarche be henceforth at the service of the section and of the Committee when measures of security are concerned."In this register, and others of the same series, we clearly see the inside of a committee and its vast despotism. Style and orthography, with almost all, are of the same low order.

[38] Archives des Affaires étrangères, vol. 1411. (Report of Aug.21and 22, 1793.) "General Henriot sent me several . . . . who made use of the authority of the Committee of Public Safety and General Security, as well as of that which he delegated to me, to make domiciliary visits at the houses of individuals who were not assured patriots; but that did not warrant their receiving money and even abstracting it."[39] Dauban, ibid., 36 and 48. (Case of the Notary, Brichard.)[40] Cf. "The Revolution," II., 302, 303. - Mercier, "Paris pendant la Revolution," I., 151. - Moniteur, XVIII., 660. (Session of Frimaire 24, speech by Lecomtre in the Convention.) - On robberies and the bribes paid, see, among other documents, "Mémoires sur les Prisons," I., 290. (Eighty thousand francs of bribes given to the head of the police force by Perisial, keeper of an eating-house, for the privilege of feeding prisoners in St. Lazare.)[41] Buchez et Roux, XXXV., 77. (Trial of Fouquier-Tinville.)Testimony of Robillard: "Another day, in the general assembly, he struck a citizen with his saber."[42] Buchez et Roux, XXXV., 407. (Lists in Robespierre's handwriting.)[43] Miot de Melito, " Mémoires," I., 46-51.-Buchot is not the only one of his species in the ministry of Foreign Affairs. In the archives of this ministry, vol. 324, may be found the sayings and doings of a certain Pio, an Italian refugee who slipped into the place, simulating poverty, and displaying patriotism, and who denounces his chief and colleagues.-The ex-notary Pigeot, condemned to twenty years in irons and put in the pillory, Frimaire 9, year III., will come to the surface; he is encountered under the Directory as introducer of ambassadors.-Concerning one of the envoys of the Directory to Switzerland, here is a note b~ Mallet-Dupan. ("Anecdotes manuscrites," October, 1797.) " The Directonal ambassador, who has come to exact from the Swiss the expulsion of the body-guard, is named Mingot, of Belfort, a relation of Reubell's, former body-guard to M.

le Comte d'Artois.-He came to Zurich with a prostitute, a seamstress of Zurich, established in Berne. He was living with her at the expense of the Zurich government. Having invited the family of this creature, that is to say a common horse-driver with his wife and some other persons, to dinner, they drank and committed such excesses that the driver's wife, who was big with child, gave birth to it in the midst of the banquet. This creature gave Mingot a disease which has laid him up at Basle."[44] "The Revolution," II., 338, 348, 354.

[45] Martel, "Types Révolutionnaires," 136-144.- The Minister of War appoints Henriot brigadier-general, July 3, 1793, and major-general on the 19th of September, and says in a postscript, "Please communicate your service record to me," unknown in the ministry because they were of no account. - On the orgies at Choisy-sur-Seine, V. (Archives, W2, 500-501), see investigation of Thermidor 18 and 19, year II., made at Boisy-sur-Seine by Blache, agent of the committee of General Security. Boulanger, brigadier-general, and Henriot's first lieutenant, was an ex-companion jeweller.